windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missin g or corrupt: <windows 2000 root>/system32/ntoskrnl.exe

[Graeme Vetterlein]

I've just spent around a week getting to grips with a rather nastily RedHat
8.0 install
problem. I'm sending this to 'grub' because I suspect they have the
expertise to bottom it out, I don't
think it's a grub problem but I'm hoping you can explain the root cause to
RedHat.


I've actually seen the problem reported on RedHat 8.0, 9.0 (and I think 7.x)
various comments but
no real root cause or solution. The symptom (for those grepping the net) is:


"windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt: <windows 2000 root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe"

Now I need to explain I'm in a somewhat unusual situation WRT debugging
this. My company originally
had 8 identical machines installed with W2K. Over the years most have been
made into dual boot W2K/RedHat X.Y 
with little or no problems. 2nd point I'm paranoid (put it down to
experience) so before starting this
work I 'cloned' the disk:

        dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

That's everything, fdisk table the lot..  Nett effect I've been able to
'reset' and retry this install
many times (don't you just love that).

BTW: the mechanism used to create the 8 machines is now lost in the "mists
of time", but might explain
why slot 03 is being used (or may not:-) ... anyhow it's not caused any of
the other RH installs any problems.


Try 1, simple install of RH 8.0 let the disk druid sort it out don't mess
with any of the settings 
reboot Linux is fine, W2K ... BANG the 'missing ntoskrnl problem'. 


address@hidden: (so now we're looking at BEFORE)


Norton gdisk (win98 ) shows:

        ID      parent  slot    sys     type            start   end
offset  sectors
        00      --              03      07      ntfs/hpfs       63
36258703        63              36258642


However ob c:\boot.ini we have:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect

That partition(1) looks odd ... what does that mean WRT the slot=03 from
gdisk ... this is the
only partition ... is it called 3 or 1 ?

back to the trashed disk (so now we're looking at after):

(gdisk is noted down by hand ... some data may be missing ...)

        ID      parent  slot    sys     type            start   end
offset  sectors
        00      --              03      07      ntfs/hpfs       63
36258703        63              36258642
        01      --              00      83      linux
        02      --              1       83      
        03      --              2       0F      extended
        04      03              0       82      linux swap

So the NTFS os still slot 03 but now we have slots 0,1 and 2 also ... how is
W2K reacting?

Trying the W2K install CD , recovery option , console gives a 'sort of'
shell (can't edit files!!!)
and on that shell the 'map' command shows C: => partition(3) ... curious ...
trying the:

        
        recovery option , automatic recovery (yes with a recovery floppy!)
... says "disk is corrupt ..can't fix it"

OK reset the disk: (DD of=/dev/sda ...) and re-do the RedHat install ...
this time use fdisk to set the filesystems
up by hand ... taking care not to 'move' (how?) the NTFS ... reboot and ...
BANG the 'missing ntoskrnl problem'.
Very little seems to have changed. Boot into linux, go to fdisk ... spot the
X pert mode, try that, spot the
"fix partition order" ... try that ... nothing to loose. 

reboot. Linux boots fine, W2K gets 'root noverify(hd0,3) chainloader +1 ...
I don't recognise this ... does
not contain the M$ string ... humm ... seems to be a 'grub' message (ahh at
last I hear you say:-) Looks like it's
trying to boot a non bootable partition. Try changing this to (hd0,0) (the
ID ins above listing) ... hangs
eventually set grub.conf to:


address@hidden grub]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, e.g..
#          root (hd0,4)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-14)
        root (hd0,4)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-14 ro root=LABEL=/
        initrd /initrd-2.4.18-14.img
title W2K-2
        rootnoverify (hd0,2)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1
title W2K-0
        rootnoverify (hd0,0)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1
title W2K-1
        rootnoverify (hd0,1)
        makeactive
        chainloader +1





Guess what the (hd0,1) boots the W2K system just fine and dandy ...

So what's going one???

The original W2K has boot.ini set to:

        ..... partition(1)...

Which seems to work OK, until the RedHat install places some more
'partitions' on the disk when
it starts to get the wrong partition. The 'fix partition order' just happens
to get the 'right number'
(in my case) it moves it to the slot that happens to be the one W2K is
'expecting' ... I guess if the
boot.ini had said ..... partition(2)... I'd have been lost ... no way to get
it into partition #2
and no way to edit boot.ini.

However once it was in the 'right place' I guessed at the wrong value for
the grub.ini I guessed:

        (hd0,2)  ---> /dev/sd2 The SD number?? or
        (hd0,0)  ---> the first partition, hence zero
But the right answer is:
        (hd0,1)


So. All in all a severe bout of confusion about what a 'partition number
is'. I'm rather hoping a 'grub'
developer can explain:

        What the two (three) numbers ... position, slot No, Minor number
mean and how they relate.
        What on earth W2K is up to guessing at partition(1) (why not 3?) and
why did it change it's
        mind after more partitions appeared?

