windows install Q

Alright i just formatted a harddrive and re-installed windows XP. Upon loading i get a message saying <Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe file is missing and that i need to re-install the file. How can i re-install a single file? Will re-installing the OS help any? Im attempting to reinstall right now so hopefully it fixes the problem

If you boot from the XP CD, one of the options once it detects your existing Windows installation is to do a "Repair" (NOT the Recovery Console earlier in the installation process). A "repair" will reinstall all the original files over the top of whatever is there, and should fix your problem.

If you haven't started customising Windows and installing applications, I suggest reinstalling Windows on a 20483mb partition, and use the rest of the drive for data.

Another thing that I've seen cause that error is a corrupt boot record or master boot record. When you boot into the cd choose the recovery console and when it comes up type in fixboot and fixmbr then restart and try the install again. If it still persists then try loading on a different drive as there might be a bad sector on that drive causing the errors.

alright i get to the recovery console and it wont let me do the fixboot. I ran chkdsk and it came back with "The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems" So im guessing the hard drive is bad?

Well update on this and my other thread about my laptops harddrive. I went a bought a 120 gb hd for my harddrive when it shit out on me. Yesterday dell finally called me back(24-48 hours later? more like 9 days) Well he said even though my laptop was out of warranty they would send out a one time replacement hard drive. Since i alreayd bought one for mine i put the replacement from dell in my aunts laptop and bam it works. Got windows installed fine and her laptop now works.

moral...if you have dell and something break...just complain until they send a replacement out..or refuse to buy from them