Not sure if this should be under Linux or Windows...

June 3rd, 2005, 6:51 pm

To start, hello everyone. New here.

Okay, I decided I'd be a genius and change the ntoskrnl.exe file in Windows to something with a little more pizzazz (it's the image that shows while Windows is booting). I followed all the directions I found at themexp.org. I was, however, smart enough to rename my original ntoskrnl.exe to ntoskrnl.exe.bak so that I could just rename it back to ntoskrnl.exe if something went wrong. Something did. Now Windows won't boot. I get an error message:

System32/Drivers/Ntfs.sys missing or corrupted

Now for the Linux part. I decided I'd be even more of a genius and browse to the file using Linux and change the name there. Apparently, Linux doesn't have permission to change boot settings in Windows. Does anyone here know how to adjust this shortfall in Linux? What I really want to know is can this be fixed? I'm still not sure what I did wrong, since I followed the directions exactly and the file I downloaded had been downloaded another 350,000 times before (not an exaggeration).

By the way:
Windows XP Professional, SP2
SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional

Thanks to everyone in advance for any help you can afford!

~Jonathan

June 5th, 2005, 11:40 am

try using CaptiveNTFS.

http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

June 6th, 2005, 9:18 am

Thanks! I'll try that (if plan "A" doesn't work). I'm at work now, using XP Pro. I'm attempting to copy the boot.ini files to a 3.5 so they can be copied to my machine at home. If these two don't work, I'll have to retrieve my XP cd from the IT guys (shudder). The only thing I dread about that is hearing them gloat about how much they know about computers and how I should have gotten them to do it, blah, blah, blah.

~Jonathan

June 6th, 2005, 5:38 pm

That wont work, the boot.ini file tells your computer to boot ntoskrnl.exe from a certain partition, linux is nice enough to move your winodws partition and therefore your boot.ini stops working, use this ini file

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[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 Partition 1"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 2"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 3"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 4"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 5"

2. [boot loader]
3. timeout=30
4. default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
5. [operating systems]
6. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 1"
7. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 2"
8. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 3"
9. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 4"
10. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(5)\WINDOWS="XP Partition 5"

if you need, get out your windows XP cd and choose repair wich will bring up a pretty shell prompt, from there use the commands to replace ntoskrnl to its original, then reboot, from there you will need to figure out which partition your Windows is on, you'll probbaly have to scroll through the 5 boots above to find it

hope you have fun... i had this problem a while ago while installing linux on my puta

June 7th, 2005, 2:00 pm

Thanks! I figured out that my solution wouldn't work the hard way. I appreciate the tip! Can I replace the boot.ini through Linux, or will I have to dig out the disc? I don't actually have it; the IT dept. does. The computer was taken home from the office, and I wasn't given any resources to go along with it. How can I go about implementing this boot.ini?

June 8th, 2005, 5:26 am

You would probbaly need the disk, or a way to write to an ntfs partition, if you can grab a disk off a friend (or the net) it shuold work fine...

There might also be a CD thats dedicated to ntfs recovery or something somewhere on the net, i don't know if there is though

June 8th, 2005, 6:04 am

Yeah, aeon had a good plan to download the software to let Linux read ntfs partitions. Actually, all of this could have been avoided had I downloaded StyleXP to begin with. That software could have made all the changes for me, and I wouldn't be in this pickle. Now, ironically, I have to download software just to fix it! *sigh*

~Jonathan

April 1st, 2007, 11:52 pm

this is my msg from the ntldr forum but i though id get some more people on the case
please help.

i have or well i should say had this exact problem. though it didnt start out as such.
How my problem began was will a missing or corrupted ntldr file, which has previously happened to me.
However i created a bootdisk and put the file on it from another computer and cpied it to the broken one. after this a new error msg came about the same but twith a different missing file. It was the hal.dll file, so i put in my xp os cd and took the file from their and replaced it.
then it was this file that the formum is about the "ntoskrnl.exe", with this i did the same thing, working DOS magic and copying the file over replaving the corrupted.
Though it did not changed the error msg.
thus i changed the boot.ini file.
Deleted it from the broken computer a taken it from the cd, in the correct way ofcourse.
http://www.short-media.com/articles/repair_windows_xp
Still it did not work then i decided to re-install XP, but not over my pervious files, so when installin i changed the "windows" folder to "windows2". these are the steps i took.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/
an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
Tehn after all of this a new msg came sayin that the "ntfs.sys" file is corrupted or missing.

c:\windows\system32\drivers\ntfs.sys

how do i fix this.

i tired goin into the xp cd again and install over the corrupted though it only comes up with the options to format as the hard drive seems to be danaged or corrupted and files missing, one of the 3.
What can i do to fix this.

i am currently downloading "KNOPPIX" a linux program that is men to be able to view the hardive so that i can send files across the network inorder to backup files

beacuse i am a uni student and @ this point in time i cannot afford to lose my files.
HELP ME

April 2nd, 2007, 12:18 am

also i have tried to get ntfs.sys from an xp d though the repair console does not work. everything i do is invaild..

May 8th, 2007, 10:18 pm

try P.H.L.A.K

May 9th, 2007, 2:35 pm

First things first, Download Mepis and boot to it. Once up, log in as root (password is either root or livecd, I forget - it could even be something else). Open qtparted and look at the device name for your Windows drive (something like /dev/hda1), then mount it as such:

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mount /dev/hda1 -t ntfs /win

Once mounted, move all of your files to somewhere safe! You should have networking, if you don't, use a flash drive, burn a CD, install another hard drive, whatever - just get your files safe.

Now that your files are secured you can really tear apart your system with no worries. When you performed the in-place upgrade, you were *supposed to* overwrite your Windows system folder (which is what is meant by "in-place", this is NOT where the files you use for school are unless you happen to be learning the internals of Windows. If this is indeed not you, and your school has you placing things in there, you need to find a new school. Anyway, the best recourse (and perhaps the only recourse if XP complains too much) is to reinstall Windows completely, including formatting the hard drive. If you indeed cannot perform a "real" in-place upgrade (choosing your original Windows folder location so as to keep all of your installed applications happy), your best option would be to format the drives as ext3 through Mepis, then run "fsck" on them (just to be sure) and then perform a complete Windows installation, removing the partitions you just made through Mepis.

While this may seem like a lot of work, most of the time will be spent in you waiting for the system to finish doing stuff (transferring files, formatting and checking hard drives and installing the OS). You shouldn't need any other special tools to do this right.

HTH

May 9th, 2007, 3:30 pm

did you ever try booting into the recovery console off a windows xp cd and then renaming your ntoskrnl.exe.bak back to ntoskrnl.exe ?
or even booting into a linux distro that has NTFS write capabilities and performing the rename?
might as well undo what you did to break it? ;] lol