W2K "ntoskrnl.exe"

[Michael]

After installing the SP4 I restarted the computer and got
the message that I should reinstall the ntoskrnl.exe.
This seemed to be a problem as the emergency disks just
wanted to reinstall W2K
I have the Win CD but when I booted from the CD there was
no way of getting at the CD files. I read Microsoft
Knowlege based article 119467! Who are these articles
written for? I am only a fluid power engineer! I have no
idea what to do based on this article.
I eventually installed the OS on the computer again
although I did not want to over write the data.
I have been able to salvage the data. I would now like to
get the system up and running again preferrably without
having to reinstall all the applications.
I have tried copying the file from the new WINNT/system32/
to the old WINNT/system32/ folder but it did not work. It
has been suggested that the SP4 "ntoskrnl.exe" is diferent
from the old one OR that I will have to rewrite
the "boot.ini"
Well now I am really lost. Can you help? One step at a time
Thank you
Michael
The machine is a Sony PCG XG29 it has 13gig 526 RAM and
should be running Windows 2000

 

[Alan Illeman]

After installing the SP4 I restarted the computer and got
the message that I should reinstall the ntoskrnl.exe.
This seemed to be a problem as the emergency disks just
wanted to reinstall W2K
I have the Win CD but when I booted from the CD there was
no way of getting at the CD files. I read Microsoft
Knowlege based article 119467! Who are these articles
written for? I am only a fluid power engineer! I have no
idea what to do based on this article.
I eventually installed the OS on the computer again
although I did not want to over write the data.
I have been able to salvage the data. I would now like to
get the system up and running again preferrably without
having to reinstall all the applications.
I have tried copying the file from the new WINNT/system32/
to the old WINNT/system32/ folder but it did not work. It
has been suggested that the SP4 "ntoskrnl.exe" is diferent
from the old one OR that I will have to rewrite
the "boot.ini"
Well now I am really lost. Can you help? One step at a time
Thank you
Michael
The machine is a Sony PCG XG29 it has 13gig 526 RAM and
should be running Windows 2000

Dell Precision 410, 512 RAM, 27Gb, Win2K Pro, SP4(on CD)
A search reveals c:\WINNT\system32\NTOSKRNL.EXE and
c:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386\NTOSKRNL.EXE. Both are
of identical size.

I find that everthing works best when I install SP4 immediately
after a fresh install of Win2K and before any needed apps or
drivers. No problems here (see also my reply to David : "Live
Update and worms").

 

[Michael]

Allan
Thank you for the reply. However I am now more confused!
Are you saying that before downloading SP4 or any other SP
I should reload my operating system. This does not seem
very user friendly.
As I stated I am not an IT person and I just use my
machine as a tool to help me in my work. I folow the
update suggestions so that my machine is not vulnerable
and yet it might as well have been attacked by a virus!
Can you suggest what I should do next that does not
involve totally wiping out my disk.
Can I copy over the registry from the old winnt to the new
winnt? This should then allow me to use all the installed
software. Maybe that is not a good idea.
Michael

 

[Chuck]

Did you read:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;124550&Product=win2000
and/or
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;103673&Product=win2000

to see if it helps?

 

[Alan Illeman]

Allan
Thank you for the reply. However I am now more confused!
Are you saying that before downloading SP4 or any other SP
I should reload my operating system. This does not seem
very user friendly.

No, I meant _when_ you do a fresh install, do it that way.
But better to order the free SP4 CD.

As I stated I am not an IT person and I just use my
machine as a tool to help me in my work. I folow the
update suggestions so that my machine is not vulnerable
and yet it might as well have been attacked by a virus!

Why don't you have a firewall to protect you from viruses?
(my wife just told me that google has a virus!)

Can you suggest what I should do next that does not
involve totally wiping out my disk.

You could put the drive in another virus-free PC and just
read it as a data drive - enough to back up your data, if
you can't do backups in your current PC.

Can I copy over the registry from the old winnt to the new
winnt? This should then allow me to use all the installed
software. Maybe that is not a good idea.

All it would save, is your settings. You would still have to
install the applications.

Michael

I've been through something similiar to this, and lost all my
data. It's a learning process.

 

[Mercury]

Michael --

You should completely ignore what Alan has told you. Not only is it very
foolish, but it is also incorrect, as well as a big waste of time. It is
something akin to suggesting amputation to heal a broken arm! Alan
stubbornly persists in giving this useless advice to people here, despite
the fact that a quick examination will show it has helped no one on this
board. Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and Alan's advice
is typical of what you get from some large consumer computer companies'
telephone help lines when they don't want to be bothered to address the
underlying problem, that is they tell you -- reformat, reinstall the OS, and
then reinstall the software, which is likely to be a very painful and
unnecessary process, as well as causing you in certain cases to lose user
data. If you are a masochist, and have large amounts of time to waste; with
no guarantee that your time will be rewarded following his advice -- with no
guarantee that the problem will not reoccur -- otherwise read on:

The vast majority of people who have upgraded to SP4 have done a direct
install with no problem, otherwise you would the outrage cries of millions
of users, as they have upgraded, which obviously has not happened. Indeed
SP4 has proved to be very stable.

However, the few people who have had a problem generally find that they need
to get a driver for a specific hardware device, such as an IDE card, etc. I
have found in certain cases that was true for SP3 as well. If you follow
Alan's advice and wipe the disk and try to due a fresh install you are
likely to still have the same situation, since you haven't addressed the
underlying problem, most likely a hardware driver or a software conflict. I
would start by checking hardware drivers and software for updates to make
sure everything is up to date, and if no bringing the system up to date and
then try to reinstall SP4 again, which you are likely going to need for
security reasons in the future.

 

[Michael]

Thank you Chuck and Mercury
I have taken a look at the articles suggested and I am
convinced that I have to do something, however when I
read...
"Edit the Boot.ini file and change the partition number
for Windows. In most cases, you need to increase the
partition number by one. A typical Windows line in the
Boot.ini file looks similar to the following, where x is
the partition number and <ntdir> is the name of the folder
into which Windows is installed:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(x)\<ntdir>="Windows NT
Workstation Version 4.00"".....
I am totally confused!
As I have said I managed to get Win2K to load a second
WINNT so I am able to get the data that was not backed up.
However the number of apps and app upgrades means that I
am in for a long day. I have tried loading some software
but the installer finds the old app and cannot uninstall
it as it was not installed by the new WINNT!!
I did copy the ntoskrnl file to the old WINNT however it
did not allow me to boot.
Is it possible to copy the registry across to the new
system 32 file so that the new system thinks that it knows
about all the software!! Or would the registry have been
affected by the missing file/files?
Thanks for your help
Michael

 

[Mercury]

Michael --

If you have access to the official MS "Windows 2000 Professional Resource
Kit" book (an invaluable resource for these type of problems and for
troubleshooting), you might refer to Chapter 31, particularly the Disaster
Recovery section starting at page 1481, which provides a number of
strategies....

Assuming you used the Backup utility previously and it was done on a regular
basis a fully usable copy of all the registry hives, that may be copied,
will be found at the Regback directory to be found in your system root
directory under the Repair directory (see pages 809 and 1415 of the above
referenced book.)