ntoskrnl.exe is corrupted. windows wont open

August 12th, 2004, 9:19 am

sleap wrote:

Decided I'd harken back to my days of MFM drives. I smacked it good and hard...

Actually, it appears that the ntoskrnl message was coming because the drive wasn't spinning up quick enough for Windows to see it.

I'd downloaded NTFSreader, but couldn't see the drive of course. Anyway, on the next boot up, I just slammed my fist down on the top of the unit, heard the drive spin up, and voila... there it was! Something I noticed this time that I hadn't in the past, was that it hadn't seen either the primary or secondary drives prior... this time it did.

*lol Thanks for the feedback. Interesting solution...

I don't believe there is one underlying cause. There are a number of different problems which will result in the ntoskrnl error.

Anonymous_coward problem arose as a direct result of moving partitions around. The boot.ini is certainly one place to look for trouble, especially if you are using multiple operating systems or have been modifying partitions, but it's not the only cause.

I had this problem a while back and it was due to a corrupt file. It happened spontaneously. I don't have more than 1 OS and I hadn't fooled with any partitions. I posted the method I used to correct the problem. It's helped a couple of people but it's only one solution for one cause.

I suspect a system with virus troubles can cause this if ntoskrnl.exe becomes infected. Had one poster that was able to fix the ntoskrnl.exe error only to have a problem with another file, and then another file.

I'm sure there are other reasons...

August 15th, 2004, 11:49 am

ah

August 21st, 2004, 6:57 pm

hey wassup

i tried the

"Code:

cd c:\windows\system32

copy "..\driver cache\i386\ntoskrnl.exe"

If prompted to overwite the existing file, type y and enter.

If you receive a file not found error, make sure that the path in the copy command is correct. If it is correct and you still receive the error, then try the following commands:

Code:

cd "c:\windows\driver cache\i386"

expand sp1.cab -F:ntoskrnl.exe c:\windows\system32

but it kept saying that it couldn't find the file after <copy "..\driver cache\i386\ntoskrnl.exe" >

I went to "http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314477"
and tried everything but they don't work.

Any answers would be appreciated.
bigflex118




[url][/url]

August 25th, 2004, 5:38 pm

I don't know how successful the following technique will be but it might work in some cases:

Based on a tip I posted in another thread, OS choices menu, I wanted to see If I could make a floppy that would boot the system into safe mode. I did have success. In fact, putting my money where my mouth is, I deleted my boot.ini and ntoskrnl.exe from my system partition and successfully booted my system from the floppy. Placing the necessary files plus a modified boot.ini, the system was able to use the ntkrnlpa.exe to boot into safe mode instead of a missing/corrupt ntoskrnl file.

1) From a working 2k/XP system, format a floppy disk. It needs to be formatted from within windows. Insert disk into drive, right-click on the floppy drive, select format. Leave "create a msdos startup disk" unchecked.

2) From the root of the system partition, copy these files to the floppy disk: ntdetect.com, ntldr. These files are hidden so you will need to disable 'Hide protected operating system files': Go to Folder Options > View and uncheck the appropriate option.

You can also copy them via the command prompt:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

xcopy /H c:\ntdetect.com a:\

3) Create an new text file on the floppy which will be saved as boot.ini. Place the following code in the file:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader] 
timeout=5 
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" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

1. [boot loader] 
2. timeout=5 
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS 
4. [operating systems] 
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

Usually the system partition is the first partition. If not, then you will need to modify both instances of partition(1) to correspond to your particular needs. If you don't know which partition is the correct one, just try 1, then 2, etc until you are able to boot.

Here's a link that explains the boot.ini in some detail:
http://is-it-true.org/nt/atips/atips136.shtml Thank you ATNO.

You may need to modify other aspects if you have a SCSI drive or are using another IDE chain.

When saving from notepad, wrap the filename in quotes to ensure that it doesn't get saved as boot.ini.txt.

Hopefully you will find yourself in safe mode with a command prompt. From there you can try to fix the problem; correcting boot.ini errors, replacing the ntoskrnl file, running chkdsk, etc.

