Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: (ntoskrnl)

[pawn3d]

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.

Please re-install a copy of the above file."

easier said than done

Hello there! I just came from topic #74955 but alas, no success. I have a Thinkpad 45 and it is a stange machine. I have no clue what version of XP is installed and i don't know how to find out.

I tried typing Expand d:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ C:\Windows\System32 but got an error. I tried putting a copy of ntoskrnl.exe on a usb drive and typed Expand e:\ntoskrnl.ex_ C:\Windows\System32 but the directory wasn't found or something.

I ran chkdsk /r it went for about an hour and got stuck at 52% and says "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable files" When restarted it, it was knocking like a grandfather clock.

 

[drpepper55]

To find out what version of windows you have, go to start>settings>control panel>system>general tab and itwill list the system os(operating system). Now, if you have XP, you could do a system restore back to a date before your problems began. Since you do not know what os you have then I can therefore conclude that you don't have the disk because if you did then you could do an sfc /scannow run which would replace any corrupted or missing files in your system files with clean ones from your disk, but since you don't, you'll have to try soomeone who has that file and can give you a copy. If you do have XP as I do, I could try to e-mail you a copy. Let me know. Best to you...

 

[pawn3d]

I have XP disks, and I appreciate the offer. the machine won't start up to let me access the start menu (

 

[ChaoticFlame]

Whoa, knocking like a grandfather clock?

It sounds like your hard drive is making the "click of doom," which in short, means the drive is very, very dead.

If you meant something by that statement other than that it is physically making a loud clicking sound, then please let me know. Otherwise, your options are pretty limited, and all of them involve the purchase of at least one new hard drive.

 

[Route44]

What ChaoticFlame said (and beat me to it!). My suggestion was to run a full harddrive diagnostics. Those T45s are very nice latops. Go to Lenovo's website and find out what hd will work for you if it is a bad hd.

 

[ChaoticFlame]

What ChaoticFlame said (and beat me to it!). My suggestion was to run a full harddrive diagnostics. Those T45s are very nice latops. Go to Lenovo's website and find out what hd will work for you if it is a bad hd.

Are you suggesting to do this with software? Because that's rather difficult if the disk isn't bootable.

The poster already tried to run chkdsk, so if that's not what you were referring to, I'm kind of confused.
If the culprit harddrive was transferred into a funtioning PC and connected via an IDE converter, that could provide some definite clues as to what's wrong, but if the disk IS in fact "clicking", then a normal PC (from all of my experience) would only be able to see the disk in BIOS, the OS would take forever to load while the faulty drive sat there and clicked because it can't find the data, and the disk wouldn't be visible in the OS when it finally loaded.

The clicking sound occurs as the hard drives arm swings across the drive platter searching for information and finally hits the "stop" because it was unable to locate the file. The process then repeats.