Unable to load any XP after restoring NTOSKRNL.EXE & NTFS.SYS

[jimbo385]

Hi, MEGA help required.

I now have a very serious problem after just receiving bugchecks with various drivers etc.

After receiving repeated bug checks pointing to ntoskrnl.exe, I followed some instructions that I got from the net to restore this file from my original Windows XP cd via the Expand option to "Windows\system32" directory.

After doing this and re-booting, I got a message stating that a message stating that the ntfs.sys file was either missing or corrupt.

I chose to do the same with this file by copying it from the CD to the "Windows\system32\drivers" directory.

Now, I am left with a system that will not load into Windows. Every time I boot up, I get the "Safe-Mode" Selection screen. All options that I choose, gives the same results; I get the Windows logo, the system re-boots.

As you can imagine, I am now getting a bit desperate! I really do not want to trash and re-build my C:drive because it is a real pain loading up all the drivers etc. Only having a couple of hours per week, it could a few weeks to get back on track. Besides, the missus will kill me if she looses all her email contacts

[LLXX]

Your hard drive might be dying.

[Tarun]

Have you tried doing a Repair Install of Windows?

[jimbo385]

Thanks for the 2 replies.

I hope that it is not the hard drive! If it is, then I will have to try and recover some of the details from it. Is there a way of retrieving Outlook information directly from the drive? If I install the disk into a USB case, I should be able to get at the data and hive off what I need.

With regards to a repair install, I will give that a try. I presume that when I go through the install process that it will ask if I wish to repair.

Thanks.

[LLXX]

Better to make an image of the drive with e.g. Norton Ghost onto another drive, since a failing hard drive can fail completely at any time.

[Kamus]

You can use software like Easy Recovery for extract your files before your hard disk die.

When this happen to me I conect other hard disk for to make a backup of my files.

Hurry, no one know when things like this happen.

[jimbo385]

Thanks for the replies.

As I can not boot the drive, is there a way that I can get the MS Outlook data off? This data would be Contacts, calendar & emails.

If I can, then I will extract the data I need onto my laptop via USB and then re-format the drive. I will still probably use it as an external storage device for non-critical data.

Cheers.

[LLXX]

Remove it and connect to another computer.

[Takeshi]

I've been following your various crashdump threads.

This won't help or comfort you in any way, but I am perplexed (to say the least) that all the crashdump, bugchecks didn't give a hint that it's an impending HD failure. Just makes me question their usefulness...

[jimbo385]

To tell the truth, if the first reply I had just told me that I had a Hard Drive failure, I would not have believed it. The drive is the newest (only about 2 years old) that I have and is an SATA drive. I have much older drives which are IDE! This is my first SATA drive and so far, I am not impressed!

Admittedly, my machine is switched on 24/7 and apart from the odd re-boot now and then, has behaved itself. Until recently!

I presume that there is no real way of knowing for sure but I will replace the drive and fingers crossed, all will be fine.

Now though, I am wondering if it is going to be wise to choose another SATA unit or go back to trusted old IDE.

I wonder if it is worth starting a new thread on IDE vs SATA? I know which is meant to be faster etc, but which is more reliable? Food for thought. Actually, I think that I will!

Jimbo

[LLXX]

You could also check the cabling, SATA is much more vulnerable to EMI than IDE because of the higher frequencies and less shielding.