It might be a good idea to make this disk now in case of future problems.

As I said before, I don't know how successful this will be. It certainly won't work for every case: Hardware failure or other causes where the ntoskrnl error is just a symptom. I plan to do more testing and compile a help text containing the different methods of recovery.

For the floppy to work, you need to set the floppy drive as the first boot device in the bios. This varies from system to system so I can't give specific instructions on how to do this. A simple web search will most likely yield useful instructions.

I would also appreciate others who want to test this on various Operating Systems: 2000, XP, 2003. No need to delete any of the above mentioned files. . I'm just crazy. All that would need to be done is the creation of the floppy disk and a reboot of the system with the floppy.

[ATNO/TW]

August 25th, 2004, 6:57 pm

Man, that's excellent Jim! I'll test this out on mine on Friday and report back.

Added tip on Notepad "save file as" (I believe I already posted this in the Windows Tips thread).

When you save a file in Notepad, the little dropdown box for file type always defaults to .txt and this will by default add the .txt extension to the file unless you use the quotes workaround that Jim posted.

If you expand the dropdown menu you'll see the other selection option is "All Files" If you select that option, then you can save a file in any format without the concern about the truncated .txt extension being automatically added. This is great for working with htm, html, nfo, ini, tpl, etc files and it doesn't require the quotes.

August 25th, 2004, 7:25 pm

I appreciate that ATNO. Thanks for the additional notepad tip. I really need to go through all the tips sometime.

Here's some additional switches that can be used in the boot.ini file:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm

Some more Safe Mode Switches:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;q239780

One that caught my interest was /bootlog. A log will be created of the boot process and saved as ntbtlog.txt in %systemroot% (usually \Windows). Could be useful for troubleshooting purposes.

I'm going to see if it works with Safe mode without the command prompt and maybe even normal startup. Probably not a good idea to try a normal boot if you are having trouble. I'll do it anyway just to satisfy my curiosity.

It seemed to work correctly in Safemode with and without the command prompt:

Safe Mode:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader]
timeout=5
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 /safeboot:minimal /SOS /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=5
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /safeboot:minimal /SOS /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

Code: [ Download ] [ Select ]

[boot loader]
timeout=5
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" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /sos /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

1. [boot loader]
2. timeout=5
3. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
4. [operating systems]
5. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /sos /bootlog /kernel=ntkrnlpa.exe /noguiboot

Of course, you will need to edit the disk and parition info applicable to your system.

August 26th, 2004, 1:31 am

Hi,

I was having the same problem with the ntoskrnl.exe (windows would not boot and said that this file was corrupted or missing). I couldn't figure out why this happened, but suspected that it was due to the fact that I just installed the motherboard drivers.

To make a long story short, one of the posters in this thread mentionned that they were having problems with the windows 2000 boot.ini file. Well, I just happened to have edited this file also and so I thought that maybe this is the reason why ntoskrnl.exe was screwed up... Anyway, I went into the recovery console, deleted the boot.ini file (windows can boot without it) and restarted my computer.

By miracle, the problem was solved

I just thought that I'd register and post this in case others had the same problem. Cheers!

August 26th, 2004, 11:29 am

quick wrote:

Well, I just happened to have edited this file also and so I thought that maybe this is the reason why ntoskrnl.exe was screwed up... Anyway, I went into the recovery console, deleted the boot.ini file (windows can boot without it) and restarted my computer.

By miracle, the problem was solved

I just thought that I'd register and post this in case others had the same problem. Cheers!

Welcome to Ozzu and thanks for your post.

That's strange. Normally Windows will not boot with out this file. Trying this on my XP Pro system, I received two errors:

Invalid Boot.ini flashed on the screen then:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.

August 26th, 2004, 7:55 pm

One of my computers is having the corrupted ntoskrnl.exe problem also...

