Please Help with Boot missing File?

[troymclure 0]

Hi all, sorry to bother you but i was wondering if anyone new how to solve my problem. Oks here goes

I have a dual boot machine with 98 and 2000 previously had no troubles and loved it. Recently i installed a virus scanner halfway thru scanning it crashed. I got BSOD (i was in 98 at the time as it wouldn't run under 2000). Upon reboot, win2000 gave me this error message. ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt please reinstall. So i had a look around my hard drive found some other copies of it (in dllcache and ntservicepackuninstall) try both of those (and the one on the CD) nothing worked. Searched the internet, found references to boot.ini file i've tried what i could to no avail... if anyone has any idea please please help.

ps:- Relevant system info is:-

win98 is on primary dos partion, it's c: in windows explorer.

win2000 is the first partition (according to partion magic) in the logical partition of the same drive. It's drive e in explorer

I have a second hard drive and it's first partition is listed as d: if that helps at all.

this is my boot.ini file

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

c:\="Microsoft Windows"

If anyone could give me any advice it would be greatly appreciated. The only things on win98 are the internet and games. Normally good. But assignments due in very soon. ANd i have all my adobe products on win2000 and don't want to reinstall or reformat if possible.

ps: - I'll be your online errand boy for a week if you can help

[jaywallen 0]

Very interesting.

 

Okay, you don't want to use ntoskrnl.exe from either the CD (unless it's the service pack CD) or the uninstall directory. You want the one from dllcache, which should be the one that was installed by SP1. (I'm assuming that you haven't turned WFP off.)

 

Assuming that the service pack version of ntoskrnl.exe (dated 7/21/2000, version number is same as W2K but with an added four digits - 1620) is being used and the system still gives you this error, that points the finger to boot.ini or your install location being incorrect.

 

Your boot.ini LOOKS okay. (It is possible, though not very likely, for it to be corrupted, by the inclusion of something in the file that does not show up when you look at the file in notepad.) If you have an ERD with the current boot.ini you should copy the boot.ini from there to the root directory of drive c:. You could also try creating a new boot.ini file in notepad to replace the current one. You would want to be very exacting about it, of course.

 

The only other obvious cause for this issue that I can think of would be if the location given in your boot.ini file for the Windows install (e:\winnt) and the implied location of your ntoskrnl.exe file (e:\winnt\system32) have been made invalid somehow. If the install is in another directory, or if the system32 directory name were altered, you could get this symptom. You would know if you had installed to a different directory, and I don't think W2K would have allowed you to change the directory names in an active partition, though I've never tried it out to see. However, if you were accessing the partition from your other OS and accidentally changed something, or if the danged names just got corrupted somehow due to a glitch, you would be seeing this issue.

 

I hope you get this sorted out and let us know the outcome.

 

Regards,

Jim

[troymclure 0]

Hi thanks very much for your help Jim. And yes i've been using the ntoskrnl.exe file from the dllcache. Still to no avail unfortuantly, i also tried rewriting my boot.ini file, again unfortuantly to no avail. This is a strange problem. I'm thinking it might not be a problem with the boot.ini no though. Because when win2000 tries to load i get the win2000 loading screen with progress bar start then i get the error message if my boot.ini points to partition 2 however if it is changed it just goes straight to the error message. NO loading screen. Sigh, this is a tough one, i've checked the directory and ntoskrnl.exe is in e:\winnt\system32. I've even tried creating new winnt\system32 paths with ntoskrnl.exe in them in my other partitions still no luck. I also have not created an ERD since installing sp1 (dang nam it! )

so i'm still stuck, i'm going to keep trying but if can't fix it soon. I guess it's time to Format

[jaywallen 0]

Maybe you should just boot from the CD and do a repair install, even though you have to do it without an ERD. Correcting the boot environment may be enough to fix your problems. Something may have farkled the MBR and / or the partition table. I'll keep my fingers crossed, and hope to hear that you've sorted it out.

 

Regards,

Jim

[troymclure 0]

Well thanks very much for your help, but alas after trying everything under the sun, i have reformatted. To be greeted by my computer playing a song thru the pc speaker whenever i start up win98.

Damn it, someone up there hates me.

lol any ideas? i suspect maybe a dying battery? or virus?

[jaywallen 0]

Oh, damn! This will drive me crazy! I absolutely know that I have seen an article SOMEWHERE about this. I think it was on the MSKB, but a quick search I did just now failed to turn it up. I promise you that SOMEONE out there knows what this is and has posted an article on it!

 

This will absolutely drive me nuts! You search, and I'll search. Maybe we'll find something.