Windows not booting
...the thin end thereof
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Windows not booting
Having major problems on another PC.
On startup, the system goes straight to the following error message:
-------
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Please re-install the above file.
-------
However, there appears to be no way of re-installing it, if you hit enter the system just reboots. It is going straight to this error message and is not giving the options for safe mode etc.
I have tried to reinstall windows but it says it can't do it without formatting, and there is data on the PC that needs to be retrieved. I can get into the repair console but don't have a clue what do do once in there?
Advice please? Many thanks in advance.
On startup, the system goes straight to the following error message:
-------
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Please re-install the above file.
-------
However, there appears to be no way of re-installing it, if you hit enter the system just reboots. It is going straight to this error message and is not giving the options for safe mode etc.
I have tried to reinstall windows but it says it can't do it without formatting, and there is data on the PC that needs to be retrieved. I can get into the repair console but don't have a clue what do do once in there?
Advice please? Many thanks in advance.
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Same problem
Getting desperate now. Machine now continually keeps booting - wont even load Windows.
If I get the recovery disk to work and reinstall windows, will the contents of My Documents get binned?
Also will I have to reinstall all the drivers for all the pheripherals and reinstall my WLAN etc etc.
Not happy
Cheers for any advice.
Oggin
If I get the recovery disk to work and reinstall windows, will the contents of My Documents get binned?
Also will I have to reinstall all the drivers for all the pheripherals and reinstall my WLAN etc etc.
Not happy
Cheers for any advice.
Oggin
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This should do the trick.................
http://www.webuser.co.uk/cgi-bin/for...b=7&o=93&part=
Regards
SHL
http://www.webuser.co.uk/cgi-bin/for...b=7&o=93&part=
Regards
SHL
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Ogster
The answer to your questions is no and no if you do a repair install.
Follow the advice here
Can you boot into Windows long enough to make an XP SP2 slipstreamed install CD?
TOG
The answer to your questions is no and no if you do a repair install.
Follow the advice here
Can you boot into Windows long enough to make an XP SP2 slipstreamed install CD?
TOG
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Toxteth
Thx for the advice - tried that no joy - ran chkdsk which wouldnt work said large errors on drive or something.
Then went into BIOS - hardrive not being detected - unplugged everything to see if it was the PSU on the blink, tried again no joy (but no diagnosis on the PSU). So really frustrated now.
How can I check that the PSU is working when I cant boot into Win - the details in the BIOS show very similar core values to those required.
HDD is 2 120GB Seagate Barracuda in RAID 0
At one point I have reset defaults in BIOS, then at another I have flashed it to a later version. If after doing all this is there something I need to do to get the BIOS to see the HDD or the RAID stuff - I dont know much about this.
If the HDD are duff, how easy is it just to replace them (in RAID 0), format, partition then install the OS again? Or is there something else I can do before having to hand it over to a repairman?
cheers
Oggin
Edit to say tried Win XP reinstall again and now the stup program says there are no hard drives installed - even though the whole system was up and running fine yesterday.
Thx for the advice - tried that no joy - ran chkdsk which wouldnt work said large errors on drive or something.
Then went into BIOS - hardrive not being detected - unplugged everything to see if it was the PSU on the blink, tried again no joy (but no diagnosis on the PSU). So really frustrated now.
How can I check that the PSU is working when I cant boot into Win - the details in the BIOS show very similar core values to those required.
HDD is 2 120GB Seagate Barracuda in RAID 0
At one point I have reset defaults in BIOS, then at another I have flashed it to a later version. If after doing all this is there something I need to do to get the BIOS to see the HDD or the RAID stuff - I dont know much about this.
If the HDD are duff, how easy is it just to replace them (in RAID 0), format, partition then install the OS again? Or is there something else I can do before having to hand it over to a repairman?
cheers
Oggin
Edit to say tried Win XP reinstall again and now the stup program says there are no hard drives installed - even though the whole system was up and running fine yesterday.
Last edited by Oggin Aviator; 7th Feb 2005 at 04:43.
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Try booting from a Linux Live CD distro and see if that can see your drives.
If you don't have one, and as I suspect you're at EGDR, PM me and I'll drop one in the internal mail to you.
TOG
If you don't have one, and as I suspect you're at EGDR, PM me and I'll drop one in the internal mail to you.
TOG
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TOG
Thanks for the suggestion however I am not at EGDR at the moment. I might try that Linux suggestion if someone at work has a disk.
Alternatively, as I have 2 drives in RAID 0 would it be possible just to hook up the drives singly one by one as IDE to see if the PC "sees" them in case just one of them is duff? If one is recognised and then one is not (or vice versa) it would tell me that the unrecognised one is fried however I could save some money by reformatting the good one and reinstalling the OS?
Dont know what else to do now apart from trek to the local computer shop and give them money to fix it !!
