ERROR: Windows root7/system32/ntoskrnl.exe

[Suzak]

Evertime I start up my desktop, after the Dell logo load screen, I get an error message saying: The following files are missing or curropt Windows root7/system32/ntoskrnl.exe
Ive got Windows Xp running and I recently had SP3 installed
I've got like baby pictures and other precious memories junk in it that I dont want to lose.
My question is simple I just want to fix this.

 

[Harvey]

If you want to be absolutely sure you don't further damage your files, the safest thing you can do is to remove your hard drive, connect it as a slave drive on another machine and copy your files to that machine's hard drive or burn them to CD or DVD.

You may be able to recover your currently installed setup through the Windows recovery console. However, I strongly recommend first saving your critical files.

To do the same thing on your own machine while setting up a backup system, get another hard drive at least as large as your current drive, install it as your main drive, and re-install Windows. Then, as above, you will be able to slave up your original drive and copy your files to your new drive.

Get a copy of Acronis True Image or an older version of Norton Ghost that runs from bootable DOS disk. Version 7 or 8 should work well. These programs programs contain several backup and copy options, including the ability allow you to "clone" your entire, running drive. If your main drive fails, you can replace it with the cloned drive, and it will boot right up and work without having to re-install Windows.

Maxtor/Seagate provides a free version of Acronis True Image that works ONLY if at least one of the two drives (source or target) is a Maxtor or Seagate drive. You can download the utility from their site. If your main drive isn't a Maxtor or Seagate, you now have incentive to look for a deal on those brands.

You can then use one drive as your main drive and mount the other in a mobile rack, a tray and rack system that allows you to mount a 2.5" drive in a pluggable tray that plugs into rack in a 5.25" bay in your machine.

Choose a moble rack for your drive (IDE or SATA). It connects directly to your machine's hard drive controller. Depending on the drives and the motherboard's controller, you can back up fairly large drives in 6 - 30 minutes. You could also install the backup drive in an external USB box, but the transfer time (the time it takes to back up your drive) would be considerably longer.

 

[Suzak]

Thanks for the quick reply and sorry about my late one, afterall I dont have a computer. Would using a Windows XP cd to recover or replace the missing or curropt file work?

 

[waitman]

It might. I would first do what Harvey suggested and get the files off the drive first. Then try a recovery.

 

[Harvey]

Originally posted by: Suzak

Would using a Windows XP cd to recover or replace the missing or curropt file work?

As waitman said, it might... IF that's the only missing file. However, when I've tried that in the past, I've often found that after replacing one file and rebooting, the system gave another error message that another file was missing. Once that starts happening, your choice is between spending a lot of time trying to restore a questionable installation or you spending about the same amount of time building a known clean installation from the ground up.

The most important thing is to back up your critical files. After that, it's just a matter of how long it takes to get your machine back to working order.

Hope that helps. Good luck.

 

[Suzak]

Thanks So Much for all your help Harvey! and you too waitman! I was able to access my file in the messed up hard drive by putting it as a slave drive while having a fresh new drive as master. As soon as I was able to access my messed up older drive I jumped around the house in trimphant accomplishment and quickly got out my usb stick plugged it in and copied all of my baby sisters baby pictures-my critical files. You have no idea how happy I am, I almost gave myself an ulcer over the whole damn thing.

Anyway back to buisness, I copied the file that was missing in the other drive the ntoskrnl.exe and pasted it right back into its original place where it supposed to be and overwrote the older one which was 1mb bigger for some reason...made me wonder perhaps something more written into it by a virus of some sort. Anyway, after that I placed it back as master drive and took off the slave drive but it still tells me its missing the file and wants me to re-install it. Not that it really matters now anyway but is it still possible to fix it?

PS. THANKS SO MUCH AGAIN!

 

[Suzak]

I forgot to mention, since it is .exe file type I tried to run it on my still messed up hard drive thinking maybe it needs to be installed but it gives me a message that it cant run in Win32 mode.

 

[Tarrant64]

You are probably already done with the process, I just wanted to point out using a LiveCD such as Knoppix(Ubunutu has one too I think) you can move files over to another hard drive. This saves time from having to install Windows on a second hard drive just to get to the first one as a slave. If you don't have too many files you should be able to plug in a thumb drive and copy away without any problems.