VFAT Device Init Fail

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Techhie Tim - 15 Jun 2004 21:41 GMT

OK, now I'm hoping to get an answer *other than* re-
formatting my hdd. For no apparent reason (no recent d/l
or installation of new software, etc.), I powered up my
old Gateway workhorse and got the following error msg:
"VFAT Device Initialization Failed"

I've already done the following: researched the knowledge
base and verified that none of the conditions related to
Ifshlp, msdos, or config.sys applied; reinstalled Win98.
I still get the same thing. When I re-boot using step-by-
step, the system will produce this error at different
points in the driver initialization process. One time was
initializing the mouse driver, the next was initializing
the turbovcd driver.

The requisite system data: Gateway desktop running a PII
at 600mHz, 256mb RAM, 100Gb hdd with copious amounts of
available space.

The only thing I can think of that I did to that machine
lately was that I ran the spyware elimination program that
AOL is currently touting and got rid of an insidious
little "Bargains" program that loaded without my knowledge
or permission.

Has anyone ever conquered one like this before?

Many thanks,
Techhie Tim

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Margo Guda - 29 Jun 2004 19:13 GMT

Have you resolved this problem, and if so, how?
I run into this error when I've installed certain software (e.g. an
upgrade to my palm desktop software). I found that restoring a previous
registry was the only way to get my machine back, but then of course the
install was gone. I'm still trying to resolve the problem. I'd be
interested to know how others do.

> OK, now I'm hoping to get an answer *other than* re-
> formatting my hdd. For no apparent reason (no recent d/l
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> Many thanks,
> Techhie Tim

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Techhie Tim - 30 Jun 2004 01:40 GMT

Nope, no resolution and not much in the way of information
offered. If restoring the registry worked, then that's
something that I haven't tried... but you're right, any
recent installs are hosed. Doesn't seem like there's a
whole lot of choice though. Thanks for the feedback.

-TechhieTim

>-----Original Message-----
>Have you resolved this problem, and if so, how?
[quoted text clipped - 34 lines]
>> Techhie Tim
>.

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anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com - 10 Jul 2004 21:04 GMT

Reinstall Winndows.
at least its not formatting your hd...

>-----Original Message-----
>Nope, no resolution and not much in the way of information
[quoted text clipped - 60 lines]
>>
>.

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Margo Guda - 12 Jul 2004 22:40 GMT

OK here is some news you might use profitably. In my case, I have solved
my problem, with the help of msmvp Ventura. I noticed that regclean (an
old windows standby, and Ventura does NOT recommend using it) would hang
when checking my registry for typelib errors. He suggested that I run
regclean with the /L parameter to make a logfile, and check the logfile
for obvious errors in the registry. Lo and behold, I found a helpdir
entry that pointed to a space character. Once I deleted that in regedit,
regclean did finish and cleaned up my registry.
Then, I reinstalled the problem software, and rebooted my machine. It
now came back up normally. Maybe you should try a similar approach.
Since I knew my problem was due to a problem in the registry (but not
one that scanreg or other registry scanners could find) for me the
solution was in finding the thing that broke the registry in such a way
that it was still disguised as a valid entry but prevented windows from
booting. I never realized a helpdir location could be the culprit!

> Nope, no resolution and not much in the way of information
> offered. If restoring the registry worked, then that's
[quoted text clipped - 88 lines]
>>
>>.

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