PLEASE HELP ME

[Guest]

Dear Readers I am writing to you as a last hope of saving my fairly new
computer from physically being thrown out of the house by my mother.

I have recently had a problem with my Windows XP user accounts. These
included only accounts with Administrator priveleges beign allowed to log on.

Due to a message that said "Access denied" when trying to log into the guest
account, I figured that if I started in SAFE MODE, and went into the security
tab of the properties menu of the Hard Drive (c and added indavidually each
username into the security window and allowed full access on all accounts I
would not have the problem.

In doing so, I believe I removed some of the Users that had access to the
hard drive. (these users were strings of numbers eg.
122334123423-43424234234-424234234 which had no meaning to me.)

I believe that they may have something to do with the initial boot-up of my
pc.
No when I try turning on my computer I get the following message:

=====================
Verifying DMI Pool Data.........
Boot from CD: Failure ...
Boot from CD: Failure ...

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+alt+Del to restart
=====================
I believe the Verifying DMI pool data to be standard text that is displayed
during loadup.
The TWO boot From CD's are pretty standard as I have always had them
displayed, just before the operating system (windows xp) has loaded up. (Two
messages, I can only presume because I have two CD drives).

NTLDR is missing - is obviously the message that is abnormal. I can only do
two things from here. I can press Ctrl+Alt+Del and it will repeat the
process. And I can Print Screen (Which physically prints out what I can see)

I believed that I could possibly retify the problem by loading up in SAFE
MODE, but Safe mode is loaded up by pressing F8 at a later time to what I get
this message.

As a last resort I thourght that I could use the system recovery disk to
completely restart from scratch (lose all personal data/files etc.) On
inserting the disk and re-booting.

When it comes to the second BOOT FROM CD. I then get the option of Pressing
"R" to start recovery. On pressing this a bit of "whurring" comes out of my
tower, and after about twenty seconds I get the system recovery screen load
up.

Normally when I do a system recovery I get the option on what type of
recovery I would like to perform, eg. destructive etc. but that is now not
an option. It just goes straight to the second option where it gives me the
option of :

=====================================
Format and Recover:-

All files, including data files, on the user patition will be lost and the
original factory-shipped fiels will be recovered to the user partition.

do you want to continue?
=====================================
When clicking OK (the only option availible, I can;t close box in top right
hand corner)
I get the following message box appear.

Cannot format user partition!
System recovery cannot continue!

When clicking okay, it restarts the computer again.

I would like it someone was able to tell me how to replace the obvious
missing NT Loader files etc.

Obviously I am without a extremely expensive (two and a bit yrs ago) computer.

Thank you for all your time.

If you have any advice pelase contact me by replying to this message, or
e-mailing me direrctly,

(e-mail address removed)

Thank's once again


Daniel Walters

 

[Dotcom]

Sounds to me that your only option would be to format your hard drive
and / or use your factory restore disks that came with the pc. Usually
i the form of 2 disks (windows operation system - dsk1 and the drivers
disk for your pc - dsk2).

I have never heard the problems witht the accounts before, maybe
someone else can comment on that one.

NTLDR is an integral part of loading windows, one of the lowest layers
that, if possible would take a lot of time, messing around and
expensive software such as winternals.

CD-Rom boot failiures mean that your system is trying to boot from your
2 seperate cd drives before trying the hard disk for boot files. If
you have a cd in the drive that does not have boot files then it will
show a "boot failiure" message. This will also occur if there is no cd
in the drive. You can change these in the bios of your machine, under
boot sequence.. simply move your hard drive to second position, behind
floppy disk..

IE:

Boot 1 = Floppy Drive
Boot 2 = HDD
Boot 3 = CD ROM
Boot 4 = CD ROM

Basically, nuke your machine and start from the begining... not
recovery disks...Factory Restore.

Hope this helps.

Dan

 

[Courtney]

Surprisingly, your problem is relatively easy to fix.

You are correct; the DMI (Device Management Interface) pool will come up
normally and has nothing to do with Windows until XP actually boots up.
That's your motherboard enumerating all the devices attached to it.

To repair XP, boot from the CD. Skip the Recovery Console. Continue as if
you are about to reformat. Select to install. The CD will find a previous
install of the operating system and offer to repair it. Choose that. It will
reinstall the three files to boot XP. (Actually, you are only missing one
file, but it points to ntloader and boot.ini.)

courtney sends....

 

[Guest]

You receive an "NTLDR is missing" error message when you start your computer
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320397

An NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM Not Found Error
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555304

I am wondering if there is possible hardware failure going on here...You
mentioned noises coming from the machine? It may be viable to bring the
computer to a tech shop that can do some hardware testing, to determine
whether it be bad ram or a failing hard drive. Seems a little odd that it
wouldn't want to format with the restoration cd's. But I hope one of the
articles gives you some useful information.

