hi team
after months of slowly increasing bloat and many BSOD crashes, i decided to re-install windows xp clean. So i formatted my second hd, inserted the windows dvd and opted for a clean install.

unfortunately after formatting 99% of my main hd, alas, my computer crashhes again and i'm back to my old friend the BSOD.

So I reboot.

Now all I get is an 'NTLDR is missing' error message. With the boot DVD in the drive.

I have fiddled with the BIOS and made sure that it's set to boot from the DVD drive. No joy.

The only progress i've made is to make a floppy boot disk, which it does detect, and gets me past the error. However once in i can't cd to any other drives than A: - which is weird, because when i start up primary and master slave drives all seem to be detected.

Anyway, some help would be massively appreciated. I'm afraid good karma'll be your only reward though!

Can you please post system specs please. Have you removed one stick of ram and treid it then? Are you able to post a screen shot of the BSOD erorr that you are experincing so that we can look into this for you.

This may help. Try it!

http://www.bestpricecomputers.ltd.u...ldr_missing.htm

hi guys thanks for the responses.
tripledex i'll have a go at your website suggestion first, and then if i'm still stick i'll post my specs and try to capture a BSOD (will post a screenshot if one happens again)
Cheers!

okay no joy with the website. Tried fdisk but got the 'bad command' error. Here are my specs as far as i know them!

amd athlon 2400
geforce fx 5200
1.5gig RAM

if anything else'd be helpful let me know and i'll try and find out....

Try removing one stick of ram and try it that way. Run sometest on the hard drive from the makers website also use Memtest 86 to test ram and see if that shows up any errors.

wizkid

Another thing to check is your graphics card....see if you can borrow another from a friend and see if XP will load then.

What motherbaord make/model do you have?

thanks very much for the help guys - i discovered the problem was in my BIOS I wasn't set to boot from my DVD drive (what confused me was that it was listed as a CD-ROM).

Have now re-installed XP and the computer performance is barely recognisable - it's amazing what you get used to as everything gradually grinds down to a halt!

Am now just checking I have all the latest drivers. My one final gripe is my mobo - it has integrated sound and I haven't yet installed the proper driver for it so at the moment no audio device is installed. it's a Microstar M-6382.

Am at work at the moment but I think I've found the right driver: http://www.bios-drivers.com/drivers/149/149557.htm
Just need to get home and work out how to install it - will I need to mess with my BIOS again?

no u shouldnt need to touch BIOS if its been seen my XP it means its already activated on the board.

Just install drivers and you should be set

sweet. Can't wait to get back home to my super-efficient machine now - thanks again for all your help.