"NTLDR IS MISSING" (Win XP-3)

[Barry Bruyea]

This morning when I booted my desktop computer the initial screen
displayed, disappeared an then a single line appeared on the screen,
"NTLDR Is missing." I rebooted the computer and the same thing
happened. I left it for about ten minutes, rebooted again and it was
OK. My Boot drive as a Maxtor 80gig SATA drive. Any ideas as to what
may have caused this? I have two other drives.

 

[David H. Lipman]

This morning when I booted my desktop computer the initial screen
displayed, disappeared an then a single line appeared on the screen,
"NTLDR Is missing." I rebooted the computer and the same thing
happened. I left it for about ten minutes, rebooted again and it was
OK. My Boot drive as a Maxtor 80gig SATA drive. Any ideas as to what
may have caused this? I have two other drives.

Open a command prompt and type; CHSKDSK /F

When it indicates it will do a Check Disk upon reboot agree and then reboot.

 

[Ken]

This morning when I booted my desktop computer the initial screen
displayed, disappeared an then a single line appeared on the screen,
"NTLDR Is missing." I rebooted the computer and the same thing
happened. I left it for about ten minutes, rebooted again and it was
OK. My Boot drive as a Maxtor 80gig SATA drive. Any ideas as to what
may have caused this? I have two other drives.

In addition to what David suggested, it could be a sign of a failing
HD. I would clone that drive to another ASAP.

 

[Ken Springer]

In addition to what David suggested, it could be a sign of a failing
HD. I would clone that drive to another ASAP.

+1 This is what happened to me a couple years ago.

Also, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318728 How to troubleshoot the
"NTLDR Is Missing" error message in Windows 2000

http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-support/94795.htm

There's a lot of web pages about this message.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 12.0
Thunderbird 12.0
LibreOffice 3.5.2.2

 

[Peter Foldes]

This morning when I booted my desktop computer the initial screen
displayed, disappeared an then a single line appeared on the screen,
"NTLDR Is missing." I rebooted the computer and the same thing
happened. I left it for about ten minutes, rebooted again and it was
OK. My Boot drive as a Maxtor 80gig SATA drive. Any ideas as to what
may have caused this? I have two other drives

Barry

Aside from all the answers so far read the following

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

JS

 

[VanguardLH]

Open a command prompt and type; CHSKDSK /F

When it indicates it will do a Check Disk upon reboot agree and then reboot.

Wouldn't "chkdsk /r" be a better choice?

 

[VanguardLH]

This morning when I booted my desktop computer the initial screen
displayed, disappeared an then a single line appeared on the screen,
"NTLDR Is missing." I rebooted the computer and the same thing
happened. I left it for about ten minutes, rebooted again and it was
OK. My Boot drive as a Maxtor 80gig SATA drive. Any ideas as to what
may have caused this? I have two other drives.

So does "my boot drive" mean you have more than one boot source (i.e.,
other drives usable as a boot device)?

How long since you replaced, if ever, the CMOS battery? "This morning
when I booted" makes it sound like the computer was powered off during
the night and then you did a power on cycle to boot the computer. That
means the battery was inuse during the night. "Left it for about ten
minutes" sounds like you then left it powered for 10 minutes and retried
with a warm boot.

If the CMOS battery is over 3 years old, replace it.

 

[Barry Bruyea]

Thanks for all the advice. I took the side panel off and reset all of
the cables and it booted great, yesterday. It didn't boot again this
morning and I did the SATA cable thingy again and it booted fine. I'm
going to replace the cable today to see if that helps.

 

[David H. Lipman]

Thanks for all the advice. I took the side panel off and reset all of
the cables and it booted great, yesterday. It didn't boot again this
morning and I did the SATA cable thingy again and it booted fine. I'm
going to replace the cable today to see if that helps.

The cable is a Red Herring. The fact that NTLDR isn't loading periodically is a logical
issue not a physical issue. Otherwise you would have received a message indicating that
the OS wasn't available to boot from. It isn't seeing a dile not that it isn't seeing the
hard disk at all or the OS.

The chances are you have a disk issue concerning the file structure or something like
that. The first course of action is the "CHKDSK /F" I wrote earlier. The second would be
to run the manufacturer's hard disk dioagnostics.

Western Digital - WD Diagnostics
SeaGate - SeaTools
IBM/Hitachi - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)

 

[Paul]

The cable is a Red Herring. The fact that NTLDR isn't loading periodically is a logical
issue not a physical issue. Otherwise you would have received a message indicating that
the OS wasn't available to boot from. It isn't seeing a dile not that it isn't seeing the
hard disk at all or the OS.

The chances are you have a disk issue concerning the file structure or something like
that. The first course of action is the "CHKDSK /F" I wrote earlier. The second would be
to run the manufacturer's hard disk dioagnostics.

