Recipe 20.8. Fixing NTOSKRNL Errors

Problem

You receive the "NTOSKRNL Missing or Corrupt" error message at startup.

Solution

1. Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.

2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key.

3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair. Typically this will be number 1.

4. Change to the drive that has the CD-ROM and cd into the \i386 directory.

5. Type the following command into the command shell:

   expand ntkrnlmp.ex_%SystemRoot%\System32\ntoskrnl.exe

   
   

6. Take out the CD-ROM and type exit at the command prompt, then press the Enter key to restart the PC normally.

Discussion

NTOSKRNL is the heart of the operating system, running as a privileged process with direct access to system data and hardware. With direct awareness of the system hardware, NTOSKRNL extracts information from the Registry to know which device drivers to load and in what order. A virus, boot.ini, or a file system corruption may have made the NTOSKRNL.EXE file unusable. NTOSKRNL gets device information to pass on to the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) driver so the core operating system can function. Replacing the file is an easy sure cure.

See Also

Tips for correcting this problem and related issues are available at http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000646.htm.