NTLDR not found

I need some input here. I'm not sure if this software is
actually the cause of my problem; I may have some sort of
boot level virus, but since installing this Beta software
is one of the things I did before everything crashed, I
thought I'd suggest the possibility.

I am currently running Windows XP professional. I
installed this beta anti-spyware software for the first
time about three weeks ago. At the time I had no XP
service packs installed. It installed fine, and everything
worked, through several cold boots and restarts, until
about 4 days later. I turned my computer on, and received
an error "Cannot find NTLDR, please press ctrl-alt-del to
restart your system." I started a recovery console and
confirmed that the NTLDR was present, and then I replaced
it and the other key boot files (NTDETECT.COM, boot.ini)
to no avail. Eventually, I was forced to reinstall XP.
Everything was running with no problems for another week
or so. This time I installed Service Pack 2, and ran with
that for another few days. I decided to try running the
Anti-spyware program again. Like the first time, after
about 3 or 4 days, I went to turn the computer on, and
received the same error. This time, along with the other
things I had tried before, I also made a boot disk with
the boot files on it. This causes the computer to pass the
NTLDR error, but it still will not load the OS. It gives
me an error, saying the HAL.DLL in %system root%\system32
is corrupt. Of course, I tried replacing this file, but it
does not fix the problem.

I am aware of the possibility of my having some boot level
virus that was saved into my backup, and was reinstalled
when I restored before, but I find the fact that I had
used this beta software both times a bit suspicious. I was
just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem,
and if so, if there is any way to correct it without doing
a full reinstallation of XP again. Thank you.

How old is the hard disk? It sounds like a drive problem.

JohnF.


"Mike" <citanuleht@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:096401c534ea$007a8bf0$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>I need some input here. I'm not sure if this software is
> actually the cause of my problem; I may have some sort of
> boot level virus, but since installing this Beta software
> is one of the things I did before everything crashed, I
> thought I'd suggest the possibility.
>
> I am currently running Windows XP professional. I
> installed this beta anti-spyware software for the first
> time about three weeks ago. At the time I had no XP
> service packs installed. It installed fine, and everything
> worked, through several cold boots and restarts, until
> about 4 days later. I turned my computer on, and received
> an error "Cannot find NTLDR, please press ctrl-alt-del to
> restart your system." I started a recovery console and
> confirmed that the NTLDR was present, and then I replaced
> it and the other key boot files (NTDETECT.COM, boot.ini)
> to no avail. Eventually, I was forced to reinstall XP.
> Everything was running with no problems for another week
> or so. This time I installed Service Pack 2, and ran with
> that for another few days. I decided to try running the
> Anti-spyware program again. Like the first time, after
> about 3 or 4 days, I went to turn the computer on, and
> received the same error. This time, along with the other
> things I had tried before, I also made a boot disk with
> the boot files on it. This causes the computer to pass the
> NTLDR error, but it still will not load the OS. It gives
> me an error, saying the HAL.DLL in %system root%\system32
> is corrupt. Of course, I tried replacing this file, but it
> does not fix the problem.
>
> I am aware of the possibility of my having some boot level
> virus that was saved into my backup, and was reinstalled
> when I restored before, but I find the fact that I had
> used this beta software both times a bit suspicious. I was
> just wondering if anyone else has had a similar problem,
> and if so, if there is any way to correct it without doing
> a full reinstallation of XP again. Thank you.