Missing Ntoskrnl And Can't Fix With Repair Option?

[PaCiNoLiFe]

Yesterday I recieved a frantic call from my father-in-law that his computer crashed really bad and could no longer boot up. He stated that the screen halted at the error listed below the 10 times he tried to reboot while praying for mercy from the computer gods.

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.

<windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

This is usually a simple fix by inserting the windows xp professional cd and using the repair option. Unfortunately this didn't work at all for me. Totally fustrated I sat and pondered why it wasn't working and came up with the conclusion that it had to be the cd. The cd has service pack 1 included and I remembered he updated his computer to service pack 2 when it came out. So I created a new windows xp cd with service pack 2 slipstreamed and then ran the same repair and voila!!! the computer was up and running in no time. I can only imagine the poor souls that lost evrything because they thought there was no other way than blow away and reinstall. There are some other helpful tips to combat this pesky error located at the following site. Good Luck =) NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt