NTLDR is missing from Win98 HD

[Guest]

I know this is not a Win98 forum. I am posting here because NTLDR is an XP
system file and participants in this forum are most likely to know about it.

I have clean installed Win98 on to a reformatted HD, which had been playing
up in an XP box (SeaTools reported file system error in NTFS sector, and
chkdsk failed to fix it). The install went fine including 3 or 4 reboots.
Everything was working fine. Then to double check that everything is OK, I
powered down the machine waited 10 seconds and powered it up. And I got the
message NTLDR is missing!

Questions: Why is a Win98 box looking for NTLDR, and how do I tell it not to?

PS It is a Seagate 10MB HD. SeaTools reports the drive as being OK. The
box I am using is a Compaq Deskpro EN P866. SeaTools reports system
components as OK.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I know this is not a Win98 forum. I am posting here because NTLDR is an XP
system file and participants in this forum are most likely to know about it.

I have clean installed Win98 on to a reformatted HD, which had been playing
up in an XP box (SeaTools reported file system error in NTFS sector, and
chkdsk failed to fix it). The install went fine including 3 or 4 reboots.
Everything was working fine. Then to double check that everything is OK, I
powered down the machine waited 10 seconds and powered it up. And I got the
message NTLDR is missing!

Questions: Why is a Win98 box looking for NTLDR, and how do I tell it not to?

PS It is a Seagate 10MB HD. SeaTools reports the drive as being OK. The
box I am using is a Compaq Deskpro EN P866. SeaTools reports system
components as OK.

Remove the floppy disk from your disk drive!

 

[dave xnet]

I know this is not a Win98 forum. I am posting here because NTLDR is an XP
system file and participants in this forum are most likely to know about it.

I have clean installed Win98 on to a reformatted HD, which had been playing
up in an XP box (SeaTools reported file system error in NTFS sector, and
chkdsk failed to fix it). The install went fine including 3 or 4 reboots.
Everything was working fine. Then to double check that everything is OK, I
powered down the machine waited 10 seconds and powered it up. And I got the
message NTLDR is missing!

Questions: Why is a Win98 box looking for NTLDR, and how do I tell it not to?

PS It is a Seagate 10MB HD. SeaTools reports the drive as being OK. The
box I am using is a Compaq Deskpro EN P866. SeaTools reports system
components as OK.

The partition is not NTFS is it? It shouldn't be, of course.
Did you delete the existing partition and allow the installation of 98
to allocate and format a new partition.

If the partition looks OK, I'd try fdisk /mbr after booting the
windows 98 boot disk. If it's not working,
I'd use fdisk to delete all partitions and then reinstall
windows 98. Make sure you have a backup, all data
will be deleted.

Dave

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The partition is not NTFS is it? It shouldn't be, of course.
Did you delete the existing partition and allow the installation of 98
to allocate and format a new partition.

If the partition looks OK, I'd try fdisk /mbr after booting the
windows 98 boot disk. If it's not working,
I'd use fdisk to delete all partitions and then reinstall
windows 98. Make sure you have a backup, all data
will be deleted.

Dave

If Win98 ran before then there is absolutely no need to
re-install it!

 

[John]

I know this is not a Win98 forum. I am posting here because NTLDR is an XP
system file and participants in this forum are most likely to know about it.

I have clean installed Win98 on to a reformatted HD, which had been playing
up in an XP box (SeaTools reported file system error in NTFS sector, and
chkdsk failed to fix it). The install went fine including 3 or 4 reboots.
Everything was working fine. Then to double check that everything is OK, I
powered down the machine waited 10 seconds and powered it up. And I got the
message NTLDR is missing!

Questions: Why is a Win98 box looking for NTLDR, and how do I tell it not to?

PS It is a Seagate 10MB HD. SeaTools reports the drive as being OK. The
box I am using is a Compaq Deskpro EN P866. SeaTools reports system
components as OK.

????

What does 'playing up to in an XP box' mean? Sorry I have no idea what
you are asking. As you mentioned NTDLR has no use in W98. If your comp
is looking for NTDLR then you evidently did at least a partial install
of an NT operating system because the MBR code is looking for NT and not
finding it.

John

 

[Guest]

Sorry for the late reply. That was exactly the right answer, and I have
rated your reply as answering my question.

The floppy must have been in there for weeks, but because I had been running
diagnostics from a CD I hadn’t noticed. In the olden days the boot order
used to be floppy CD HD, but for some reason in this BIOS it was CD, floppy
HD. So during diagnostics and even during the Win98 install everything was
fine. But of course as soon as the CD was removed the floppy came in to
play. I had completely forgotten it was in there, and the drive is very
quiet.

Thanks again for your very quick and accurate response.