When I upgrade a motherboard I sometimes get NTLDR is missing

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I am a PC tech so I upgrade a lot of motherboard however
everytime I do so on a system that has WindowsXP I cross
my fingers because I may boot up with an "TLDR is missing"
error or I may not I have found no major similarities in
cases where this had happened to be able to narrow it down
to perhaps a specific manufacturer or chipset. My question
is this WHY? why is it that the NTLDR can not be found
after installing a new motherboard and no other hardware
 
Hi, Tristanguy.

If the new mobo is essentially the same as the old one, then you may get
lucky. But why "upgrade" unless the new one is better? Which usually means
a new chipset, including new IDE controllers and lots of other changes. A
new mobo/chipset/BIOS/CPU/RAM is very much like a heart/brain transplant for
a person.

When WinXP is installed, one of the first things that Setup does is detect
the hardware environment, then it customized WinXP as it installs it to fit
THAT environment. When a significant part of that environment changes - and
a new chipset certainly qualifies as significant - then Setup must be run
again to re-detect the hardware and re-customize WinXP to fit the new
configuration.

I'm NOT a tech of any kind, so I don't know which brands of chipset might
trigger the need for reconfiguring WinXP. But I've seen plenty of messages
in these newsgroups that lead me to believe that MOST motherboard UPGRADES
(as opposed to simply replacing a bad mobo with a similar good one) require
Setup to run again.

NTLDR is the key file that starts WinXP to loading. It must be in the
"system partition", which is usually the first primary partition on the
first physical drive the BIOS sees when the power is turned on. Many modern
BIOSes, though, allow us to set a different boot device. If the new mobo
has a different BIOS or the CMOS settings are different, or the hard drive
line-up is different or on a new IDE controller, then the computer may be
looking for NTLDR in the wrong place.

Based on reading thousands of posts in these newsgroups, my impression is
that very few computers will boot WinXP after a "simple" motherboard
upgrade.

RC
 
Probably because BIOS of a mainboard remembers the loader. When you change
it new BIOS doesnt know which loader to start.
Did you notice that when you install Win9x or dos and delete bootsector,
BIOS says "no boot disk found". But if you delete bootsector on WinNT, BIOS
say "NT loader not found". So, I think it saves the information about
loaders somewhere. When you change the mainboard it probably tryes to find
DOS load by default.
 
Greetings --

I presume that you're just starting out as a "PC tech?" The "why"
is quite simple, really: you've pulled the proverbial hardware rug
out from under the OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the rug
analogy, think of it as picking up a Cape Cod style home and then
setting it down onto a Ranch style foundation. It just isn't going to
fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as
Win9x when it comes to accepting any old hardware configuration you
throw at it. On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific
hardware
found.

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM licenses are not
transferable to a new motherboard), unless your motherboard is
virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS
version, etc.) to the one on which the other WinXP installation was
originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place
upgrade) installation, at the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also require re-activation, unless you have a Volume
Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than 120
days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
likely be able to activate via the internet without problem. If it's
been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.


Bruce Chambers

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I am a PC tech so I upgrade a lot of motherboard however
everytime I do so on a system that has WindowsXP I cross
my fingers because I may boot up with an "TLDR is missing"
error or I may not I have found no major similarities in
cases where this had happened to be able to narrow it down
to perhaps a specific manufacturer or chipset. My question
is this WHY? why is it that the NTLDR can not be found
after installing a new motherboard and no other hardware
Click to expand...

As a general rule, unless the motherboard is a true replacement, you
should start with a repair reinstall of the system (followed up by
running the updates - so have a collection of them on CD). Without that
you can't be sure it will be well matched to the revised hardware
 
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