Re: Ntoskrnl missing or corrupt

That is an interesting story, I didn't know about this Dell Media Direct affair. Thanks for letting us know how you got things fixed!

John

OldGrantonian wrote:

Well, you stuck with me through thick and thin, so you deserve to know the end of this story - it's crazy :)

First, the not-so-good news. Your link doesn't work, but that's OK :)

http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/

When I tried C:\>CHKDSK, I got the message "Command not found". That made me suspicious. I entered "dir", The C: drive contents were completely new to me. I noticed the volume name was "MEDIADIRECT".

That's the clue. MEDIADIRECT is a cut-down Dell OS that allows you to use your laptop to play media, without having to load a complete OS. I've never used it. It's like a dual-boot system.

So, feeling like Columbo, I shut down, and pressed the MEDIADIRECT button. It booted to my normal Win XP Home :)

So the two OSs had somehow become reversed.

While still in Win XP, I did a System Restore, rebooted, and everything is now fine :)

Thanks for your help. The CHKDSK was never run, but it gave me the clue.



"John John (MVP)" wrote:


You can run chkdsk from the C:\> prompt, without loggin on to the Windows installation!

What about the floppy diskette? Can you create one and try it?

John

OldGrantonian wrote:


boot to the Recovery Console and run a chkdsk on the drive.


Well, I guess I have to say it yet again: I can't boot to the recovery console. The attempt to load the console terminates, and I am presented with the c:\> prompt.

I must thank your for your efforts so far, but the Recovery Console is not an option.


"John John (MVP)" wrote:



Create an NT boot floppy diskette with an all purpose boot.ini file on it and try booting the computer with it.
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/ You must format the diskette with an NT type operating system, if you format it with W9x the diskette will fail to boot Windows XP. Tip, you don't need the /sos switch in the boot.ini file, this switch just displays the device driver names while they are being loaded, it slows down the boot up.

If you cannot boot the Windows installation with the boot floppy the drive may be experiencing file or file system corruption, boot to the Recovery Console and run a chkdsk on the drive.

John

OldGrantonian wrote:



I'm sorry, but you are not understanding the issue. Probably due to my poor description. Let's have another go.

As I mentioned in my first post, after I select "R" for the recovery console, the screen clears, and the following message appears:




The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.


Now, I agree that the next line would normally be something such as you entered in your post:




1: C:\WINDOWS


I do not get this line. Instead I get the *real, genuine* command prompt, with the cursor ready for an entry:

c:\>

And in that prompt, I can type things such as "dir" to list the directory, or "cd windows", for which I get "No access", and so on.

All this is described in the Microsoft article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/

The text is:
-------------------------------
Additionally, you may experience one or more of the following behaviors:

· If you start the computer to the Recovery Console, a command prompt may appear with no option to log on to the Windows installation. · If you try to access the Windows folder, you may receive the following error message: Access denied. · If you try to perform a Repair operation from the Windows XP CD-ROM, the Windows installation is not detected and you cannot repair Windows.
--------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, 3 of the troubleshooting methods need the use of the Recovery Console :(

The fourth method needs "bootcfg"

And this is where I start to get lost. Because I don't have privileges to edit "boot.ini" (I'm the administrator, but there is no login to grant me those privileges.)


"John John (MVP)" wrote:




At the Recovery Console you have to enter a number to log on to the Windows installation, for example, you will see something like this when the Recovery Console starts:

Microsoft Windows(R) Recovery Console

The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality.
Type EXIT to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

1: C:\WINDOWS

Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to?
(To cancel, press ENTER)

In the above example you must answer the question "Which Windows Installation would you like to log on to?" by typing the number "1" and then pressing enter, only then will you be logged on to the Windows installation and only then will you be able to run your commands.

There are only a limited set of commands that can be run when not logged on the the Windows installation, for example, Chkdsk, Fixboot and Fixmbr can be run without logging on to the installation.

John

OldGrantonian wrote:




Hi Peter,

The link in your post refers to the use of the recovery console.

As I mentioned in my first post, I cannot get the recovery console to launch. I get the message:

Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

But after that message, I get the C: prompt.



"Peter Foldes" wrote:





http://www.ozzu.com/mswindows-forum/ntoskrnl-exe-corrupted-windows-wont-open-t24580.html

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.

"OldGrantonian" <OldGrantonian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:7DB9BA64-2EA0-4B48-B573-172C77D0E773@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




I have WinXP Home.

My computer will not start. I get the message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

Widows_root\System32\Ntoskrnl.exe

Please re-install a copy of the above file. "

Here is what I did:

1) Boot from the system disk (plus SP2).

2) Press "R" to get the recovery console.

3) But the recovery console does not launch. Instead I get the C: prompt

4) At the C: prompt, I do "dir" to verify that the "windows" directory exists.

5) Type "cd windows"

I get the message "access denied"

When I try to start in Safe mode, I get the same message that Ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt.

Any advice?

BTW: Last actions before the last good shutdown were:

) Run Secunia to identify files that are not up to date from a security point of view. (This is a read-only passive program.)

) As a result, I updated Flash, Adobe Reader, MS XML, and Windows Update.

.