Need a copy of hotcore3.sys

Hi,

I'm in a bit of a fix. My XP laptop has been having a boot problem, only when the PCMIA card is inserted. I suspected either a hardware conflict or a motherboard problem.

Going into Safe Mode, I found that the stall occurred on /system32/drivers/hotcore3.sys, which I learn is a Paragon Partition Manager driver.

I read that deleting the file solved the same hanging problem for someone else, so I fired up AVG's rescue disk and went into the C drive and "renamed" the file to a new location. The problem is, I didn't realize the directory I sent it to existed only on the virtual drive. When I shut down, the file was gone.

Now, instead of solving the problem, not having the hotcore driver prevent the laptop from booting up at all.

I can access the Windows installation's registry, or at least the HKLM hive, but I'm not sure that deleting all things Paragon there will help. It may or it may not, and it will make the problem insurmountable if there is no other remedy.

So I think the best way to approach this problem is to obtain another copy of hotcore3.sys and move it into the original location.

Does anyone have one floating around? My version of XP is 32 bit.

Much appreciated,
p.

 

can you access Safe mode? Run system restore from within it if yes. If not repair XP maybe
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

Thanks for your reply, Cudni. No, I could access nothing on the machine. I extracted hotcorent40.sys from Paragon Partition Manager Free, which was the closest I could find to what I needed, renamed it and placed it where hotcore3 had been, but that helped nothing. At that point I did an entire system restore.

The machine is now a backup, so I began thinking that keeping it lean and quick would be a better way to go anyway. But then overnight I realized that this is a golden opportunity to see if I can do a restore from a Paragon image I had made of the full system, just for the learning experience. So I think I will attempt that today. It will have to be over a network, as this machine's usb functionality is broken.

bw,
p.