Dimension 8400 OS repair CD

Thanks Jesse, I'll try later this afternoon and post again with my success or...........................

Smithe

smithe,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

The XP cd has a Repair option. Boot to the disk and you should have an option to repair windows on one of the screens.

I had a very similar problem (ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt). I tried to repair with reinstallation CD, but it fails saying that it can not find a hard drive. I know the hard drive is there. The BIOS says its there. I even tried a new hard drive and got the same message. Now what should I try to do?

Did you attempt to load the SATA driver during the installation? You need a floppy disc and you need to load R82876 to it. 

"Custom Instructions for R82876.exe: At the beginning of the operating system setup, press F6 to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver. 1. When prompted, select 'S' to Specify Additional Device. 2. When prompted, insert the floppy disk you created in step 2 and press Enter. 3. At this point you should be presented with a selection for one of the following depending on you hardware version and configuration: - Intel(R) 82801FR SATA RAID Controller - Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller 4. Highlight the selection that is appropriate for the hardware in your system and press Enter. 5. Press Enter again to continue. Leave the floppy disk in the system until the next reboot as the software will need to be copied from the floppy disk again when setup is copying files."

You need to insert the floppy disc and press F6 at this screen, you need to be fast at pressing F6, this screen goes by quickly. For more information in installing Windows follow my wiki A Clean Install of Windows XP. Copying your CD on another computer and using nlite to bring it up to Service Pack 3 may also help, see my wiki make an XP Service Pack 3 Installation CD. 

The reinstallation CD loaded a bunch of drivers. My PC doesn't have a floppy drive, so I don't have a way to install additional drivers.

Try copying your CD on another computer and using nlite to bring it up to Service Pack 3 then burn a new CD see my wiki make an XP Service Pack 3 Installation CD. 

Thank you very much for the tip, but I got impatient. In my searches I found the magic keystrokes to restore the HDD image from the hidden drive sector.

Thanks again for the help.