SCSI boot of PXI-8108

[sesef]

I have a PXI-8196 booting from an external SCSI drive via a PXI-8214 with no problems (Win XP SP2).  I recently upgraded to a PXI-8108 and the first time I tried to boot from the SCSI, it said the operating system was 'not activated', then locked the keyboard/mouse.  During the second boot, this boot error occured: "ntoskrnl.exe is missing".  I booted from the OEM internal disk and copied this file to the SCSI disk.  Now when booting from the SCSI, it locks up during the process, even safe mode.  When booting from the OEM internal disk, the SCSI works fine.

How can I boot from SCSI? 

 Many other PCs I have contain an option to 'repair' Windows, but apparently the OEM Windows CDs have no such feature.

Thanks

[Eric_K]

sesef,

Unfortunately I am not familiar with the ntoskrnl.exe is missing error.  For that I would have to direct you to Microsoft.  However, there does seem to be some good information at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477.

Eric K

Applications Engineering

National Instruments

[Josh_KNH]

Hello sesef,

Booting from a SCSI drive should not be a problem on the PXI-8108, but I think that you will find it difficult to use the exact same image from your PXI-8196.   In general, it can be difficult to take an installed Windows XP image from one system and move it to a different system that does not have the exact same hardware.

Also, in regards to the file ntoskrnl.exe, it may be that the version you copied from the internal disk is older or newer than the version which is expected by the OS on the SCSI disk.  Depending on the service pack and number of Windows hotfixes installed, that file is probably different between the two OS images you have unless you have a way to guarantee that the two OS images are exactly the same.

In your situation, you should consider whether it is less work to fight with getting the original Windows XP image working on new hardware, or just doing a fresh installation of Windows onto the SCSI drive and setting up any additional software you are using again.

Also, a final note: If you do decide to reinstall the OS on the SCSI drive while it is attached to the PXI-8108, please remove the internal drive temporarily to ensure that the OS installation tools will only be able to install onto the SCSI drive.

Regards,

Joshua H

Software Engineer

National Instruments