Western Digital - WD Diagnostics
SeaGate - SeaTools
IBM/Hitachi - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)

Dave, be aware that first-generation SATA cables, have no retention
feature. Back when they first came out, SATA cables were falling off.
To stop that, sometimes another cable can help. Don't dismiss the
cable issue that easily.

To give another example, you can actually pull the entire SATA
connector right off the motherboard Some were so cheaply made,
they won't stay put, and will rip right off. But to the user, that
causes a more obvious issue than the "loose cable" thing.

As you say, that probably isn't Barry's issue, but there can be
storage problems caused by the loose cable thing. The cables I
have here, aren't the greatest, but they have a "compression"
or dimple feature, that applies compressive force, so the cable
doesn't fall off quite like the first-gen ones did.

You can also get connectors and cables, with matching metal
retention features, which are a much better design. I don't have
any of those. (And that's not ESATA either, that's for inside
the computer. For some of the retention schemes, the two
ends have to be designed to match, for the retention to
work well.)

It's too bad the SATA committee did such a poor job on their first
try. There wouldn't have been nearly as much variation in cable
design, if their first design was the right design.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

Dave, be aware that first-generation SATA cables, have no retention
feature. Back when they first came out, SATA cables were falling off.
To stop that, sometimes another cable can help. Don't dismiss the
cable issue that easily.

To give another example, you can actually pull the entire SATA
connector right off the motherboard Some were so cheaply made,
they won't stay put, and will rip right off. But to the user, that
causes a more obvious issue than the "loose cable" thing.

As you say, that probably isn't Barry's issue, but there can be
storage problems caused by the loose cable thing. The cables I
have here, aren't the greatest, but they have a "compression"
or dimple feature, that applies compressive force, so the cable
doesn't fall off quite like the first-gen ones did.

You can also get connectors and cables, with matching metal
retention features, which are a much better design. I don't have
any of those. (And that's not ESATA either, that's for inside
the computer. For some of the retention schemes, the two
ends have to be designed to match, for the retention to
work well.)

It's too bad the SATA committee did such a poor job on their first
try. There wouldn't have been nearly as much variation in cable
design, if their first design was the right design.

I never had a problem with the lack of retention clips, but I was
disappointed that the designers only spec'd the SATA connector for 50
insertions. I have test systems where I've far exceeded that number by
now, so I'm probably on borrowed time.

As for the discussion above, I agree with Dave. If it was a bad SATA
connection it wouldn't consistently stop at the 'missing NTLDR' step.

 

[glee]

I never had a problem with the lack of retention clips, but I was
disappointed that the designers only spec'd the SATA connector for 50
insertions. I have test systems where I've far exceeded that number by
now, so I'm probably on borrowed time.

As for the discussion above, I agree with Dave. If it was a bad SATA
connection it wouldn't consistently stop at the 'missing NTLDR' step.

Exactly... on both counts.

 

[Barry Bruyea]

Dave, be aware that first-generation SATA cables, have no retention
feature. Back when they first came out, SATA cables were falling off.
To stop that, sometimes another cable can help. Don't dismiss the
cable issue that easily.

To give another example, you can actually pull the entire SATA
connector right off the motherboard Some were so cheaply made,
they won't stay put, and will rip right off. But to the user, that
causes a more obvious issue than the "loose cable" thing.

As you say, that probably isn't Barry's issue, but there can be
storage problems caused by the loose cable thing. The cables I
have here, aren't the greatest, but they have a "compression"
or dimple feature, that applies compressive force, so the cable
doesn't fall off quite like the first-gen ones did.

You can also get connectors and cables, with matching metal
retention features, which are a much better design. I don't have
any of those. (And that's not ESATA either, that's for inside
the computer. For some of the retention schemes, the two
ends have to be designed to match, for the retention to
work well.)

It's too bad the SATA committee did such a poor job on their first
try. There wouldn't have been nearly as much variation in cable
design, if their first design was the right design.

Paul

You may have something here. I bought a new cable yesterday and
installed it, but this morning the computer didn't finish booting and
went to CHKDSK, ran through the process and rebooted. After the
complete reboot and restarted the computer and it stopped dead. I
went in, pulled the cable, reset it and the computer booted OK. I'm
not sure where to go at this point. Can the socket for the SATA cable
be pulled out? And be replaced by a new (better) connector and cable?

 

[glee]

You may have something here. I bought a new cable yesterday and
installed it, but this morning the computer didn't finish booting and
went to CHKDSK, ran through the process and rebooted. After the
complete reboot and restarted the computer and it stopped dead. I
went in, pulled the cable, reset it and the computer booted OK. I'm
not sure where to go at this point. Can the socket for the SATA cable
be pulled out? And be replaced by a new (better) connector and cable?

