Inspiron will not boot

Question

I have an Inspiron 6400 with WinXP Home. (I removed Vista when I bought it last year.) My computer will not start. I get the message: 'Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: Widows_root\System32\Ntoskrnl.exe Please re-install a copy of the above file. ' Here is what I did: 1) Boot from the system CD (plus SP2). 2) Press 'R' to get the recovery console. 3) But the recovery console does not launch. Instead I get the C: prompt 4) At the C: prompt, I type 'dir' to verify that the 'windows' directory exists. The C: drive is not my normal C: drive 5) Type 'cd windows' I get the message 'access denied' When I try to start in Safe mode, I get the same message that Ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt. When I use a bootable BartPE CD this shows my C: drive as MEDIADIRECT So I think my boot.ini file is corrupted. Here it is: --------------------------------------------------- [boot loader] timeout=0 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS='Microsoft Windows XP Embedded' /fastdetect /KERNEL=NTOSBOOT.EXE /maxmem=768 -------------------------------------------------- I don't know what 'XP Embedded' is. Here is the boot.ini file from my previous Dell Inspiron 1100 with WinXP Home (the same OS CD as I use for the 6400): -------------------------------------------------- [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS='Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition' /fastdetect /NoExecute=optout -------------------------------------------------- When I use the bootable BartPE CD with the old 1100, it shows the correct C: drive. Any advice? Maybe some kind reader with an Inspiron 6400 could post the contents of their boot.ini file BTW: Last actions before the last good shutdown were: 1) Run Secunia to identify files that are not up to date from a security point of view. (Secunia is a read-only passive program.) 2) As a result, I updated Flash, Adobe Reader, MS XML, and Windows Update.

Davet50 · Answer

try doing a Windows Repair by following These Instructions.

Windows General

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