A Digital Age Deserves A Digital Leader

"Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Forum rules
Please start your own topic for support with problems you experience. Even if it appears to be exactly the same as someone else's problem, system configurations differ significantly. Thank you.

It may take our support staff between 24-48 hours to respond to your problem. We are a small business and strive to answer your questions as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience.

"Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:01 pm

Hi, I've tried what I know how to do and I'm stuck, hope someone can help.

I did a search of the Ntoskrnl.exe phrase but seems like lots of people are having installation issues, mine is something else I think.

I've been running a dual-boot VBP setup for 2 years now, flawlessly. OS's are Vista 64 and Windows XP, with XP being the one where the VBP files are stored, as I recall, i.e. XP is the primary for the dual boot setup.

Recently, XP just wouldn't boot and I got the "could not start - missing or corrupt windows root>system32>ntoskrnl.exe" error. black screen, drive clicks, nothing else happens.

Vista 64 boots great and I've been using that, but would like to get back into my XP without having to go through relearning all the dual boot stuff I've forgotten.

Problem is, though I replaced the Ntoskrnl.exe with a fresh version, and it gave me a "windows did not boot normally last time, select safe or normal or whatever" message, it still hung. Once it hung on that very message. So I'm back to square one, as I don't know how to do the Windows disk repair thing from a normal boot up with the dual boot setup in place.

I.e., do I select XP with the Windows disc in the drive? I think I even tried that but it just went on to the error message. If I reset the bios to boot from the CD, of course it doesn't go into the dual boot mode and I'm not sure which drive has the XP and which has the Vista, and don't want to screw that up!

Hope someone can help, many thanks

Jim

asus p5wdh deluxe, 8GB ddr2 memory, 3 TB storage, Nvidia gs 7600
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby Grav!ty » Wed Nov 25, 2009 12:08 am

The error message you're getting can mean your boot.ini file is incorrect and/or your XP boot system files are not where they should be.

ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM should all be on the root of the drive tagged System in Disk Management. See dual-boot-trouble-shooting-guide-vista-running-t92429.html
Image

"The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolo Machiavelli
PROfessional Member
User avatar
Posts: 15790
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:22 am
Real Name: Graham

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Wed Nov 25, 2009 9:12 pm

Thanks Grav!ty, I checked, found and copied those three files, and pasted them into the XP root drive, windows drive and system drive just to make sure I had them in the right place. The only change then was it stopped giving me the boot options (Safe Mode, Last Known Good etc.) and just went back to the "ntoskrnl.exe missing" msg as soon as I selected XP in the Vista Boot Pro screen.

I had pasted a fresh ntoskrnl.exe file into the windows/system32 folder previously, that's how I got it to at least give me the Safe Mode try screen, but even then, no matter which selection I tried, for instance Safe Mode, which scrolled down a load list of drivers for a couple seconds...then froze...I couldn't get XP to go anywhere but a hung black screen.

And now it's back to the original error msg.

I did hear a clicking noise before from a drive when i'd get the ntoskrnl.exe error msg, but no longer. Almost makes me think I've got a bad drive, but in Vista, I can pull up anything from the XP root drive, it's all there with no problems. Just can't boot to that drive.

Out of ideas, anybody seen this before?

If I wanted to install Windows 7, would you suggest I just copy off what I want to save from the XP drive and start over? I'm bummed by this, everything was working fine and I don't know what I might have done to change anything, it just stopped booting one day, but Vista as I said before still comes up as a choice with VBP and boots beautifully when I select it.

thanks

JIm
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby Grav!ty » Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:39 am

It looks like you need to fix your boot.ini

If you copy and paste it here from the text file and post a screenshot of disk management, we can help with that.
Image

"The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolo Machiavelli
PROfessional Member
User avatar
Posts: 15790
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:22 am
Real Name: Graham

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Fri Nov 27, 2009 4:27 pm

Thanks Grav!ty, here's the boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP HOME ED" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows vISTA 64 HOME PREMIUM" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


and Disk Management screen shots are attached (from inside Vista...of course the drive letters change when I'm in XP instead, that's why I named them.)


