Catch 22 Situation!

[Mortankas]

Hey all,

I'm stuck in a loop at the moment, my system has been working fine for over a year now, all of a sudden i boot up this morning, and i'm welcomed by..

<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing.

Please re-install a copy of the above file.

However, upon trying to use Windows 2000 repair console i get another error! I try to boot up from the CD, and as it arrives to the blue screen where it prompts to press F6 if you need to install SCSI or 3rd party drivers etc, i get another error.

"\$WINT_NT$.~BT\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded, Error Code 4"

At this point i'm given the option to press any key to quit, and when i quit, hey presto the bloody thing will boot up?! However it won't boot up on it's own normally!!!

I'm so confused, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[djnes]

It sounds like you need to load some drivers to have access to the actual hard drive during the recovery console session. I remember having to do that whenever I went into the recovery console, back when I was naive enough to buy the RAID0 myth. As to why it boots normally after all that, I don't know, except that the driver files in question are probably loaded already in the OS install. You just might need to load them each time you try to get to the recovery console. Once you do that, your repair options should fix it, as you were going down the right path.

 

[Fryguy8]

If your kernel really is missing (the first message), you've got some BIG problems.

 

[Phoenix86]

If your kernel really is missing (the first message), you've got some BIG problems.

It's not too uncommon for the file to get corrupted.

 

[djnes]

It's not too uncommon for the file to get corrupted.

Nor is it very hard to replace using the recovery console....assuming the OP can get into it.