- Technical Help Needed -

timmah01

timmah01

New Member
Hello

I downloaded the Microsoft Longhorn theme for my windows xp home edition, i restarted the computer and i got this error message
something on the lines of

cannot run windows xp because a file is missing or is corrupt:
<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

i am not sure that the longhorn theme is the contributing factor to this computer failure but any help would be great

thanks in advance, timmah
 
My guess would be that the theme for Longhorn interacted with one of your files and didnt overwrite it or do whatever it does, right.

When you say your not sure if Longhorn contributed to this, did you get this message before installing it?
 
Hey buddy, looks like a bogus boot.ini entry, (and yes, I do post in other forums beside the security forum :) ). I fixed this one a few weeks ago, by making a boot floppy for xp, booting my system, then doing an msconfig/boot.ini tab, then click the "Check all boot paths" button. That will repair your boot.ini.

XP boot floppy: from another XP machine enable veiwing of systems files, then on the c:\ look for boot.ini, ntdetect.com, ntldr. Copy them to the floppy, make sure the boot.ini is pointing to the HD and partition which has your Windows installation on it.

The floppy will bypass the boot files on your HD, and let you boot windows normal. :)
 
too make it easier, copy the stuff below and paste it as the contents of the boot.ini on the floppy. this will give you a multiple choice menu in which you can choose which hd and partition you want to try to boot too. (cuz some computers have the windows installation on the 1st drive, 2nd partition, and some on the 1st drive, 1st partition...).

ps. there should not be any spaces in the word WINDOWS. (don't know why the post put one in there).

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, first partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, second partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, third partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, fourth partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, first partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, second partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, third partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, fourth partition" /fastdetect
 
Last edited:
Ill try and attempt what you said Byteman, (seems pretty simple) but im pretty hopeless at computers, which is why i came to these forums in the first place, learn more about computers :)
 
hey byteman, i searched the C:/ for boot.ini ntldr, etc. i found the missing/corrupt file on my brothers computer, but it wouldn't fit on the floppy. I then put it on my USB, it still didnt work, will usb do?
 
Byteman said:
too make it easier, copy the stuff below and paste it as the contents of the boot.ini on the floppy. this will give you a multiple choice menu in which you can choose which hd and partition you want to try to boot too. (cuz some computers have the windows installation on the 1st drive, 2nd partition, and some on the 1st drive, 1st partition...).

ps. there should not be any spaces in the word WINDOWS. (don't know why the post put one in there).

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, first partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, second partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, third partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP, First harddisk, fourth partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, first partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, second partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, third partition" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP, Second harddisk, fourth partition" /fastdetect
Click to expand...


are these all ur windows Partitions lol
 
timmah01 said:
hey byteman, i searched the C:/ for boot.ini ntldr, etc. i found the missing/corrupt file on my brothers computer, but it wouldn't fit on the floppy. I then put it on my USB, it still didnt work, will usb do?
Click to expand...
i dont think it will work because it does not reconize it has a boot, well im not sure anyway but its a rough guess :)
 
thanks for all the help guys, but i decided just to reinstall windows sfter many failed attempts to repair windows, thanks again for all the helps
 
cthomas10uk-It does work, I've used it more than once on more than one computer. Try it, if done right, works like a dream. (set the ntldr and ntdetect to hidden and read only, just like the ones on a system)

timmah01-the 3 files are tiny in size, you must have had other stuff on the floppy, (format needed on the floppy...). sorry to hear about the format of your machine.

evilxp2800-no, these entries in the boot.ini force a choice by the user on boot.
 
Yeah i know but there are loads of different OS's there

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

that is my boot.ini file ...contents
 
its actually all one OS, it's just the fast and dirty way to check every partition for a windows installation when your boot.ini gets corrupted and you don't know what harddrive/partition windows is on
 
I am pretty sure this will work: Get your startup disk and have your BIOS boot from cd. Then it will ask you if you want to install or fix xp. If you select to fix it, it should work.
 
Hehe all of you assume that the ntoskrnl file wasnt replaced entirely with the new one ;) Oldschoolers will have a different route to solving this:
- Boot to W2K/WXP/W2K3 restore console
- Copy paste the original ntoskrnl file to the system32 folder
:)
 
with my computer it can just about boot from anything. it can boot from a usb drive, or floopy. umm, in my case i am thinking unless you have a old machine, it should look everywhere and search for a boot sector, it it will not find it, it will return with a error. If you want to still use the boot.ini file, try ponting it to the hard drive with the windows instalation since the computer will think it's a seperate hard drive and try to look for windows on your usb.
 
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