Good Luck!

 

[Guest]

Dear Dan,

Thank you for all your help. I am unsure on exactly how to edit my bios. I'm
not completely illiterate person when it comes to computers, but I have only
had experience of working AFTER the operating system has loaded. lol.

Im unsure on how to edit the sequence for rebooting, what you said made
complete sense, I am jsut not sure on how to impliment them. (Hope that made
sense)

I am obviously way over my head here. My system came with one disk, which
normally when I have problems with persistent viruses and adware, I insert
and I believe it to format the hard drive. This is a single disk that I
insert and have to boot up computer with it in the drive.

It then when it loads up asks me to press R to start the system recovery, it
then skips the first step (the one where I am able to choose what sort of
recovery i would like to do, eg. non-destructive, complete removal of all
files ect.) It doesn't even show me the option, just skips to preparing the
hard-drive. The I get an eroor which I mentioned in my last message to you.

If you could give me any advice on how to edit my bios, i would much
appreciate it. Thank you for all your time.

Daniel Walters

 

[Guest]

when I do skip the recovery console, It gives me a message that I described
last time (Something cannot format user partition ... ) it only gives me an
option of cliking OK. (I can't close the box, as the cross is greyed out).

When I do click okay, it shoots both Cd drives out, and restarts. If I do
not remove the disk when it shoots out it repeats the recovery process again.
If I remove the cd it restarts and the NTLDR is missing message appear again.

Someone has mentioned to me about editing the order in which it boots up,
eg. it's BIOS.

If you couldd give me any advice on ways in which to do this I would much
appreciate it.

Thank-you for all your time,

Daniel Walters

 

[Guest]

Dear Kelly,

Thank-you for all your help,

Much appreciated

Daniel Walters

 

[Malke]

Dear Dan,

Thank you for all your help. I am unsure on exactly how to edit my
bios. I'm not completely illiterate person when it comes to computers,
but I have only had experience of working AFTER the operating system
has loaded. lol.

Im unsure on how to edit the sequence for rebooting, what you said
made complete sense, I am jsut not sure on how to impliment them.
(Hope that made sense)

I am obviously way over my head here. My system came with one disk,
which normally when I have problems with persistent viruses and
adware, I insert and I believe it to format the hard drive. This is a
single disk that I insert and have to boot up computer with it in the
drive.

It then when it loads up asks me to press R to start the system
recovery, it then skips the first step (the one where I am able to
choose what sort of recovery i would like to do, eg. non-destructive,
complete removal of all files ect.) It doesn't even show me the
option, just skips to preparing the hard-drive. The I get an eroor
which I mentioned in my last message to you.

If you could give me any advice on how to edit my bios, i would much
appreciate it. Thank you for all your time.

Daniel, when you start your computer you will normally see a message at
the very bottom of the screen that says something like, "Press DEL to
enter Setup". The key to press will vary by motherboard/OEM, so it
could be F2, F1, F11, etc. Whatever, press that key and you will enter
Setup. Somewhere in the BIOS Setup will be a place where you can change
the boot order.

If you are really "way over your head here", consider taking your
machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
equivalent of BigStoreUSA). There is no shame in doing this; I don't
hesitate to take my car to the mechanic.

Malke

 

[Guest]

I think I am going to have to take it in and have it serviced etc. I just
wish that windows wqouldn't allow you to make changes that can stop it
working.

Obvously the poweruser will want to be able to do this kinda stuff, so why
allow XP HOME users to muck it up?
LOL

Thank's for all your help,
Mum's had an idea. Keep the phericals, (oops) eg. Monitor, speakers printer,
keyboard etc. and buy ourselfs a Mini Mac, or (If I can convince her) a G5
tower.

Thank's once again

daniel

 

[Malke]

I think I am going to have to take it in and have it serviced etc. I
just wish that windows wqouldn't allow you to make changes that can
stop it working.

Obvously the poweruser will want to be able to do this kinda stuff, so
why allow XP HOME users to muck it up?
LOL

Thank's for all your help,
Mum's had an idea. Keep the phericals, (oops) eg. Monitor, speakers
printer, keyboard etc. and buy ourselfs a Mini Mac, or (If I can
convince her) a G5 tower.

Thank's once again

daniel

Well, I don't think any operating system can prevent a user from doing
something fatal to it. Apples are certainly nice, but things can go
wrong with them too. The user still needs to learn how to use the
computer.

Whatever you decide, good luck to you.

Malke