Boot to dos prompt?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steve Wilson
  • Start date Start date
S

Steve Wilson

Hi- I am getting an error pertaining to ntoskrnl.exe being
missing. I need to alter the boot.ini file but I can't
get past the error.
Is it possible to boot the machine up and go directly to
dos?
Thanks.
 
Steve Wilson said:
Hi- I am getting an error pertaining to ntoskrnl.exe being
missing. I need to alter the boot.ini file but I can't
get past the error.
Is it possible to boot the machine up and go directly to
dos?
Thanks.
Click to expand...

When you write "DOS Prompt", you probably mean the
Command Prompt. This is a child process under Windows -
it cannot run without Windows.

If your system partition is FAT32 then you can boot your
machine with a DOS boot disk from www.bootdisk.com
and edit boot.ini.

If your system partition is NTFS then you have to install your
disk temporarily as a slave disk in some other Win2000/XP
machine to edit boot.ini.

You could also reboot the machine with your Win2000 CD,
get into the Command Console, then replace boot.ini with a
version that you supply on floppy disk.
 
-----Original Message-----



When you write "DOS Prompt", you probably mean the
Command Prompt. This is a child process under Windows -
it cannot run without Windows.

If your system partition is FAT32 then you can boot your
machine with a DOS boot disk from www.bootdisk.com
and edit boot.ini.

If your system partition is NTFS then you have to install your
disk temporarily as a slave disk in some other Win2000/XP
machine to edit boot.ini.

You could also reboot the machine with your Win2000 CD,
get into the Command Console, then replace boot.ini with a
version that you supply on floppy disk.


.
Thanks for the advice- I'll give it a try.
Click to expand...
 
-----Original Message-----
install
.
I was able to get the pc to bbot up with the dos boot
Click to expand...
disk and I can move around in dos. However, I cannot seem
to find the boot.ini file, nor can I run the 'edit'
command. Also, I have copied the ntoskrnl.exe file into
\windows\system32 but I still get the same error.
I'm stumped as I can't seem to get pst the error when
loading Windows which would seem to indicate I can't even
run the recovery console form the installation cd.

Any help/suggestions would be rgeatly appreciated.
Thanks.
 
Steve -
- boot.ini is a hidden readonly system file in the root dir. Remove
those attributes to see/edit it.

- edit boot.ini with notepad, it's just ordinary text.

- I can't tell from the thread so far, but if the system on the
partition is a working system, you might be able to start it by (on some
other W2k system, MUST be W2k) formatting a diskette, then copying 3
files to it, taking it to your machine, and booting from it. Then copy
the working boot.ini to the hard drive. The 3 files are:
boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com

- within boot.ini, "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)" mean the first of each type
of disk support hardware; "partition(1)" means the first partition on
the drive being pointed to. All 4 values are the most typical (for the
active partition on the primary master hard drive.)

- often when a boot reports ntoskrnl is missing it's because boot.ini is
pointing to the wrong rdisk or partition. Or the system isn't completely
installed. You may want to experiment with those boot.ini values, which
are explained in many places on the net.
 
-----Original Message-----
Steve -
- boot.ini is a hidden readonly system file in the root dir. Remove
those attributes to see/edit it.

- edit boot.ini with notepad, it's just ordinary text.

- I can't tell from the thread so far, but if the system on the
partition is a working system, you might be able to start it by (on some
other W2k system, MUST be W2k) formatting a diskette, then copying 3
files to it, taking it to your machine, and booting from it. Then copy
the working boot.ini to the hard drive. The 3 files are:
boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com

- within boot.ini, "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)" mean the first of each type
of disk support hardware; "partition(1)" means the first partition on
the drive being pointed to. All 4 values are the most typical (for the
active partition on the primary master hard drive.)

- often when a boot reports ntoskrnl is missing it's because boot.ini is
pointing to the wrong rdisk or partition. Or the system isn't completely
installed. You may want to experiment with those boot.ini values, which
are explained in many places on the net.



.
Dan- excellent information and I wll give it a try.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for you help.

Steve.
 
-----Original Message-----
Good luck...come back in this thread with results :-)



.
Well, I'm not having much luck. I have copied the 3
Click to expand...
files from another W2K Pro machine but when I put the
floppy into the disabled machine, it can't see the files.
I know they are hidden but I can't seem to 'unhide' them
in dos to copy them. I've tried the ATTRIB command but
I'm getting an error around "Incorrect DOS version".
 
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