"NTLDR is missing"

[Guest]

I added a new HD (Maxtor 250 GB, SATA 7200 RPM) to my PC, a P4-2.66GHz PC.
The Maxtor is formatted into three partitions. The entire existing main drive
C, where Windows XP is, was copied onto the new Maxtor HD, using File
Explorer. The copy process took 5.5 hrs and was good except for 8 files,
which was noted as not crucial to OS operation.

Then I disconnected the 160GB, leaving only the 250GB to be primary, which
has Windows XP on it. But I couldn't reboot my PC with this drive. Error
message said "NTLDR missing". What is that, is it a simple fix, and how do I
do it?

I want my new 250GB drive to be the main drive 'cos it's faster, and the 160
GB to be secondary. When I switch the HD's with the 160 HD as primary, and
the 250 GB as secondary, everything works OK.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I added a new HD (Maxtor 250 GB, SATA 7200 RPM) to my PC, a
P4-2.66GHz PC. The Maxtor is formatted into three partitions. The
entire existing main drive C, where Windows XP is, was copied onto
the new Maxtor HD, using File Explorer. The copy process took 5.5
hrs and was good except for 8 files, which was noted as not crucial
to OS operation.

Then I disconnected the 160GB, leaving only the 250GB to be
primary, which has Windows XP on it. But I couldn't reboot my PC
with this drive. Error message said "NTLDR missing". What is that,
is it a simple fix, and how do I do it?

I want my new 250GB drive to be the main drive 'cos it's faster,
and the 160 GB to be secondary. When I switch the HD's with the 160
HD as primary, and the 250 GB as secondary, everything works OK.

You normally cannot just "copy" Windows XP (the system partition) -
especially just using "explorer".

Backup your important data and do a proper clean installation of Windows and
all of your applications.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I added a new HD (Maxtor 250 GB, SATA 7200 RPM) to my PC, a
P4-2.66GHz PC. The Maxtor is formatted into three partitions. The
entire existing main drive C, where Windows XP is, was copied onto
the new Maxtor HD, using File Explorer. The copy process took 5.5
hrs and was good except for 8 files, which was noted as not crucial
to OS operation.

Then I disconnected the 160GB, leaving only the 250GB to be
primary, which has Windows XP on it. But I couldn't reboot my PC
with this drive. Error message said "NTLDR missing". What is that,
is it a simple fix, and how do I do it?

I want my new 250GB drive to be the main drive 'cos it's faster,
and the 160 GB to be secondary. When I switch the HD's with the 160
HD as primary, and the 250 GB as secondary, everything works OK.

You normally cannot just "copy" Windows XP (the system partition) -
especially just using "explorer".

Backup your important data and do a proper clean installation of
Windows and all of your applications.

Alternatives..

Look on the Maxtor web page for a OS transfer utility. Utilize it if it is
there.

Otherwise - you could use an imaging software..

Symantec/Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/

Acronis True Image
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage

BootIt™ NG
http://terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html

Good luck.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the advice. I'll try the Maxtor site first and maybe the
imaging software. Will let you know of my progress.

 

[jimbo]

I added a new HD (Maxtor 250 GB, SATA 7200 RPM) to my PC, a P4-2.66GHz PC.
The Maxtor is formatted into three partitions. The entire existing main drive
C, where Windows XP is, was copied onto the new Maxtor HD, using File
Explorer. The copy process took 5.5 hrs and was good except for 8 files,
which was noted as not crucial to OS operation.

Then I disconnected the 160GB, leaving only the 250GB to be primary, which
has Windows XP on it. But I couldn't reboot my PC with this drive. Error
message said "NTLDR missing". What is that, is it a simple fix, and how do I
do it?

I want my new 250GB drive to be the main drive 'cos it's faster, and the 160
GB to be secondary. When I switch the HD's with the 160 HD as primary, and
the 250 GB as secondary, everything works OK.

