Monday, September 6, 2010

Use Disk Recovery Utility When a Damaged Boot.ini File is Disabling in XP

In the Windows NT and later systems, the boot.ini file is a very important file that is accessed when the system is booted. This file stores the critical information for the boot process such as the operating system that needs to be accessed, the active partition, and so on. If the file is damaged for some reason, then the system may not be able to start at all. There is an urgent need to repair the Boot.ini file for hard disk recovery failing which you must use a third-party disk recovery utility to recover hard disk.


Let us consider a scenario in which you are getting the following error message when you are booting your Windows XP system.

"Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
Winnt_root\System32\Ntoskrnl.exe
Please re-install a copy of the above file."


Cause:


There could be the following reasons responsible for this startup problem:

- There is hardware failure in the hard disk.
- The Ntoskrnl.exe file is corrupt, damaged, or missing.
- The partition path entry in the Boot.ini file is incorrectly set.
- In the Boot.ini file, the Default value in the [Boot Loader] section is not found or incorrectly set.
- Windows XP is installed at a location, which is not saved in the Boot.ini file.


Resolution:


To resolve this erroneous situation, you can perform either of the following methods:

- Edit Boot.ini file: You should edit the boot.ini file to modify the [operating system] section and other entries such as the Default entry.
- Use Bootcfg utility: You should use the Bootcfg utility to correct the boot.ini file in the Recovery Console.
- Use chkdsk utility: You should start the system in the Recovery
- Console and run the chkdsk tool with the following syntax:
CHKDSK /r


Use Windows XP Setup CD: To do this, you should perform the following steps:

- Boot the system with a boot Windows XP Setup CD.
- In the Recovery Console, press the 'R' key to repair the existing system files.
- In the Command Prompt, enter the following command and press the 'Enter' key:
- Expand :\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ :\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
- Press the 'Y' key if there is a prompt to overwrite the existing file.
- Type 'exit' to quit Recovery Console.


Restart the system.

If you are unable to start the system even after performing these methods, then you should resort to using a third-party disk recovery utility to recover hard disk. With the ability to recover all the data safely, such disk recovery tools possess highly interactive user interface that make the process very easy.


The best Hard Disk Recovery software that recovers data from exFAT, FAT, and NTFS file partitions is Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery. Capable of recovering data from various storage devices such as iPods, memory cards, hard disks, etc, this disk recovery utility is compatible with Windows 7, Vista, Server 2003, XP, and 2000.

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