Missing ntldr

[Guest]

Trying to follow the article on booting from a CD and copying the two
recommended files (ntldr and ntdetect) from the CD I was limited by the fact
that my Windows CD is a Toshiba reinstall only. It want's to format and
reinstall everything, which is sometimes fine, but not what I want to do if
not necessary.

I took the drive out and put it in a USB case connected to another Toshiba
running the same version of windows and tried copying the two files from the
working Toshiba to the second drive, but it still does not boot. Still says
it can't find the ntldr file.

The only difference in the files in the root directory is the non-booting
one does not have a pagefile.

What is the next step?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Trying to follow the article on booting from a CD and copying the two
recommended files (ntldr and ntdetect) from the CD I was limited by the
fact
that my Windows CD is a Toshiba reinstall only. It want's to format and
reinstall everything, which is sometimes fine, but not what I want to do
if
not necessary.

I took the drive out and put it in a USB case connected to another Toshiba
running the same version of windows and tried copying the two files from
the
working Toshiba to the second drive, but it still does not boot. Still
says
it can't find the ntldr file.

The only difference in the files in the root directory is the non-booting
one does not have a pagefile.

What is the next step?

- What is the recent history of this machine?
- Is the system partition marked "active"?

 

[John John]

Trying to follow the article on booting from a CD and copying the two
recommended files (ntldr and ntdetect) from the CD I was limited by the fact
that my Windows CD is a Toshiba reinstall only. It want's to format and
reinstall everything, which is sometimes fine, but not what I want to do if
not necessary.

I took the drive out and put it in a USB case connected to another Toshiba
running the same version of windows and tried copying the two files from the
working Toshiba to the second drive, but it still does not boot. Still says
it can't find the ntldr file.

The only difference in the files in the root directory is the non-booting
one does not have a pagefile.

What is the next step?

Assuming that you have verified in the BIOS to make sure that you are
booting to the proper drive or device and that the disk is not corrupt,
other possibilities are that on a multi partition disk the active flag
has been remove from the System partition or that the boot sector is
damaged.

If the laptop has a floppy drive the easiest thing to try now is to boot
with a boot floppy, see here for information on how to create one:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/ If the laptop has no floppy drive
try here: http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm.

If you can boot with the startup boot disk use the Disk Management tool
and check the active status of the partition containing the boot.ini,
ntldr and ntdetect.com files, it should be showing as the System
partition. You can also use a W98 startup disk and use fdisk to verify
the active status of the partitions.

If the active flags is OK then repair the boot sector by booting to the
Recovery Console and issuing the FIXBOOT command on the system partition.

John

 

[Guest]

System was completely formated and reinstalled 2 months ago from original
Toshiba recovery CD. just one partition, one operating system (XP home).
Satelite A75-S213.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Fine. Did you ever manage to boot it since you rebuilt it?
If yes, what's happened to it around the last successful boot?

 

[Guest]

ADDITIONAL UPDATE
I just took the battery out for a while and rebooted after booting it back
in. Now It no longer asks for the file, but goes to the screen for Safe
Mode, Safe mode with networking, normal, etc. No matter what I select it
tries to boot and returns to that screen.

 

[Guest]

After reinstalling everything it worked fine for a couple of months, then one
day decided it was missing the ntldr file. I don't know what the last
actions are on it, as it is my accountant's personal notebook, not mine.

It does not have a floppy drive, and I have reset the bios to boot from the
hard drive.

 

[Guest]

No floppy, no "regular" windows CD, never successfully burned an ISO image,
nor want to.

 

[John John]

Then your repair options may be be slim to nil! It's like trying to
change a flat without a jack and wheel wrench!

The only option may be to invoke the restore feature from the service
partition. Make sure that the user's files and data are backed up
before you proceed.

John