Hi,

Last night my NT server rebooted due to a power outage, and when I tried to restart it I got the following error:

Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<winnt root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

So how can I reinstall that file without having to reinstall the entire OS and losing everything? Can I boot into DOS somehow or something to just replace this one file?

Thanks alot.

You can boot off the NT4 CD and do a repair of the system files and select yes for the corrupt file. Then when it boots up ok, reapply the NT4 service pack.

Otherwise you need to get hold of ERD Commander from
http://www.winternals.com/products/index.asp

Try what peterh suggested, but don't force things. When it comes to power outtages and "corrupt" files, you are sometimes looking at hard disk failure. Trying to access the disk too many times will make it fail worse (if this is an indication of a disk failure.) If you have another hard drive and can use Norton's Ghost, make an image of the failing drive. If the image is completed, you can make the imaged drive the master and try to boot from it. If it works, you are on your way. You can reformat the failing drive and Ghost it if you want. There is no guarantee as to its dependibility however. If Ghost fails, then the failing hard drive is truly failing, back up your data and get ready for a long install.

(This is 2000 Pro that this happened so i hope irs not of the topic.)

I had this happen to a laptop yesterday at one of my schools, what i did was copied NTOSKRNL.exe from another system and then booted the corrupt system up with the XP CD, once in the recovery console i removed the XP disk and placed the disk with the new file in the rom, (could not use a floppy because the file 1.66MB) i copied that file to \\[system]\system32 then restarted. Booted up fine.

3 hours later it crashed and a new hard drive is on its way, however, igot the data i needed to backup of it.

I hope this helps in some way.

Jonno