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Unable to run laptop.

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by fraiha Jul 27, 2006 last reply Jul 31, 2006

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I've got a laptop that had Windows 2000 on it. I hooked up a USB external hard drive that had Windows 98 on it to delete some things from it. Now when I start my laptop it asks which operating system, default being Windows 2000. So i click that and it says that a file is missing. Alright, there's nothing on it anyways and I was going to install XP anyways. So I boot from CD with the Windows XP disc in it and it asks which operating system to chose from, I click 2000 and same error. (Clicking the other one just freezes it, as 98 has never been installed nor anyother OS). I don't care whatver is on the laptop is lost just as long as I can get this thing running again. Thanks for any help!

12 replies

by w2ktechman Jul 27, 2006

That sounds a bit frustrating. A few things to try
Remove the USB drive, power off for 30 seconds, power on. What happens?
Is there a file named in the error other than a missing file?
Have you tried booting with the win2k cd?

by fraiha Jul 27, 2006

No CD seems to work including the Windows 2000 disc. The USB has been unhooked (I don't have the hard drive anymore for that matter, just the external case). The error that Windows produces is \System32\ntoskrnl.exe . Really, if I could scrape the drive that would be great, would a boot disc do the trick to get this thing running? Thanks for your reply!

by fraiha Jul 27, 2006

Point value changed by question poster.

by zlitocook Jul 27, 2006

If you want to do a fresh install and have Your XP cd, go into the Bios and set it to boot from cd first. It sounds like it is going in to the hard drive first because it is asking which O/S to boot from. If it was booting from the cd it would start loading alot of drivers.
If you want to keep W2K on it you will need that cd and you can try a repair to see if you can fix the missing or corrupt file. Or if You have the restore cd you can do a clean install.

by fraiha Jul 27, 2006

I tried that. Two ways, one my laptop before hand gives the option (something along the lines of press ESC to boot from so and so). I then checked the Bios and it to is a CD. This is really what's bugging me as I should be able to simply run from the disc, reformat, and be good.

by wescrock Jul 28, 2006

Is it the NTFS Boot loader or something like that? I have seen it before as well... It?s a file that went missing OR... I think the same error comes when there is an incompatibility issue when 2 different devices are hooked up where both contain OS'. Have you tried booting to 2000 and THEN connecting the USB hard driver...? That would prevent the boot loader from even recognizing win 98. Also, try installing XP (set the bios to boot from CD or load the boot device list and choose the CD drive.) after setting up XP you may be able to view what is on the win98 HDD. One final suggestion would be to take out the laptop HDD and boot the computer via USB to just the win98 hdd and put any files on a usb flash drive and then do whatever to the hdd... just a few possibilities.
Good luck

by fraiha Jul 28, 2006

I believe it has something to do with the Boot Loader, as I too have seen it before. It's certainly possible I may have messed things up figuring the 98 boot.ini (which had XP partially installed, and hence the time I saw this) but actually editing the 2000 boot.ini (though I can imagine it was probably more complicated than that if I did indeed mess it up as I would've noticed the Windows 2000 in the loader). I can't really take the hard drive out, I know nothing about laptops to do so (although that may be the only resolution). Booting from CD dosn't work, otherwise I'd just reformat the thing. I also don't have the Windows 98 hard drive anymore (although I can't imagine hooking up the USB and booting from 2000 would work as 2000 stops the second I choose it as the OS). What about boot discs? Would any of these be a possible solution? Thanks for your suggestions!

by wescrock Jul 28, 2006

If you go http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/ntoskrnl/

you will notice that the file is criticle... a boot disk should work because boot disks contain all the necessary files to boot... Im not too familiar with win2000 but yeah... it should work... Is it now allowing you to boot to a win XP disk? if it isnt, i sujest just scrubing the hard drive (create a bootable floopy with Killdisk on it) just google kill disk... there is a free version i believe.