<windowsroot>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe

[twood50785]

Hi there,

I turned on my laptop (a DELL LATITUDE D600) today and the following message appeared:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windowsroot>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Please re-install a copy of the above file

If I press any key, it just restarts with the Dell opening, then goes straight back to the message. When the Dell menu is there (for about 2 seconds), the only options are F2=Setup, or F12=Boot Menu.

When I press F12, it says: Preparing 1 time boot..., then these options appear:

Internal HDD
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Cardbus NIC
Onboard NIC
Diagnostics

I do apologise, as I know this problem has come up on here before. But I'm really not very good with computers and couldn't make head nor tail of it. Do I need to reboot? If so, which of the options should I choose? What happens when I do reboot?

I read somewhere that it might have something to do with my keyboard, but the keyboard has always worked fine, so Im guessing it's the hard drive?

Like I said, I know this problem has popped up here before, but I really REALLY would appreaciate some help from somebody! (please!)

Also, I'm pretty sure that I don't have any of the discs that came with the laptop, or the Windows discs either. Is that a big problem?

PS: does anyone have an idea how this whole thing might have happened? Is it a known bug? Or has my laptop been damaged physically?

Thanks so much in advance.

[twood50785]

I'd also like to add that (as far as I know) I didn't add or remove any programs from my laptop. This message just popped up entirely randomly!