You could use Norton Ghost to clone the 160 GB drive to the new 250 GB
hard drive. Then put the 250 GB hard drive in as your first drive. It
should boot to WinXP with no problems. Then you could use Partition
Magic to re-partition the 250 GB drive. (You may be able to clone the
160 GB drive to "C" partition on the 250 GB drive. I am not sure if
that is an option.)

Good luck, jimbo

 

[Charles Elliott]

There are two things you may be able to do to reover NTLDR, if that is your
only problem, which it isn't; the e-mails below about how to and how not to
transfer an O/S are correct.

You can use the procedure that is given on Microsoft's Web site or in help,
I forget which, to create an XP bootable floppy. NTLDR will be on it. Just
leave it in the A: drive. You will soon forget it is there and never worry
about it again. One of my computers has been doing that for over a year w/o
incident.

Under Win2K you could start a repair process, and the first act the repair
would do is rewrite the boot partition. So one could just start the repair
and then abort it after a few screens, before it really had time to do
anything, and all would be fixed. I don't know if WinXP works like that
also, but you could try it.

In any case do read the e-mails on copying an O/S. You could create the
boot floppy and try what you have, but I don't think it will work.

C Elliott

 

[jimbo]

There are two things you may be able to do to reover NTLDR, if that is your
only problem, which it isn't; the e-mails below about how to and how not to
transfer an O/S are correct.

You can use the procedure that is given on Microsoft's Web site or in help,
I forget which, to create an XP bootable floppy. NTLDR will be on it. Just
leave it in the A: drive. You will soon forget it is there and never worry
about it again. One of my computers has been doing that for over a year w/o
incident.

Under Win2K you could start a repair process, and the first act the repair
would do is rewrite the boot partition. So one could just start the repair
and then abort it after a few screens, before it really had time to do
anything, and all would be fixed. I don't know if WinXP works like that
also, but you could try it.

In any case do read the e-mails on copying an O/S. You could create the
boot floppy and try what you have, but I don't think it will work.

C Elliott

Yes, WinXP has a repair installation option that "fixes" your WinXP
installation without affecting any programs or data, but I don't think
that will work in this case because all he did was a file copy.

jimbo

 

[Guest]

Above is correct, in Win98 you could copy a disk with Explorer or XCOPY,
but not in NT/XP.

HST, the NTLDR message is often the result of wrong settings in BOOT.INI -
might be just worth checking this.

 

[Guest]

Looks I did bad by copying using File Explorer. Seems I need to get Norton
Ghost to clone. Thanks for your input.

 

[Guest]

Same thankful reply to you as to jimbo. I'll try checking the BOOT.INI
route. But I think only Norton Ghost is the answer.

 

[Timothy Daniels]

Looks I did bad by copying using File Explorer.
Seems I need to get Norton
Ghost to clone. Thanks for your input.

If you're in a hurry, just download a 30-day free trial copy
of Casper XP, a dedicated cloning-only utility written for
Windows XP:
www.FSSdev.com/casperxp/ .

As with all WinXP clones, remove the "parent" HD
before booting up the clone for the 1st time. Just
remove the "parent" HD and the clone should boot
up automatically if it's the next in the HD boot order.
Once it has booted, you can shut it back down,
do whatever you want to put the clone at the head
of the HD boot order (by re-jumpering as Master or
by going into the BIOS and putting the clone at the
head of the HD boot order). Thereafter, the clone
can "see" the "parent" OS when it boots up with no
problems.

*TimDaniels*

 

[tjvader]

Merton, I have a Maxtor 300 SATAN GB drive and all I did to was 1) i had to
purchase an SATAN-PCI card because my mother board did not have one. 2) I
used the CD that was supplied with the drive to format and partition the
logical drives, and then the software asked if I wanted to copy another
drive to the new partitions OR did I wanted to copy my OS to one of the new
partitions. It then allowed me to identify the original drive that I wanted
to copy from and the new partition I wanted to copy to. It also wanted me to
verify whether I had just the vanilla winXP OS or winXP SP2.

I am a little surprised that you can't use the CD that was included with the
harddrive?
Good luck . . .Tom Johnson