NTLDR is Missing Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.

[You can call me Bob]

This is an error message that I am receiving when I
restart my PC. I have a boot disk and have been able to
boot to the OS. I found KB article 320397, which appears
to be on point. This is especially so given that NTLDR is
where it is supposed to be. However, the fact that I did
not add any files to the root of the system partition (led
alone a lot) makes me wonder if there is something more
that I should look for. In addition, the event log has not
had any interesting (out of the ordinary) entries in a
time that would lead me to look at that event as having
caused my problem.

The KB previously mentioned above indicated that there was
a resolution through contacting MPSS and using the
Bcupdate2 utility. Has anyone done this or have any
experience with it, not to mention weather or not anyone
has additional information on point to my issue.

Thanks,
T2

 

[Matthew Mucker [MSFT]]

T2,

First, go to disk administrator and ensure the partition with ntldr on it is
the active partition. That's the most likely cause of this problem.

-Matt

 

[John Doue]

T2,

First, go to disk administrator and ensure the partition with ntldr on it is
the active partition. That's the most likely cause of this problem.

-Matt

Did you change anything in your disk structure before this happened? I
suggest you boot from your boot disk and open boot.ini (unprotect and
unhide it if you cannot see it).

You will see lines looking like this :

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="WINDOWS 2000" /fastdetect

What works for me is to add (or substract if adding does not work) 1 to
the number in brackets after partition (two instances). Here I would try
3 or 1.

Of course, my approach assumes that some change in the disk structure
might have cause the OS to get confused. If you are positive the disk
structure has not changed and if my solution works for you, try to find
out what might have cause the unwarranted change. Moving and restoring
partitions has been, in my case, almost always the reason of such problems.

John Doue

 

[Matthew Mucker [MSFT]]

John,

While you're correct in what you say, ntldr loads boot.ini.... so if ntldr
can't load, no amount of editing boot.ini will fix the problem.

Ntldr is loaded by the partition bootsector, which is loaded by the MBR
based on which partition is marked active.

Mark the wrong partition active and you get this error. (I've often wondered
why we have a "mark partition active" menu item in disk administrator. I've
always joked we should call it "render system unbootable" to warn folks
off.)

-Matt

T2,

First, go to disk administrator and ensure the partition with ntldr on it is
the active partition. That's the most likely cause of this problem.

-Matt

Did you change anything in your disk structure before this happened? I
suggest you boot from your boot disk and open boot.ini (unprotect and
unhide it if you cannot see it).

You will see lines looking like this :

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="WINDOWS 2000" /fastdetect

What works for me is to add (or substract if adding does not work) 1 to
the number in brackets after partition (two instances). Here I would try
3 or 1.

Of course, my approach assumes that some change in the disk structure
might have cause the OS to get confused. If you are positive the disk
structure has not changed and if my solution works for you, try to find
out what might have cause the unwarranted change. Moving and restoring
partitions has been, in my case, almost always the reason of such problems.

John Doue

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Bob - or T2.

This is a FAQ here. A short search should turn up several discussions -
including the most likely answers.

See this KB article:
Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because the
C:\windows\system32\config\system File is Missing or Corrupt
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823614

(This one is specifically for WinXP, but it should work for Win2K, too.)

Watch out for the typo in instruction #5. If MS hasn't corrected it, three
lines are shown as one. It should say:

CD C:\Windows\System32\Config
REN system system.old
COPY C:\Windows\Repair\system

RC

 

[You can call me BOB]

Howdy Fellas

Thanks for the replies.

Thought I would add...

I am cured my PC is fixed!

***my system partition was not marked active***

(( that is the big question as to how that happened ))

I know better than to just up and do that...but I
diligently looked (also I did not check that to begin with
because I had not been remotely touching anything to do
with that) and it turned out that my data partition was
marked as active.

I appreciate the attention and attentiveness; ya'll have a
great weekend! Go COLTS!!!

T2