caramilk
asked on
NTLDR is missing.... I can boot from floopy but not from HD
When starting my system I get NTLDR is missing...press ctrl, alt, delete to restart. When I use my WINXP boot disk I can get in fine. Check of the C drive shows ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini. I've replace these from the xp cd and still the same. Did the console recovery and tried the fixboot, and also fixmbr but still the same. Going to now try reinstall over top.
But try this first
Boot to the Recovery Console and then run this command
BOOTCFG /Rebuild
Boot to the Recovery Console and then run this command
BOOTCFG /Rebuild
Your boot.ini might have an invalid entry pointing to the wrong disk or partition or it is corrupted or missing.
ASKER
well it wouldn't be the boot.ini as I already copied that from the floppy to the c: drive and that didn't work....
ASKER
Had already been going through that website before I asked the question but thanks. Will do the reinstall in a few hours.
Hmm interesting. Did you replace the ntldr ntdetect.com from the floppy. Obviously these files work to get you into XP so try using them on the hard drive.
hi..try updating yout BIOs...try flashing it.
Are you dual booting?
do you have EZ-BIOS installed?
Are you dual booting?
do you have EZ-BIOS installed?
Saw the same error message after first installing Windows XP and after downloading the 40+MB of fixes from WindowsUpdate, the problem was resolved. Is WindowsUpdate current with patches and fixes?
ASKER
well it's strange since the system was running fine for about 2 months and then all of a sudden it is missing these files even though they are there. This isn't my computer but am fixing it. I saw that they had eraser installed on the HD so this may have caused some problems.
Did you try this
Boot to the Recovery Console and then run this command
chkdsk /f
Boot to the Recovery Console and then run this command
chkdsk /f
ASKER
well nothing worked....
ran the chkdisk and everything was fine.
tried the fdisk /mbr
So with no options left I saved all the files I wanted since I was able to get in with a boot disk and transfered them over the network to my computer.
Ran a low level format of the HD just to clean the heck out of it and now reinstalling XP clean....
Thanks for all your responses.
ran the chkdisk and everything was fine.
tried the fdisk /mbr
So with no options left I saved all the files I wanted since I was able to get in with a boot disk and transfered them over the network to my computer.
Ran a low level format of the HD just to clean the heck out of it and now reinstalling XP clean....
Thanks for all your responses.
ASKER
everything back up and running now that I cleaned the whole thing....
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER
Well CrazyOne I'm going to give you the points anyways. Thanks for the help
Wish we could of found way of fixing this with reformatting but... and thanks
so...did you even try to look into updating the BIOS?
Like crazyone said, formatting is usually a last resort, in which I don't think was your case.
anyway, if it's fixed it's fixed...goodluck.
Like crazyone said, formatting is usually a last resort, in which I don't think was your case.
anyway, if it's fixed it's fixed...goodluck.
Yeah that will probalby do it.
Repair
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341
Visual aid to the above procedure
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Click on How To Run a Repair Install
The Crazy One