NTFS, Windows XP pro, no extra partitions

The HDD makes inconsistent sounds. It will go, stop, go, stop, then pause ---4 short bursts of activity with each being a series of a dozen or so clicks. I'm currently still trying the recovery console. I found that I cannot use the LOGON command. Therefore I cannot replacentoskrnl.exe using the recovery console...

Chkdsk is at 34% after 2 hours. I already ordered a new HDD.

There we go, 100%... "The volume seems to contain one or more unrecoverable problems"

August 27th, 2004, 12:29 pm

Let me start out by saying you guys are, by far, the most thorough group of computer guru's I've encountered . Now that the shameless brown nosing is over, let me explain my problem.

I'm dealing with a home built machine which in my opinion just needs to be dropped off a high building (obviously, it's not my computer, it's my roommates). It's running Windows 2000 and has 3 drives (all under 4 gb) and is set up with the 3 HDDs on c:\, d:\, and f:\, with the CD drive on e:\. I followed JrzyCrim's recomendation from back in March on using the recovery console and copying ntoskrnl.exe but for some reason am having trouble. Best I can tell, it might be that I don't know how all the drives are organized. I'm not totally computer stupid, but I'm not the 'puter genius most of you guys are.

My roommate's Dad (out of town) plans to get her a newer computer, but at this point we just need to be able to resurrect it enough to pull some files off of it. This may seem like an incredibly stupid question, but I just want some validation... if I reinstall Win 2K, without formatting, will I lose what's already on the drives? I'm even willing to give a try for fixing the ntoskrnl problem, but it seems like my situation is still a little bit different that the other lucky souls who have been successful.

I just really don't want to spend all sorts of time on it, especially since it's about to be replaced. Thanks in advance for the advice!

August 27th, 2004, 12:42 pm

Hi, welcome to Ozzu!

This ntoskrnl problem is a tricky one. In answer to your question, you can do a 'repair install' of windows 2000:
http://www.riverbank.co.uk/support/R1206.html

A repair install will leave your programs and data intact. Only windows updates will need to be applied again. In your case, this probably won't be a problem since you are planning to replace the system.

Follow the instructions at the above link.

Before you attempt that, you might consider making a floppy disk as outlined in previous posts; if you have access to another Win 2000 machine. Pretty simple really and should take no time at all.

See http://www.ozzu.com/sutra119189.html&highlight=#119189

August 27th, 2004, 5:19 pm

Got it fixed guys... THANKS!!!

August 27th, 2004, 7:06 pm

Floridachicky wrote:

Got it fixed guys... THANKS!!!

Glad you got it working. For future reference, what did you do?

August 28th, 2004, 11:04 am

Hi, and thanks for the welcome.

About the boot.ini file, well I guess that you do need it if you're running windows XP (I really don't know much about these things). For windows 2000 pro though, at least in my case, when this file is missing or has errors in it, I get a message that looks something like this: "invalid, or missing, boot.ini... booting from c:\winnt\ instead."

Anyway, my ntoskrnl.exe problem came up after I really messed up the boot.ini (I'm supposing that I must of done something very wrong!). I didn't know how to fix the file so I just deleted it and then I could boot without any problems (well, I do get that "booting from c:\winnt\ instead" message", but it doesn't do anything bad).

I suppose that all of this might be a coincidence, but given the strong correlation between my messing up boot.ini, the ntoskrnl.exe problem, and the fixing of this problem by deleting the boot.ini file, it sure looks like boot.ini was the culprit for me.

Just an idea, but maybe if you have the same type of problem in winXP, you can try to edit boot.ini to fix it, or even replace it with a good version...

Cheers!

August 28th, 2004, 12:03 pm

what had happened before w/ me was w/ Fedora Core Test 1 on a dual boot system.....When I installed Suse 9.1 this time I had the exact same problem. I listened to the advice and got a hold of my boot.ini thru Suse. I got it onto a floppy and just used the recovery console to copy it over the other boot.ini. Apparently Linux just loves to change the partition windows thinks it is in. Anyway, much thanks to all you guys. You know your stuff.

Much obliged
cerberus561