Rebuilding Windows 2000: incompatible NTOSKRNL.exe

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich Pasco
  • Start date Start date
R

Rich Pasco

I'm trying to re-build a trusty old Windows 2000 Pro SP 4 system whose
file system recently disintegrated into a jumble of bits.

So I re-formatted the disk and reinstalled the basic Windows 2000 Pro
from the original CD. Next I installed SP4 from W2KSP4_EN.EXE which I
had saved since 2004. All went fine until it told me to reboot, then
I got:

Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
C:\winnt\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

I don't know exactly how I am supposed to do that. Can anyone tell me?

P.S. I booted an external CD and confirmed that NTOSKRNL.EXE is
present, it is 1.6 MB long and dated June 19, 2003.

- Rich
 
You can fiddle with but much simpler to start the install over.

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

(Note: If your drive controller is not natively supported then you'll want
to boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom. Then *F6* very early and very
important (at setup is inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive
controller detection, and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later
you'll be prompted to insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver
for your drive controller in drive "A")

Setup inspects your computer's hardware configuration and then begins to
install the Setup and driver files. When the Windows 2000 Professional
screen appears, press ENTER to set up Windows 2000 Professional.

Read the license agreement, and then press the F8 key to accept the terms of
the license agreement and continue the installation.

When the Windows 2000 Professional Setup screen appears, all the existing
partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partitions Press D to delete an
existing partition, If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must
then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this
step for each of the existing partitions When all the partitions are deleted
press F3 to exit setup, (to avoid unexpected drive letter assignments with
your new install) then restart the pc then when you get to this point in
setup again select the unpartitioned space, and then press C to create a new
partition and specify the size (if required). Windows will by default use
all available space.

Be sure to apply SP4 and these two below to your new install before
connecting to any network. Internet included. (sasser, msblast)
http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx


Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS08-067.mspx



--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Rich Pasco said:
I'm trying to re-build a trusty old Windows 2000 Pro SP 4 system whose
file system recently disintegrated into a jumble of bits.

So I re-formatted the disk and reinstalled the basic Windows 2000 Pro
from the original CD. Next I installed SP4 from W2KSP4_EN.EXE which I
had saved since 2004. All went fine until it told me to reboot, then
I got:

Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing
or corrupt:
C:\winnt\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

I don't know exactly how I am supposed to do that. Can anyone tell me?

P.S. I booted an external CD and confirmed that NTOSKRNL.EXE is
present, it is 1.6 MB long and dated June 19, 2003.

- Rich
Click to expand...

Sounds as if boot.ini pointed at the wrong partition. Boot the machine with
your external CD, then modify the hidden file c:\boot.ini. It currently has
a line that looks like so:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000"

Create a few extra lines as below, then try each of them. Make sure that the
"timeout" value is set to 10 seconds or so.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="1 Microsoft Windows 2000"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="2 Microsoft Windows 2000"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="3 Microsoft Windows 2000"
 
Yes, service packs are cumulative so that sp4 contains everything from the
previous service packs as well.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
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