FYI, motherboard is an ASUS p5wdh deluxe, 8 GB ddr3 memory, Nvidia GS 7600 card, 750W Corsair power supply. All Sata and E-Sata and most USB ports are in use, I have 6 external drives, nearly 3 TB of storage (I'm a pro photographer). I had a power supply problem a couple years ago that drove me nuts with all kinds of disk corruption messages, cost me some shoots, data etc. until I figured out I had too many things plugged in for the 600W PS I had. The Corsair solved that pretty much.

On bootup, one of my drives (may be the XP), during the drive detection phase (JMicro, I don't really know what that means) normally shows my two boot drives. Lately, sounds like I've got a fan going out on one drive, because it sounds like it's having trouble spooling up, and the drive listing for my HItachi drive, which may be the XP drive (I don't remember) on the detection message will blink in red, instead of green. I click on through that and bootup is normal. Even before XP went down, I was getting this anomaly.

Once the machine is warmed up, both drives show green. So maybe the fan, or the drive itself, has failed. Although I can access the XP drive as I said from Vista and open data files there with no problems detected so far, so maybe I'm on the wrong track, honestly haven't got a clue.

Also sometimes when I access a drive I'll hear a ticking from inside the case, which sounds like a drive problem to me, based on previous experience.

Also also when the XP drive first showed me the Ntoskrnl.exe error messages, I would hear the drive ticking about once a second. When I replaced the old Ntoskrnl.exe file with a fresh copy, the ticking sound stopped. I renamed the old file Ntoskrnlold.exe

Thanks so much for your help!

JIm
DISK-mgmt-2.jpg
Scroll down showing the remaining drive (two partitions on a 500GB external)
DISK-mgmt-2.jpg (71.35 KiB) Viewed 6268 times
DISK-mgmt-1.jpg
All the drives shown. XP drive shows as drive J: but when booted in XP it showed as drive D: (For some reason that I never figured out, a couple years ago when I installed and got VBP working, it split the root drive from the System drive. So C: didn't actually have the system files, rather D: did. It's always worked, until recently, so I left it alone.
DISK-mgmt-1.jpg (83.45 KiB) Viewed 6274 times
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Tue Dec 01, 2009 3:55 pm

Any ideas anybody?
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby Grav!ty » Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:59 pm

Yeah, Vista and Windows 7 use virtual drive lettering which is why they always see themselves as being on drive C: (unless one installs them from within XP in which case they take on the drive lettering of XP).

This is what your boot.ini should look like according to your disk management:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(4)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(4)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


Also the files boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT.COM (for XP) and the folder Boot and the file bootmgr for Vista/Windows 7 should all be on drive E: which is the drive tagged (System).
Image

"The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolo Machiavelli
PROfessional Member
User avatar
Posts: 15790
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:22 am
Real Name: Graham

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Wed Dec 02, 2009 7:10 pm

Thanks Grav!ty but if I make that change to boot.ini, having everything go from rdisk 4 (which is the Vista drive), won't that move the dual boot login to Vista? And maybe goof it up so I can't get into Vista either?

Currently it boots from the XP system drive (I think), which is rdisk 3. I had trouble before when trying to do it from Vista, though that was in the early days of Vista 64. Someone on this board,maybe you, had suggested it would be more stable on XP, which it was...until recently.

All the files are where they should be. I copied them to both Vista and XP system drives.

Still don't understand how the boot.ini could have changed on its own, if it did.
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby Grav!ty » Thu Dec 03, 2009 1:50 am

Windows XP is on rdisk 4 according to your disk management (the bottom screenshot) being 0, 1, 2, 3 so 3 is actually rdisk 4.

If you are plugging or unplugging removable drives in that would change the rdisk number.

If rdisk 3 is working for you somehow, try to from inside Vista use DualBootPRO to change the drive letter for XP to what Vista disk management says it should be on the Operating Systems page.
Image

"The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are." - Niccolo Machiavelli
PROfessional Member
User avatar
Posts: 15790
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:22 am
Real Name: Graham

Re: "Ntoskrnl.exe missing or corrupt" with dual boot

Postby skypix » Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:17 pm

Right, I'd forgotten that. Thanks, I'll give it a try.
PRO Level 2
Posts: 37
Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2007 7:45 pm

Return to Windows Boot Problems

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests