NTLDR is missing.....

[WRXHokie]

I've tried everything, so i'm posting this as a last resort.

The power went out the other night and when i tried to boot up my PC
the next day i got the "NTLDR is missing" message.

I've tried doing several things i've gotten from here, including using
the CD to repair the bootloader. Tried "fixboot", "fixmbr", i've
tried copying ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to the C:\ drive.
Nothing has worked.

It boots up only when i have the CD in, so i'm at a loss on this one.
Any other suggestions from anyone out here? Cause i just dont
understand why this is still not working.

Thanks

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Have you tried a 'Repair' install - although with this you will have to download/reinstall the Windows Updates:

"How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Courtesy of MVP Michael Stevens.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


| I've tried everything, so i'm posting this as a last resort.
|
| The power went out the other night and when i tried to boot up my PC
| the next day i got the "NTLDR is missing" message.
|
| I've tried doing several things i've gotten from here, including using
| the CD to repair the bootloader. Tried "fixboot", "fixmbr", i've
| tried copying ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to the C:\ drive.
| Nothing has worked.
|
| It boots up only when i have the CD in, so i'm at a loss on this one.
| Any other suggestions from anyone out here? Cause i just dont
| understand why this is still not working.
|
| Thanks

 

[Dan]

Try the following:
Boot your PC with the XP CD in the cd drive.
Select 'To repair..' by pressing 'R'.

When in the Recovery Console type the following:

"copy X:\i386\ntldr C:\" - without the quotes.

Where X is the letter of your CD drive and C is the letter of your system

drive.

Take the XP CD out of the cd drive and reboot into XP normally.



Hope this helps. It worked for me.

Regards

Dan

 

[WRXHokie]

Please read my WHOLE message before posting a solution...

i tried this several times and it DIDNT work

Thanks

 

[WRXHokie]

Thanks for the quick response....

but i dont see how this could solve the problem. My last resort is reinstalling
everything, so i'm looking for ways around that.

but could you provide more info on what you just talked about?

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

A 'Repair' install will replace all system files without having to reformat the hard disk/partition. That way you should still keep all your programs and data files.

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User


| Thanks for the quick response....
|
| but i dont see how this could solve the problem. My last resort is reinstalling
| everything, so i'm looking for ways around that.
|
| but could you provide more info on what you just talked about?
|
|
|
| >Hi
| >
| >Have you tried a 'Repair' install - although with this you will have to
| >>download/reinstall the Windows Updates:
| >
| >"How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install"
| >http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
| >
| >Courtesy of MVP Michael Stevens.
| >
| >--
| >
| >Will Denny
| >MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
| >
| >
| >>| >| I've tried everything, so i'm posting this as a last resort.
| >|
| >| The power went out the other night and when i tried to boot up my PC
| >| the next day i got the "NTLDR is missing" message.
| >|
| >| I've tried doing several things i've gotten from here, including using
| >| the CD to repair the bootloader. Tried "fixboot", "fixmbr", i've
| >| tried copying ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to the C:\ drive.
| >| Nothing has worked.
| >|
| >| It boots up only when i have the CD in, so i'm at a loss on this one.
| >| Any other suggestions from anyone out here? Cause i just dont
| >| understand why this is still not working.
| >|
| >| Thanks
| >
| >
| >---
| >Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
| >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
| >Version: 6.0.667 / Virus Database: 429 - Release Date: 23/04/2004
|

 

[WRXHokie]

Why would power loss cause my PC to need to reinstall ALL those files... i just
think there's a quicker more cleaner solution to the problem.

Thanks though.

Anyone else got any other suggestions?

 

[Robert Tyler]

In addition to copying ntldr as per below, you may also have a corrupt
NTDETECT.COM

I discovered the hard way that both are required.

Bob Tyler...
Tyler Systems

 

[WRXHokie]

AGAIN... i copied ALL THREE files boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr to the root
C directory

IT STILL DIDNT WORK.

Any other ideas?

 

[Ed.]

Are you running a RAID setup? If so, you have to edit the boot.ini file on
the boot disk. You would have to put the partition number in rdisk. For
instance it would look something like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect

You would replace rdisk(0) with (1) if you only had one partition. If more
then one partition, put the proper number for the partition that Windows is
installed on.

I had the same problem when I copied my boot.ini from the root directory. It
looked like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /fastdetect

But, I have RAID setup as Mirror and it wouldn't work. It kept coming up
saying something like System32/hal.dll not there and to replace it. After I
changed the boot.ini to reflect my RAID by changing rdisk(0) to rdisk(1), it
worked like a charm.