ntoskrnl.exe issue

[Liam]

Several time now when my PC boots up it comes up with a
message saying it cannot locate
C:\WINDOWS\System32\ntoskrnl.exe

However if I power off / on then the PC boots OK.

Is this the beginning of an underlying problem as twice
now in the last 6 months my PC has gone from this state
to being totally dead. That is it will not boot at all.
Then I have to reload XP , after formatting the hard
drive.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

L

 

[Vendetta]

You have been infected by an internet worm was released through IRC
networks.

The worm is disguised as a .jpg picture named Britney.jpg from Angelfire.
Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN britney or jokes links in Internet explorer,
unless they are from a source that you trust.

An exploit taking advantage of holes in Internet Explorer along with Windows
Media Player ensures the worm free passage to your computer, where it starts
deleting system files and destroying the registry.

The effect of this is: no shortcuts work, no programs, except those already
running will work. If mirc is running it will proceed by installing a script
that announces the url to britney.jpg in all the channels you have joined.
Some have mentioned that it even uploads sites.dat from your FlashFXP
directory (if you have one).

It will replace/delete Windows system files. If that happens, you might get
a message of this sort: "Files that are required for Windows to run properly
have been replaced by unrecognized versions".

According to people i know who have had it, simply "repairing" the Windows
install or copying the deleted
files back isn't enough, since the virus also messes around with the Windows
registry.You'll may well have to reinstall Windows.

There is a patch to stop this exploit, I am not sure if it can fix the
problem if you are already infected, but if you can't even boot up windows,
then you wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

You can find out more about the worm here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS00-075.asp

 

[Vendetta]

You have been infected by an internet worm was released through IRC
networks.

The worm is disguised as a .jpg picture named Britney.jpg from Angelfire.
Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN britney or jokes links in Internet explorer,
unless they are from a source that you trust.

An exploit taking advantage of holes in Internet Explorer along with Windows
Media Player ensures the worm free passage to your computer, where it starts
deleting system files and destroying the registry.

The effect of this is: no shortcuts work, no programs, except those already
running will work. If mirc is running it will proceed by installing a script
that announces the url to britney.jpg in all the channels you have joined.
Some have mentioned that it even uploads sites.dat from your FlashFXP
directory (if you have one).

It will replace/delete Windows system files. If that happens, you might get
a message of this sort: "Files that are required for Windows to run properly
have been replaced by unrecognized versions".

According to people i know who have had it, simply "repairing" the Windows
install or copying the deleted
files back isn't enough, since the virus also messes around with the Windows
registry.You'll may well have to reinstall Windows.

There is a patch to stop this exploit, I am not sure if it can fix the
problem if you are already infected, but if you can't even boot up windows,
then you wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

You can find out more about the worm here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS00-075.asp