Hey everyone, I came across an interesting discovery.. one of my customers just boot up their computer and it says <Windows root>/system32/ntoskrnl.exe Missing or corrupted File it says reinstall above file to continue but I do not have the version that is needed.. It's a Windows Home Edition.. and I only have Professional.. Their computer is a netbook so don't have a optical drive.. I was wondering if there's a way to reinstall the file without that.. Please help me! He also said he doesn't have anything important on there... from memory, it's an Intel Atom 1.6 GHz from Acer. HELP!!!
I was going to suggest running sfc scannow in a commmand prompt which would repair system files but normally you need a system disc but apparently there are ways around it but google turned up some stuff. Have a look at this post from Bleepingcomputer which describes a method of running it without a system disc. I'd google a bit more to see if the information matches up to posts on other sites as it requires a registry edit. The search term I used was "sfc scannow windows xp without disc"
You can reinstall off a usb stick which is probably the best route to go. It can be a right pain to get this file back on some times and requires you to work out of the command line. The problem is that some anti virus progs see this file as a trojan and delete in, so be careful what anti virus goes back on to it.
This error can mean any thing. Which can be the result of bad memory/CPU/motherboard/hard disk/hard disk cable. Good hunting!
i just came back from a 3 hours job with this dude's computer.. guess what? the damn key that came with the netbook wont even activate.. says it's incorrect key.. called the Micro$oft Call center... so right now he's running off a trial version of XP for now..
Monki and jeff, how am I supposed to access Windows if the files are corrupted? I can't even get into Windows.. he said he doesn't have anything valuable on the system.. so I reinstalled the whole thing.. skipped the activation key request.. booted it up.. then it asked for the key.. I entered it.. and guess what? it says Incorrect Product Key. Please contact Micro$oft Center to get a new key. We called them. Went through too many hours to get the key.. I'm really frustrated with them.. I thought it was supposed to be easy!
I just remembered.. I have a spare disc with a unused key.. I don't need that thing anyway.. and it's too late to go fix the key issue.. I'll go tomorrow and try the key..
