Hi there my computer was working fine a week ago with windows xp. Then it booted up one morning and said that a FILE called \system32\ntoskrnl.exe was missing and to reinstall the file.
I put a windows 98 startup disk in and the windows xp cd and i get 3 options. I select start command prompt with cd enabled but windows xp cannot be run from DOS mode.
I get the impression from other people on the net that when you start your PC with just the windows xp cd that you get a windows xp setup screen and YOUV got all kinds of options like recovery and stuff but I dont. It just goes straight to the error message (when I haven't got a 98 startup disk in), so clearly I need to FIX the error from DOS.

Please help anyone! :-Have you installed Linux before this?

You can download the file to make the XP 6 disk boot set
below link.There is ALSO a single bootdisk for XP setup at
the bottom of the page.I haven't tried that one.LOL

http://freepctech.com/pc/002/files010.shtml

A thought:Is your Bios set to boot from CD-Rom?
it's moi again and no it wasn't a linux installation prior to the current one. I'l try going into the bios to boot from cd if I can find it and let you know. Afterall that would be a heck of a lot easier than poncing AROUND with 20 year old command prompts.

Thanks for the post anyway.
Make sure the CD is given higher boot priority than the harddrive, put the cd in and restart.