As Dave has already mentioned (twice), run a hard drive diagnostic from
a bootable CD made with the diagnostic's disc maker/installer. If you
don't know what brand your hard drive is, Hitachi Drive Fitness test
(DFT) works on most brands of hard drive. Be sure to read and follow
the instructions on the web page to correctly make the bootable disc.

Hitachi DFT:
http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/#DFT

 

[Paul]

You may have something here. I bought a new cable yesterday and
installed it, but this morning the computer didn't finish booting and
went to CHKDSK, ran through the process and rebooted. After the
complete reboot and restarted the computer and it stopped dead. I
went in, pulled the cable, reset it and the computer booted OK. I'm
not sure where to go at this point. Can the socket for the SATA cable
be pulled out? And be replaced by a new (better) connector and cable?

Run the disk diagnostic.

There's more to this than the cable. Your symptoms don't match
just a cabling problem.

*******

My purpose in mentioning cabling, is for the sake of completeness.
If you work on a system, which had first-generation SATA cabling,
this kind of thing was more of a problem. As a troubleshooter, you
shouldn't dismiss the cabling entirely, unless you've checked it
and found it in good working order. The cable should have "retention
force" and resist attempts to disconnect the cable. The cable should
also be cosmetically perfect, no bends or kinds, as bending the cable
will damage it electrically (increased error rate).

If you run the disk diagnostic, you'll have a better idea how
healthy the disk is.

Or, use a program such as HDTune, and look at the SMART statistics page.
Or any other SMART utility for that matter.

In HDTune, I look at Reallocated Sector Count and Current Pending Sector
value, as an indicator of health. Running an actual disk diagnostic,
one that reads every sector, will tell you even more.

For example, on my current disk... Data field says zero.

Current Worst Threshold Data Status
Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 36 0 OK
Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 0 OK

You can get HDTune here, if you want to try it out. But
I'd sooner get the hard disk diagnostic for your brand of
disk first, as it's a more thorough test. The HDTune is
for a quick check - if I saw severe trouble, like a
high Current Pending, the HDTune would be telling me
to back up immediately. I made a mistake before, where
I ignored trouble signs, and decided to do a backup
the next day. And when I turned on the computer the
next day, it was dead (bad drive). Lost all my data.
Now, if I see trouble, I keep the power on the PC, until
the backup is complete, and then I can go to bed.

(Gives you SMART statistics, if available from the hardware)

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Disk diagnostics can do both read testing, or read/write
testing. Usually the diagnostic will warn you, if some
choice in the menu, is destructive. Just use common sense.
The tools I use here, as far as I can recollect, are
read-only testing, and there isn't a write option. But
since there are different brands of disks, and different
diagnostics, it pays to keep your eyes open. Don't be in
too much of a rush clicking things.

Oh, and backups are good, in case nobody has mentioned that
already. You should keep a good disk, external to the computer,
perhaps USB connected, to keep your data safe. The fact
we're having these conversations, you should have a backup
in hand. And hurry off to the store, if you don't have a good
disk to put it on...

Paul

 

[Barry Bruyea]

Examine the make of the harddisk and then download the manufacturer's
diagnostic tool .ISO image. Create a CDROM from the ISO image and boot the
PC from the CDROM and then perform an extensive diagnoostic of the drive...

Western Digital - WD Diagnostics
SeaGate - SeaTools
IBM/Hitachi - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)

Thanks for the advice, I'm certainly going to give it a try because
this is becoming a real pain.

 

[Barry Bruyea]

Run the disk diagnostic.

There's more to this than the cable. Your symptoms don't match
just a cabling problem.

*******

My purpose in mentioning cabling, is for the sake of completeness.
If you work on a system, which had first-generation SATA cabling,
this kind of thing was more of a problem. As a troubleshooter, you
shouldn't dismiss the cabling entirely, unless you've checked it
and found it in good working order. The cable should have "retention
force" and resist attempts to disconnect the cable. The cable should
also be cosmetically perfect, no bends or kinds, as bending the cable
will damage it electrically (increased error rate).

If you run the disk diagnostic, you'll have a better idea how
healthy the disk is.

Or, use a program such as HDTune, and look at the SMART statistics page.
Or any other SMART utility for that matter.

In HDTune, I look at Reallocated Sector Count and Current Pending Sector
value, as an indicator of health. Running an actual disk diagnostic,
one that reads every sector, will tell you even more.

For example, on my current disk... Data field says zero.