I realise this is a bit of an epic but I can see lots of folks struggling
(like me) understand this
and it looks very like whoever is doing the RedHat installer is missing at
least one of the tricks.


FYI: Here's the fdisk output AFTER the fix....






address@hidden grub]# fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 4427.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
   (e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 4427 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda2   *         1      2257  18129321    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3          2258      2662   3253162+   5  Extended
/dev/sda4          2663      4427  14177362+  83  Linux
/dev/sda5          2258      2411   1236973+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6          2412      2662   2016126   82  Linux swap

Command (m for help): x

Expert command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 4427 cylinders

Nr AF  Hd Sec  Cyl  Hd Sec  Cyl    Start     Size ID
 1 00   0   0    0   0   0    0        0        0 00
 2 80   1   1    0 254  63 1023       63 36258642 07
 3 00   0   1 1023 254  63 1023 36258705  6506325 05
 4 00 254  63 1023 254  63 1023 42765030 28354725 83
 5 00 254  63 1023 254  63 1023       63  2473947 83
 6 00 254  63 1023 254  63 1023       63  4032252 82

Expert command (m for help): d
Device: /dev/sda
0x000: EB 48 90 D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C
0x010: BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BE BE 07 B1 04
0x020: 38 2C 7C 09 75 15 83 C6 10 E2 F5 CD 18 8B 14 8B
0x030: EE 83 C6 10 49 74 16 38 2C 74 F6 BE 10 07 03 02
0x040: 80 00 00 80 40 53 31 02 00 08 FA EA 50 7C 00 00
0x050: 31 C0 8E D8 8E D0 BC 00 20 FB A0 40 7C 3C FF 74
0x060: 02 88 C2 52 BE 76 7D E8 34 01 F6 C2 80 74 54 B4
0x070: 41 BB AA 55 CD 13 5A 52 72 49 81 FB 55 AA 75 43
0x080: A0 41 7C 84 C0 75 05 83 E1 01 74 37 66 8B 4C 10
0x090: BE 05 7C C6 44 FF 01 66 8B 1E 44 7C C7 04 10 00
0x0A0: C7 44 02 01 00 66 89 5C 08 C7 44 06 00 70 66 31
0x0B0: C0 89 44 04 66 89 44 0C B4 42 CD 13 72 05 BB 00
0x0C0: 70 EB 7D B4 08 CD 13 73 0A F6 C2 80 0F 84 F3 00
0x0D0: E9 8D 00 BE 05 7C C6 44 FF 00 66 31 C0 88 F0 40
0x0E0: 66 89 44 04 31 D2 88 CA C1 E2 02 88 E8 88 F4 40
0x0F0: 89 44 08 31 C0 88 D0 C0 E8 02 66 89 04 66 A1 44
0x100: 7C 66 31 D2 66 F7 34 88 54 0A 66 31 D2 66 F7 74
0x110: 04 88 54 0B 89 44 0C 3B 44 08 7D 3C 8A 54 0D C0
0x120: E2 06 8A 4C 0A FE C1 08 D1 8A 6C 0C 5A 8A 74 0B
0x130: BB 00 70 8E C3 31 DB B8 01 02 CD 13 72 2A 8C C3
0x140: 8E 06 48 7C 60 1E B9 00 01 8E DB 31 F6 31 FF FC
0x150: F3 A5 1F 61 FF 26 42 7C BE 7C 7D E8 40 00 EB 0E
0x160: BE 81 7D E8 38 00 EB 06 BE 8B 7D E8 30 00 BE 90
0x170: 7D E8 2A 00 EB FE 47 52 55 42 20 00 47 65 6F 6D
0x180: 00 48 61 72 64 20 44 69 73 6B 00 52 65 61 64 00
0x190: 20 45 72 72 6F 72 00 BB 01 00 B4 0E CD 10 AC 3C
0x1A0: 00 75 F4 C3 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 66 ED 66 ED 00 00 00 00
0x1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01
0x1D0: 01 00 07 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 52 43 29 02 00 00
0x1E0: C1 FF 05 FE FF FF 91 43 29 02 55 47 63 00 00 FE
0x1F0: FF FF 83 FE FF FF E6 8A 8C 02 A5 A8 B0 01 55 AA

0x000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FE
0x1C0: FF FF 83 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 DB BF 25 00 00 00
0x1D0: C1 FF 05 FE FF FF 1A C0 25 00 3B 87 3D 00 00 00
0x1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA

0x000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x090: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FE
0x1C0: FF FF 82 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 FC 86 3D 00 00 00
0x1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0x1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA


Expert command (m for help): q

address@hidden grub]# 
        




        







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