Win NT kernel file missing

[I_am_hopeless]

Okay, I am desperate and I need help (what else is new?). I have this older computer running on Windows NT. Now, it won't boot anymore, telling me a Kernel file is missing and I should insert a system diskette. Problem: the computer is an old one they wanted to get rid of at an office. So there's NO system disk whatsoever. Any way to get the thing running??? I would put Win 98 on it anyway.
Can you tell I have no idea about computers? So, help!!! Please?

[Theoran]

Win NT kernel file missing tells me that your workstation
needs to be rebuilt and since you are going to install Windows 98
on it anywway, then I see no reason to worry about this error
message. Below are for step-by-step tutorials that should walk
you through these up coming procedures.


How to Delete Partition (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/36)
How to Create Partition (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/37)
How to Format Partition (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/38)
How to Install Windows 98 (http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/tutorials/tutorial.php/id/39)

Reply if you have any problems.

[I_am_hopeless]

Thank you sooo much! Actually, that's what I figured. :) So I deleted the old partition, made a new partition and now I'm stuck, because the friggin' thing refuses to format. It just goes up to warning me that all data on the formatted drive will be lost and just goes back to prompt when I hit "yes" Any ideas?

Thanks!
Sandra

[GretaP]

First, boot from your WIN98 startup floppy disk (or whichever startup floppy disk you're using) and invoke FDISK at the A: prompt, saying Y to Large Disk Support. When you get to the FDISK Options menu, choose 4 to Display partition information, and post here what it states under the column headings (Partition, Status, Type, Volume Label, Mbytes, System and Usage).

[I_am_hopeless]

Okay, this is what it tells me:

Partition C: 1
Status A
Typ PRI DOS
Volume Label (says nothing, cause I didn't name it)

Mbytes 2051
System UNKNOWN
Usage 100%

I have absolutely NO idea about all this.... :(


Sandra

[GretaP]

I don't do Volume Labels, either, it's not necessary.

It sounds like your partition is set up correctly for WIN98, if the hard drive size is 2G

Are you using a WIN98 startup floppy disk to boot to the A: prompt?

Perhaps try doing the format without the /s switch, if you had used that (I noticed that it states to use the /s switch in the tutorial), so when you boot to the A: prompt, your command should look like this:
format C:
and press ENTER

[I_am_hopeless]

I am using the Win98 startup disk which I made on a different computer.

leaving out the /s still does the same thing. It asks me whether I want to really format and when I type y and press ENTER, it just goes back to the A: prompt.....

[GretaP]

I've never run into a similar problem, I_am_hopeless, where the drive cannot be formatted and no error message is given.

All I can think of to try, off the top, is to create another bootdisk, from a different source, and see if that will work (perhaps there is a problem with format.com on the disk you're using). You can d/load the file to create one from here (http://bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm) . Click on the link for Windows 98 SE OEM, and d/load it to hard drive (do NOT d/load it directly to floppy, as this does NOT create the startup disk). Once the file is d/loaded, put a formatted floppy in the drive, and then double-click on the d/loaded file in order to create the startup disk. Now, boot from it and see if you can successfully format the drive.

[Theoran]

This is a little Gateway utility that I have used on many of the
computers I have worked on.

This utility will attempt to read a hard drive, write zeros to it, and
measure seek times and data transfer rates. It also will repair
certain issues with Gateway IDE hard drives. This should be used
on all IDE hard drives that are larger than 10 gig. If the IDE hard
drive is 10 gig or smaller, please use gwscan 3.15

Go here (http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?now=1&id=19282) to download it.

P.S. Don't let the fact that it says Gateway freak you out. It will
work on all computers.

If you need help, just ask. :)

[I_am_hopeless]

Looks like the culprit was the startup disk. I used the one downloaded from bootdisk.com and now it worked. Thank you guys for all your help. :thumb:
...Now I'll attempt to install Win98. Wish me luck! ;)