More Computer Troubles

[Caleb]

As some of you mayknow by now im a bit metally ret=arded when it comes to computer maintenance etc.

Earlier today on my pc in my room i was running the program "pc cleaner".

It has a menu with lots of tasks you can perform etc so i was going through a few of them , i then deleted all duplicate files and it told me to restart after so i did.

Upon turning my pc back on it came up with the message "Windows couldnt start because the file is missing or corrupt.

<windows root>\system 32\ntoskrnl.exe.

Please reinstall a copy of the above file."

So i tried booting from my xp disc and fixing the problem, however it set up a new xp aswell as my existing one and the new one has a password on my username which i do not know.

It then says please contact the adminasrator for further assistance :turned: etc

iv tried fixing it in dos mode? i think where it takes you thropugh some complicated fields and asks for the adminastartor password which i could not think of so pressed enter when it was blank and took me onto the next line.

This involved me typing a command after "windows\. IO tried some then typed help for all the commands to come up, i tried a few of the more obvious ones but no luck.

Im guessing barely anyone will understand this as i barely even do and i have access to all the processes on the actual pc lol.

But if you have any ideas apart from formatting then please go ahead as i dont have a clue.

I wont be able to reply till like 4 tomorrow so please just post away and give me something to get back to.

If nothing succeeds looks like ill be ringing the pc shop (Y) .

Cheers people :P

[thegoofeedude]

Sounds pretty bad man. If windows can start up far enough so that you can save everything that is important to you, then back up all your stuff, and reformat. Trying to find exactly what files that program deleted can be tricky, and after installing another copy of Windows on top of your old one, you should just reformat and try again.

Best of luck :">

[Mike Deere]

Sounds like you've installed two instances of one operating system.

I take it when you boot up it gives a little menu where you can choose two options of Win XP?

Well, it's quite simple, first of all determine which is the new one that you don't want, and delete it from your hard drive WHILST you are booted as per usual in the OTHER instance of XP.

Then, find the file C:/boot.ini where there should be a line something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Except in your case there will be two instances, one indicating for each partition that you have XP installed. The one pointing to the one you just deleted, delete that line.

For example: If you had XP installed on C: to start off with and when you re-installed XP was loaded to D: drive, you'd delete the WINDOWS folder on drive D, then delete the relevant line from boot.ini

If that makes sense.

[Tomm]

For what it's worth, I don't think you should run "PC Cleaner" again :turned:

[JTM]

Its been said before.and ill say it again, format!

[excaliborg]

Its been said before.and ill say it again, format!

←

Wise words.

Though i recently had a similar problem where XP would report a missing file on boot, and the XP CD would also give an error. The cause of this was 1 bad ram stick!

[Caleb]

so is there anyway i could back it up before i reformat it?

I cant get onto xp at all.

On the new one i set up it has my username and the guests with passwords on that i dont know :ermm: .

I have all my coursework and music and vids on here and dont want to loose them :lol: .

If i cant back the files up how do i reformat?

[Tomm]

Put the HDD in another computer, copy everything off.

Use DOS and copy everything elsewhere (Y)

Use a bootable linux distro (Knoppix) and just run that off the CD and backup in that.

etc