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XP Fails to Load - ntoskrnl.exe missing?

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MikeAuds

Instructor
Oct 13, 2001
22
AU
Loaded XP onto a new empty 40GB HDD. No problems with installation and all running well. Person I was doing it for picked up the system then rang to say it would not boot into Windows XP saying that system32/ntoskrnl.exe file was missing. They tried several times but it would not load. Retrieved system and set it back up at my workshop. Booted into windows with no problem. Did ten consecutive boots with no problems. Returned PC to friend and at their place same thing happened again .. won't boot into windows. Granted there is a different new monitor and mouse/keyboard at their place but otherwise all is ther same...Any ideas??
 
Go to a working XP machine and copy the missing file to a floppy disk, located in
C:\WINDOWS\system32 on the working machine.

Then get a boot disk and use it boot up your faulty machine.

Then insert the disk that has the file you just copied from the working machine.


Then copy the missing file from the floppy drive to the hard drive.

If you don't know DOS command lines to copy the file from the floppy to the faulty
machine, here is what you'll need to type once you start the computer with your boot
disk.

The command lines to do this are:

A:
copy ntoskrnl.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32
Hope this helps,
 
Thanks for the suggestion but the HDD is in NTFS Format and that particular file is just under 2MB. But that aside if the file is really missing why would the system boot at my place?
 
being a tech myself i would say your next course of action would be to have them bring thier keyboard mouse and monitor to you...if all works then take it to them and hook it up yourself,one of thier periphials is causing the problem,
 
Okay... visited this customer today and found that the problem was the mouse. When I loaded XP originally ..I had a PS/2 mouse hooked up but unbeknown to me ... she was using a Serial mouse attached to COM1. So the result of doing this is worth remembering for the future. Thanks all for your suggestions and help.
 
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