hard drive

[IANUK]

hi , my nephews tiny pc has failed he tried the recovery disk but always it said boot failure, I tried reformating the hd with fdisk but same result no fixed drive even though it was recognised in cmos , I put an old hd i formated c: & tried to load windows it got to nearly the end when a message krnl386.exe file missing , I also tried the recovery disk the same message appeared right at the end where it was trying to load drivers for p&p . The original hd could be bad but the old one seemed ok till the missing file appeared , any help would be welcome , I will be awat sat all day but will check sunday .

ps athlon 900
win me
256 mb ram

[ski]

What is the EXACT text of the error message?

[IANUK]

sorry im a bit vague but new to this the pc on boot up now only says now preparing to start your new pc ( pres cnt alt del ) I do this it repeats the message , the original message said ( can not find missing file krnl386.exe ) I can start it up in safe mode from start up disk .

IANUK

[Budfred]

Installs of WinME often seem to require multiple cold boots and sometimes need to run in safe mode. If you can get into Safe Modem, you may be able to get the krnl386 problem fixed. Try this link for more info:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q70467&

Budfred

[IANUK]

cheers mate will try that but am away all day will try in morning let you know .

ps the full message was .

while initializing device shell
cannot find or load file krnl386.exe
the file was not found

SYSTEM HALTED


Thanks to all who may help

IANUK

[Sylvander]

Hello Ianuk

You may have a [boot sector?] virus.

Go to another clean PC and download AVG [free edition] from:

http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_downl.htm?session=45a5f420a479834333dcec564d437 f10#FREE

Scan your "Startup Disk" files and boot sector on this clean PC.
Make an AVG "REscue Disk" and use it to scan your own PC's HDD Partition Sector & Boot Sector in particular, but also the files.
It can clean up the files but unfortunately, if one is found in the Partition or Boot Sectors you need to have previously taken a backup of these to restore them. I don't know if it's possible to fix them other ways.
Read AVG's help files.

PARTITION SECTOR
Holds the Partition Table, Master Boot Record & BootStrap Program.
A virus can alter these.

BOOT SECTOR
Contains info about the logical drives & a short program which loads the operating system.
Diskettes don't have a Partition Sector, they only have a Boot Sector.

FILE ALLOCATION TABLE [FAT]
Keeps info on the location of files, an ideal area for a virus to damage, data would be lost [like file krnl386.exe?].

CMOS
[Where the BIOS (hardware) configuration settings are stored by the BIOS setup program]
Viruses can overwrite it's contents.

Viruses can replace the Partition Sector & Boot Sector Program Code and be activated at every startup [attempt to boot from the C: drive]. "NonSystem Disk" & "Disk Error" etc would be displayed upon infection.

[IANUK]

tried the various suggestions even tried a different hd in the same pc it reports the same fault krnl386.exe not found , I will try both hd's on the other pc , any more help much welcome.

IANUK

[Budfred]

Since you formatted anyway, it may be worthwhile to just zero out the HD and try a reinstall after that. The maker of the HD should have a utility in the software you have or on their web site to allow this type of format. You need to make sure that you have a startup disk before you do this because there wouldn't be anything left on the HD to use for booting afterwards. Also, make sure your startup disk has CD support.

Budfred

[Paul Komski]

Try this from your boot floppy:-

fdisk c: /MBR (this will clean your hardisk Master Boot Record)

Then after rebooting and formatting c: copy the WinME files from the Install Disk to the HDD using your boot floppy:-

cd c: (to move to the c drive)
md winme (to make a new directory for the files)
copy x:\y c:\winme (where x=CDROM DriveLetter and y=name of the directory on the CDROM, where the cab files are located)

Reboot again and navigate to the winme directory you have created that contains the copied files and type and enter setup

This should run the setup from the HDD and should be both faster and more reliable than doing it from the CDROM; also if you need to use the installation in the future, windows will look there rather than prompting you for the CDROM. If, at a later date you need the disk space then just delete your created winme folder.

[sleddog]

Originally posted by Paul Komski
Try this from your boot floppy:-

fdisk c: /MBR (this will clean your hardisk Master Boot Record)


But first be absolutely sure the floppy disk isn't also virus-infected, or you'll be wasting your time ....

PS. I think it's just fdisk /mbr

PPS. Don't ever do this on an functioning NT/2000/XP system. I'm sure you know that Paul (and I know the original posting is talking about ME), but I thought I throw it in as a general warning.

[Paul Komski]

Good one sleddog. Grrrrr :mad: missing the exact syntax can drive a man to drink!

Didn't think trying-out anything in this situation could do much harm - but your general points are good ones.

HERE (http://www.cknow.com/vtutor/vtfdiskmbr.htm) is quite a nice "tutorial" on why using mbr is not an antivirus tool! ;)

[IANUK]

:) Thank all you have been brilliant , tried most all the suggestions , the one from Budfred done the trick , I went to the Fudgi web page where there was diagnostic progs , the hd had loads of errors & bad sectors the fix worked a treat & I was able to format & load winme . I Did try a defrag previous through a start up disk but it would not toch it , anyway cheers for now .


IANUK :D