Oggin
Thanks for the suggestion however I am not at EGDR at the moment. I might try that Linux suggestion if someone at work has a disk.
Alternatively, as I have 2 drives in RAID 0 would it be possible just to hook up the drives singly one by one as IDE to see if the PC "sees" them in case just one of them is duff? If one is recognised and then one is not (or vice versa) it would tell me that the unrecognised one is fried however I could save some money by reformatting the good one and reinstalling the OS?
Dont know what else to do now apart from trek to the local computer shop and give them money to fix it !!
Oggin
Last edited by Oggin Aviator; 7th Feb 2005 at 14:58.
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"Windows NT Could Not Start...Ntoskrnl.exe" error message
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/124550/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/124550/EN-US/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477/EN-US/
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It sounds to me very much like the connection to the discs is broken, ie hardware type issue, the discs can't be read.
It could be faulty discs, or it could be the the raid controller.
Go into the raid bios setup, and check everything is ok in there. I strongly suspect that will tell you what is wrong.
It could be faulty discs, or it could be the the raid controller.
Go into the raid bios setup, and check everything is ok in there. I strongly suspect that will tell you what is wrong.
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"Edit to say tried Win XP reinstall again and now the stup program says there are no hard drives installed - even though the whole system was up and running fine yesterday"
I suspect that when you attempt to boot from the XP CD there is at some point a question - do you want to load other drivers? answer is yes, the driver for the raid array. That may be why it cannot see your HDD's. Is the raid array driven from a card or motherboard? Mine is card type and XP requires the driver to see the disks when booting from XP CD.
I had similar problem when a file corrupted and XP CD could only see an old installation on my backup (IDE) HDD's until I loaded the raid driver.
There are articles on the knowledge base that deal with boot.ini which will help you, they may well be the ones linked above.
I suspect that when you attempt to boot from the XP CD there is at some point a question - do you want to load other drivers? answer is yes, the driver for the raid array. That may be why it cannot see your HDD's. Is the raid array driven from a card or motherboard? Mine is card type and XP requires the driver to see the disks when booting from XP CD.
I had similar problem when a file corrupted and XP CD could only see an old installation on my backup (IDE) HDD's until I loaded the raid driver.
There are articles on the knowledge base that deal with boot.ini which will help you, they may well be the ones linked above.
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Ogster
After you flashed the bios and set default settings did you remember to go back into the cmos setup and reset "SATA AS RAID - ENABLE."
When you do your Windows repair, just after you have booted from the install CD you have to press F6 and reinstall the RAID drivers and reconfigure the RAID array.
If you can get a Linux Live CD distro (try Mepis, Knoppix, Suse or Jollix) they all come with SATA drivers and at the very least you will be able to access the data on your disks. Very easy to do.
TOG
After you flashed the bios and set default settings did you remember to go back into the cmos setup and reset "SATA AS RAID - ENABLE."
When you do your Windows repair, just after you have booted from the install CD you have to press F6 and reinstall the RAID drivers and reconfigure the RAID array.
If you can get a Linux Live CD distro (try Mepis, Knoppix, Suse or Jollix) they all come with SATA drivers and at the very least you will be able to access the data on your disks. Very easy to do.
TOG
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SATA Drivers - Pushing F6
This is the problem post BIOS flashing I think. I will try and reinstall the SATA drivers and then see if the Win repair reinstall sees them. Can I do this from the Win recovery CD or do it prior to that as the BIOS flashes up ie just afer POST. TOG suggests the former - I'll try that I guess. I'll let you know how I get on.
Thanks for all the tips.
Oggin
edit to say there is no "SATA enable" within the BIOS setup however there is a seperate DOS SATA configuration program. So what is the timeline - SATA Drivers / SATA Config / Win XP recovery or something else?
Thanks for all the tips.
Oggin
edit to say there is no "SATA enable" within the BIOS setup however there is a seperate DOS SATA configuration program. So what is the timeline - SATA Drivers / SATA Config / Win XP recovery or something else?
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This may help.
Unusual not to have SATA config in the bios. What's your motherboard?
Anyway, have a go at putting in your Windows CD. Quite early on you will see a prompts at the bottom of the creen to press F6 to instal SCSI and RAID. Select and it should prompt you to put in your SATA DOS floppy. See how that goes.
TOG
Unusual not to have SATA config in the bios. What's your motherboard?
Anyway, have a go at putting in your Windows CD. Quite early on you will see a prompts at the bottom of the creen to press F6 to instal SCSI and RAID. Select and it should prompt you to put in your SATA DOS floppy. See how that goes.
TOG
Last edited by Toxteth O'Grady; 7th Feb 2005 at 22:39.
