Vista - Boot Manager Failed to load - ntoskrnl.exe

Boot Manager Failed to load - ntoskrnl.exe

Heh all... brand new to the forums but have been here for the past two days trying everything I can find to try and get my Vista Ultimate machine working again

Unfortunately... no luck soo far

I shut the computer off the other night before work, came home in the morning and rebooted... and upon loading got a black screen "Windows Boot Manager" coming up asking/telling me to "Repair" the computer.

File: \Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Status: 0xc000098
Info: Windows failed to load because the kernal is missing, or corrupt

I installed my vista disc and went through the repair... nada. I then tried a restore... nada... and now am at a loss.

Is there a way to copy the file via the Command Prompt to the Vista drive from the dvd? Is it that simple (ha... I know... it never is)?

Thanks for any direction you can give me on this... next up is a new Hard Drive so I can try and save my important files and mail... but that will not be here for a week or so (joys of living in a small town).

Hello Medic583, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Other than a clean reinstall, you might try a Repair (upgrade) install to see if it can fix Vista for you.

Repair Install For Vista

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Brink... actually tried that already (loved the tutorial by the way)... but didn't work.

I guess that leaves me installing vista on a new Hard Drive and salvaging the files from the corrupt drive

Is it possible once booted into a new drive to copy and replace the missing file? How about running a linux live cd and copying and replacing the file that way?

You might be able to that, but I have not tried it myself though with the Linux CD. I hope it works for you.

Well... copied the file over from the Vista DVD.. rebooted... now an error due to a dll file missing. Copied that file over, rebooted... back to the ntoskrnl.exe corrupted again.

Running ubuntu via CD right now backing the whole drive up to an external drive so I can salvage the files by pickin' and choosing the ones needed.

The only other thing I was wondering... what happens if one copied the whole system32 folder from the vista dvd to the hard drive? Would that totally corrupt the drive installation (it's buggered anyway )? And what would cause the ntoskrnl.exe file to go back to 0 bytes right away on rebooting? Virus maybe, or just Vista being Vista?

Thanks for anyhelp again

I'm not sure Medic, but it's looking more and more like a clean reinstall will be coming soon.

Hi,

It might be worth havinq a look at the suggestion by Ripbox in the previous thread titled "PROBLEM IN INSTALLATION" . Seems the keyboard can cause these kind of problems.

Problem in installation!

SIW2

Heh all

Well... had my Linux buddy show up the other night with his ubuntu Live CD... and we tried everything we could think of. I haven't touched DOS since high school when a high res screen came in green only ... so he copied/pasted from the Vista command prompt that we could get to... nothing would take (on reboot yet another file would corrupt). Tried the repair thing multiple times (vista said it knew there was a problem but couldn't do anything about it), tried restoring it, copied several files that were mentioned various times on the net... kept working at it for a few hours again... nada... but sure was thankful for someone that new DOS (change directories/copy/paste... jeez.... guess I should've taken more computer courses in the 80's).

So.... we backed everything up to my external hard drive again via the live disk (pretty easy to use... like an old simple version of windows) and I had to wipe the boot drive clean and start from scratch.

I did install Vista over the old copy at first... ya... not such a good idea... wasted an hour or so on that... formatted and did from scratch... and... still installing the progies

So... several days later... I'm able to pull all my outlook mail from the copy of the old installation, pulled my Opera bookmarks... and a few other things... and now have to continue reinstalling the progies.

Lessons learned...

• Instead of just backing up folders/files once in awhile to my external drive... bought a progie (ViseVersa Pro) that does it simply for me... automatically... when I specify.
• Should learn how to back up/make a mirror image weekly... and figure out how to boot from a week old copy?
• Keep a copy of the Ubuntu Live CD handy... it is AMAZING... (and no... still not a linux user... but definately a fan of those CD's now).
• Keep Windows XP Pro running on my main graphics machine.

Thanks for all the help on this... truly appreciate it... but wow... second time this has happened (the first was the ntldr file missing/corrupt a couple of months ago... even changed hard drives since... ) and had to wipe the drive clean to get Vista to work again

Your welcome Medic,

Thank you for posting back your results. I'm not sure what is causing this to happen for you, but I hope it does not happen again for you.

Since you have Vista Ultimate you can do a Complete PC Backup that is basically a clone of your hard drive that you can restore Vista completely back to that date in cases like this. These tutorials will show you how to if needed.

Backup Complete Computer

and

Restore Complete Computer

Thanks Brink... I'll do some more reading tomorrow on this (love the tutorials) and give the clone option a shot (lots of storage space... just haven't tried cloning yet).

Yea... I was ready to chuck vista at first and go back to XP... but SP1 solved a lot of the connection issues I was having... this is the first time since the update it's corrupted on me... and still no idea why (using AVG and scanning every few hours, tried spysweeper... nothing found, tried two different hard drives, etc...).

Anyhow... back to work... but thanks for the links and the tutorials .