Greetings all, newbie here. I decided the other day that I was unsatisfied with the logo shown while Windows is booting (I'm using XP SP2). I found on the internet that changing this logo could be done relatively easily. There are two ways to go about it, and one involves downloading software. I took the road less traveled, so to speak. And now Windows won't boot! Here's what I get in the middle of the boot sequence:

System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys missing or corrupted

The file I "adjusted" was \windows\system32\ntoskrnl.EXE, not the one listed. I did, however, make a backup of the original ntoskrnl file; I named it ntoskrnl.exe.bak. That way, if anything went wrong, I could easily rename the original back to .exe and replace the file I created. But now I can't get to the file to rename it! So, I thought about going through dos to do it. I made a dos boot disk to get there, but I couldn't get out of the A: directory, even with "CD". That was strange, but I don't understand dos that well. When I put in the command, it kept telling me it couldn't find the C: drive. By the way, it couldn't find D:, either. It's like dos was running off my floppy, and there's obviously no C: or D: drives there (please excuse me if that was an asinine statement; like I said, I don't understand dos that well!)

So, the question is how can I fix this? If I use my boot disk to get to dos, what do I have to do to get dos to recognize the other drives so I can rename the file? Is there something else I'm doing wrong? Is there an alternative way to make a boot disk in XP, such as going to the directory desired (\windows\system32\) and typing a command to make a boot disk with that directory as the root? The only problem with my boot disk (made by right-clicking A: > FORMAT > Make MS-DOS boot disk) is that I can't leave the A: directory.

Thanks for any help you can afford.
~Jonathanwinxp do not use dos much.......>>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822800That's correct, winxp doesn't use dos as the foundation for the kernel to load on (a real bummer, too). However, it does have dos support. I've heard that "Longhorn" will be doing away with all dos support, but I digress. A friend of mine told me I needed other files on the boot disk besides what is placed on there when making the disk. These files are the ones that allow dos to recognize the hard disk. Hence my problem. What commands do I need to copy to this disk to make it usable?

~JonathanPs: I don't have the XP cd! The computer I'm using came from the office, and our IT has that package. There's really no way I can know which package is the one istalled on my computer, and which corresponding registration code is mine.
That, and I really, really, really don't want to go to the IT guys and tell them what happened! I can just HEAR them gloating now...(shudder).

I only have to rename one file; if there's a modification I can make to my boot disk, that would be the preferred way to go.

Thanks, again, for all your help.
~JonathanHey, I think I might have a solution. I reformatted the boot disk and copied these files to it from this machine:

1. boot.ini
2. ntldr
3. ntdetect.com

I tried the disk on this computer and it booted to Windows with no problem. I'll keep you guys posted (fingers crossed)!

~JonathanOne diskette is not the answer. You wont initialize the NTFS table that way.

1) WWW.BOOTDISK.COM
2) Swap your PROBLEM hard drive into a second PC with Windows XP Pro as slave, you can then modify the files.
3) Look for Bootable CD's or Bootable USB stick for a linux kernel with NTFS support.
4) Look for Winternal or Sysinternals ERD commander Bootable CD.

Choose any of the above options. They dont have to done in that follow order...Yeah, it didn't work because those three files are in perfect condition on the machine. The file in question is called after the boot sequence (or rather, after the boot sequence is initialized). And the file is way too big to put on one floppy. I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and go to my IT guys for the cd

~Jonathanwhat is listed.......type dir...after the dos /cmd prompt...was this formated as a fat machine...A:\Well, no, it's an ntfs machine. What's happening at the dos prompt is I get an A: directory that's unchangable. I can "cd" all day long, but it's not going to recognize any other drives. I don't understand why that is. There are about eighteen files I put on the floppy to make the boot disk:

• io.sys
  
• msdos.sys
  
• command.com
  
• autoexecute.bat
  
• config.sys
  
• boot.ini
  
• NTLDR
  
• ntdetect.com
  
• display.sys
  
• ega.cpi
  
• ega2.cpi
  
• ega3.cpi
  
• keyboard.sys
  
• keybrd2.sys
  
• keybrd3.sys
  
• keybrd4.sys
  
• keyb.com
  
• mode.com