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Fingers crossed - All sorted
On the lappy downloaded the SATA Adapter drivers from the MB website, put them onto a floppy, booted up desktop, hit F6, loaded all that then did a Windows repair reinstallation. All working fine. Managed to back up to CD everything of any importance (something I should being doing fairly regularly - learnt my lesson there); Subsequent full CHKDSK which took about 2 hours (240 Gig HDD) found no errors. So hopefully ok now. Bizarrely the only thing I lost was the IE favourites folder (no great shakes - needed a clean out anyway) and the icons on the taskbar just right of the Start button.
So thanks for all the help from everyone, esp TOG
Oggin
p.s. Anyone know how to get back the "Show Desktop" icon that normally resides just to the right of the Start button on the taskbar?
So thanks for all the help from everyone, esp TOG
Oggin
p.s. Anyone know how to get back the "Show Desktop" icon that normally resides just to the right of the Start button on the taskbar?
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Oggy
Glad you got it sorted. Next time you're in the Datum I'll have an Orange Whip!!
Top tip m8, buy yourself a cheap(ish) 160 gig IDE hard disk, Acronis True Image 8 and run scheduled incremental back-up images.
You'll then sweat a little less at the next techno-crisis.
TOG
Glad you got it sorted. Next time you're in the Datum I'll have an Orange Whip!!
Top tip m8, buy yourself a cheap(ish) 160 gig IDE hard disk, Acronis True Image 8 and run scheduled incremental back-up images.
You'll then sweat a little less at the next techno-crisis.
TOG
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TOG
I won't be in the Datum for about a year - cryptic but I'm not around at the mo. Are there any unaltered roofing tiles still there? And what colour is the SK hull at the mo?
That tip about a backup IDE drive is a good idea think I'll get one. I take it just add it as a slave to one of the CD drives, load the software and hey presto?
Cheers
Oggin
p.s. wasnt Toxeth O'Grady a character from the Young Ones - TOG mentioned by Vvyan as the author of a reference book whilst Rik et al were on the train to University Challenge?
I won't be in the Datum for about a year - cryptic but I'm not around at the mo. Are there any unaltered roofing tiles still there? And what colour is the SK hull at the mo?
That tip about a backup IDE drive is a good idea think I'll get one. I take it just add it as a slave to one of the CD drives, load the software and hey presto?
Cheers
Oggin
p.s. wasnt Toxeth O'Grady a character from the Young Ones - TOG mentioned by Vvyan as the author of a reference book whilst Rik et al were on the train to University Challenge?
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OA
Since your using SATA RAID your mobo should have at least four other IDE P-ATA channels available.
You should be able to set up a spare P-ATA hard disk as 1st IDE Master and if you've only got one optical drive I would set that as 2nd IDE Master. i.e. have two ide cables using each mobo ide connector. That will leave both slave channels free.
Prolly take some tweakin around in the bios to get this set-up, but straightforward enough to do.
Sadly the Datum has been infected by the deadly virus Fisheadius Commanderitis and now has serious "decor!"
Read my profile!
TOG
Since your using SATA RAID your mobo should have at least four other IDE P-ATA channels available.
You should be able to set up a spare P-ATA hard disk as 1st IDE Master and if you've only got one optical drive I would set that as 2nd IDE Master. i.e. have two ide cables using each mobo ide connector. That will leave both slave channels free.
Prolly take some tweakin around in the bios to get this set-up, but straightforward enough to do.
Sadly the Datum has been infected by the deadly virus Fisheadius Commanderitis and now has serious "decor!"
p.s. wasnt Toxeth O'Grady a character from the Young Ones - TOG mentioned by Vvyan as the author of a reference book whilst Rik et al were on the train to University Challenge?
TOG
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Should have read your profile!!
Shame about the Datum, however in my experience that place goes through a transformation every 3 years or so, so it may revert to type in the future.
Mobo and Windows now saying the CPU is an Athlon 1100 running at 1.09. There is an Athlon 3200+ Barton in there.
Is this because:
a) I flashed the BIOS and the new one doesnt recognise the chip. If so can this be rectified and also if so is the PC running slower?
b) At some point the chip has overheated and now only works at a slower speed? I did take the heatsink and fan off the chip a few weeks ago to find a shed load of clogged dust covering about a third of the heatsink. A browse of Ebay may be in order!
cheers
Oggin
Shame about the Datum, however in my experience that place goes through a transformation every 3 years or so, so it may revert to type in the future.
Mobo and Windows now saying the CPU is an Athlon 1100 running at 1.09. There is an Athlon 3200+ Barton in there.
Is this because:
a) I flashed the BIOS and the new one doesnt recognise the chip. If so can this be rectified and also if so is the PC running slower?
b) At some point the chip has overheated and now only works at a slower speed? I did take the heatsink and fan off the chip a few weeks ago to find a shed load of clogged dust covering about a third of the heatsink. A browse of Ebay may be in order!
cheers
Oggin