Current Worst Threshold Data Status
Reallocated Sector Count 100 100 36 0 OK
Current Pending Sector 100 100 0 0 OK

You can get HDTune here, if you want to try it out. But
I'd sooner get the hard disk diagnostic for your brand of
disk first, as it's a more thorough test. The HDTune is
for a quick check - if I saw severe trouble, like a
high Current Pending, the HDTune would be telling me
to back up immediately. I made a mistake before, where
I ignored trouble signs, and decided to do a backup
the next day. And when I turned on the computer the
next day, it was dead (bad drive). Lost all my data.
Now, if I see trouble, I keep the power on the PC, until
the backup is complete, and then I can go to bed.

(Gives you SMART statistics, if available from the hardware)

http://www.hdtune.com/files/hdtune_255.exe

Disk diagnostics can do both read testing, or read/write
testing. Usually the diagnostic will warn you, if some
choice in the menu, is destructive. Just use common sense.
The tools I use here, as far as I can recollect, are
read-only testing, and there isn't a write option. But
since there are different brands of disks, and different
diagnostics, it pays to keep your eyes open. Don't be in
too much of a rush clicking things.

Oh, and backups are good, in case nobody has mentioned that
already. You should keep a good disk, external to the computer,
perhaps USB connected, to keep your data safe. The fact
we're having these conversations, you should have a backup
in hand. And hurry off to the store, if you don't have a good
disk to put it on...

Paul

I really appreciate the effort all of you have exhibited to help me
out with my problem.

 

[Barry Bruyea]

On Wed, 02 May 2012 19:25:29 -0400, Barry Bruyea

I downloaded the Disk Diagnostics program from Seagate and all of my
disks passed.

 

[Peter Foldes]

On Wed, 02 May 2012 19:25:29 -0400, Barry Bruyea

I downloaded the Disk Diagnostics program from Seagate and all of my
disks passed.

Failing with what you have checked here below is the 10 reasons for the NTLDR
issue.I would check each one against your error. I have seen this error many times
posted and usually it is number 8 which caused it for most.

1.. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
2.. Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
3.. Corrupt NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM file.
4.. Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
5.. Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using
FAT32.
6.. New hard disk drive being added.
7.. Corrupt boot sector or master boot record.
8.. Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
9.. Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
10.. Failing to enable USB keyboard support in the BIOS.

-
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Paul]

On Wed, 02 May 2012 19:25:29 -0400, Barry Bruyea

I downloaded the Disk Diagnostics program from Seagate and all of my
disks passed.

So what can we observe then ?

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc977213.aspx

On my machine, if I copy the MBR (sector 0) of the disk, it has
messages like this. The 440 bytes of code in the MBR, can be
repaired with FIXMBR, which should not change the primary partition
table entries coming just after it. The 440 bytes of code, just
before these messages, looks for the boot flag on one
of the partitions, to determine which is the boot partition.

Invalid partition table.
Error loading operating system.
Missing operating system.

In the partition corresponding to C:, I'm supposed to be
able to find these messages in the Partition Boot Sector. This
is a sector (or sectors) at the front of the partition, before
the file system proper begins. The Partition Boot Sector is placed
there by commands such as FIXBOOT (available from recovery console).

A disk read error occurred.
NTLDR is missing.
NTLDR is compressed.

I can find "NTLDR is missing", at byte address 0x7E00 area of the disk.
Converting that to sectors, that's sector 63. Allowing sectors 0..62 to
hold MBR and 62 sectors of slack, that implies my partition boot sector
is very near the beginning of my FAT32 WinXP partition. The actual
"NTLDR is missing", is at 0x7FAE. That might be slightly different than
how and where, an NTFS partition stores it. But I could find it relatively
easily, by copying a portion of the raw sectors on the disk, with "dd".
For security reasons, "dd" was not allowed to copy that area, relative
to the beginning of C:, and instead, I had to tell it to copy
Partition0, which is relative to the whole disk.

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.5.zip

Another way to examine that, is with TestDisk. Using the
option in the interface called [Boot], you can eventually
get to examine what the tool thinks is the partition boot
sector. For some reason, the hex editor in here, traverses
about three 512 byte sectors, when looking in that area.

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download

The only problem with that tool, is the number of steps to get down
there for a look. And in this case, I don't think it really helps
anyway, except to satisfy curiosity.

This is my partition boot sector and backup boot sector. Notice my
backup boot sector is not valid, and I can't remember the last
time I actually found the backup boot sector to be valid. I don't
know what step was supposed to put valid info into it, but it's never
seemed to work.

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/4760/cfirstsector.gif

Since my partition is FAT32, I'm guessing that's why
I don't have the same error messages as the article I used above
to get the three lines that are supposed to be in a PBS.
It's possible NTFS and FAT32 don't have exactly the same
partition boot sector (because the file systems are different,
and finding files would require different code).

*******

So that's where the "NTLDR is missing" could come from. And
then we need a mechanism to make NTLDR actually go missing...
And then, come back again.

Paul