It all started today when my laptop started pausing sometimes between loading apps...i figured i just needed a reboot...ntoskrnl.exe could not be found. I tried doing a 2000 repair to no avail (i had no repair disk). Chkdsk was able to get to 40% then say there were unrecoverable errors. Next i rebooted and now it says a disk error occurred press ctrl+alt+del. It recognizes the disk in the bios but I can't run chkdsk at all. First off, is this a windows or hardware issue? Can I get my data back is all I really care about. And would a repair disk for win 2k do me good now? It was working fun up until then...what is ntoskrnl.exe?

forgot to mention..hard disk is partioned, drive c: is the bad one....drive d: i can copy to and access from dos. However, when i try to install win2000 on that partition, nothing happens, it reads it as drive c: Is it possible to delete my fat32 D: partition and create a new one, install win 2k without hurting the data on C:?

Might want to download the drives diagnostics and run them. Otherwise... The ship is sinking. Get your data off asap. Replace the drive.

The HDD OK try to backup your data from c:somehow there are programs that give your access to NTFS even in DOS mode. Then boot from win2K cd choose instal win 2000 /remember not repai/ the windows will check your hardware and will let you know taht you have win2k installed from here you have several options choose repair now the windows setup will load fresh sys files for win2k without even touch your apps and docs. be carefull not to choose format and install you will lose your data Good luck.

Thanks for the advice...i tried downloading the drive diagnostics onto a floppy but they wouldnt copy correctly....i was able to get all my data off using active recovery professional...best program ive ever bought...ill try doing the win2k install now just for the heck of it to see if it works now that i have my data.