ntldr missing

[josephk]

I recently installed the newest windows update (10-16-03)
when I rebooted I got a black screen with the following
message
"NTLDR missing
press ctrl, alt delete to reboot"

I've tried everything that I could and the only way I can
get to XP is using the cdrom as my first boot device and
booting off the cd. Any one know what I can do to repair
the problem other than reloading the operating system and
loosing all of my programs records etc??

 

[Chris Lanier]

You might not be dual booting but follow the instrutions anyway

Windows XP Does Not Start on a Computer That Is Configured for Dual Booting
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q315233&

 

[Ken]

you can try installing the recovery console from the cd,
and copy the files you need (such as ntldr). Go online
and look for instructions on how to use the recovery
console.

 

[Jan]

I recently installed the newest windows update (10-16-03)
when I rebooted I got a black screen with the following
message
"NTLDR missing
press ctrl, alt delete to reboot"

I've tried everything that I could and the only way I can
get to XP is using the cdrom as my first boot device and
booting off the cd. Any one know what I can do to repair
the problem other than reloading the operating system and
loosing all of my programs records etc??

The NTLDR not found message may be caused by the C:
partition not being marked as Active. If you have one, use a Win98 boot
disk to boot the computer. At the A: prompt, type in FDISK Use its
options to mark the C: partition as active.


This may or may not help, good luck. Oh, and be sure you are not running
fats, but ntfs.

Jan

 

[josephk]

Well I've tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I
backed up all I could and used the recovery disks to try
and start over. I still get the NTLDR MISSING messgae.
Still open to suggestions. Thanks

 

[Taurarian]

Not sure if you've tried these:

How to Repair the Boot Sector if XP won't start:

Possible cause is a damaged boot sector or a missing or corrupt ntldr or
ntdetect.com files. Use the COPY command to replace damaged files from the
Win XP CD.

Boot from the Win XP CD and enter the Recovery Console. At the Command
Prompt type the following ( "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter). Allow the
files to overwrite the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

A damaged Boot Sector can be repaired at the command prompt by typing
FIXBOOT and press Enter. Then answer "Y".

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654
How to use the Recovery Console

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314057
"NTLDR Is Missing" Error Message When You Upgrade or Install Windows XP
Over Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition

 

[DanGo]

I had the same thing happen on my Windows 2000 machine.

From what I recall, I re-installed the OS to a different drive letter.
This caused the OS Loader Menu to show two (original (C Drive) and
new (D Drive).

After start up of the new install, I then copied the missing files
into place on the C drive's root and made sure the hidden, system, and
read-only attribs matched. After rebooting and selecting the original
(C Drive), the operating system started up with no problem and
everything was back to normal.

There's probably an easier way to do this, but the goal for me was to
get back to normal without having to reinstall all applications (which
can be a pain if you have to install Visual Studio .Net).

=Dan=