How-To Geek

Hi guys. I'm trying to re install Windows on my friends laptop after he DBANed it, deleting his restore partition (!), and he hadn't made any restore disks (!!). The COA sticker says Windows Vista Home Premium so I figured I'd just use my disk to reinstall and use his licence to activate. However, during install after the first reboot I get the black "Windows Boot Manager" screen with the following message
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.

File: \Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe

Status: 0xc0000221

Info: Windows failed to load because kernel is missing or corrupt."

I've tried startup repair to no avail and I was able to boot from an Ubuntu live CD to verify the presence of this file and it is definitely there. I've also tried a few different DVDs and also a Windows 7 RC disk, but I get the same issue each time.

Searching the net hasn't turned up anything conclusive, but it's starting to look like this might be a firmware issue. Some threads I've looked at suggest a faulty motherboard can throw up this particular error.

I'd appreciate your thoughts my fellow geeks!

P.S. Forgot to mention, I've installed under both AHCI & compatibility mode but still no good.

Thanks for the reply lvct. I tried your suggestion but as I suspected the recovery partition is gone. I wish it could be as simple as that! Did you actually manage to install from a retail disk?

I'm starting to think the onboard storage controller needs a driver pre install, so simply can't address the HDD properly, although it's odd that the initial installation seems to finish successfully. (at least until the first restart) Still, finding out the make/model to acquire said driver/s is tough when you can't even boot :s

EDIT: I've just installed ubuntu and it runs without issue so it would seem to be a driver issue, right?

I've managed to get my hands on some restore disks for this model from another friend and I was able to successfully restore from them but the laptop still isn't working! It will just POST then show "Windows is loading files" then restart.

I've tested the HDD in it's current state on another computer in AHCI mode and it works fine.
And I've tested the HDD from my own laptop (Which has Win7 AHCI installed) in the Toshiba, but it produces exactly the same problem.

I don't think the laptop is faulty. It runs Ubuntu OK. I think the storage controller isn't compatible with Vista/win7's AHCI driver. Yet it won't run anything under "Compatibility Mode." I can't find anything pertaining to this driver on Toshiba UK's website. I'm going to check their global site now to see if it's there but I'm losing faith quickly.

Well folks, I finally discovered the problem...
After much begging and groveling I managed to borrow my other friends Toshiba L300 and swapped the HDDs. Both Worked on the borrowed laptop, and neither on the suspected faulty one, so that pretty much confirms *The laptop is fried!* :)

I have no idea why it would run Ubuntu or how it got damaged in the first place, but it doesn't matter now anyway I suppose (I just wish I hadn't spent half my weekend on it). Is it possible using DBAN could somehow cause damage to the motherboard? If anyone can enlighten me I'd be grateful!

suejh welcome. Please could you start a New Topic with your problem.