PCTech Forums

hey,

i'm munching on a comp that displays NTLDR is missing, press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart
I alreadeady copied the NTLDR and ntdetect.com files in the repair console to the C: drive, but with the same result

Any ideas?

thanks

noby

did you try the "FIXBOOT" command in the recovery console?

you could also try "FDISK /MBR" from a normal DOS prompt if you have a bootable DOS disk.

Edit: I found some more info on the Microsoft website






it also occured to me that you should DEFINATELY make sure that you don't have a floppy disk or a boot CD in their respective drives.

Short for NT Loader, a program loaded from the hard drive boot sector that displays the Microsoft Windows NT startup menu and helps Windows NT load.
Often a user will see the message "NTLDR is Missing" after attempting to install Windows 2000 or Windows XP, or upgrade a Windows 95-based or Windows 98-based computer to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. The message appears after the first reboot. This occurs only if Windows 95 or 98 has been installed on a drive with the FAT32 file system.

To correct the problem, the user must boot the computer with a Windows 95 or 98 Startup diskette or another bootable diskette with sys.com on it. Then, at the "A:\>" prompt, type "sys c:" and press "enter." A "System Transferred" prompt should appear and then the user must reboot the computer without the diskette.

In recovery console, i tried the following commands :
fixboot c:
copy d:\i386\ntldr c:
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:

no luck, still : NTLDR is missing

more ideas?

noby

Have you tried my suggestion?

Geekgirl, i never stated it was an upgrade from win95 or 98, so i don't see the point in trying it. It is a clear XP install.

...but i can be wrong of course...

noby

Cause:
This is very often the result of a corrupted BOOT.INI file.
Definition:
NTLDR is Short for NT Loader, a program loaded from the hard drive boot sector that displays the Microsoft Windows NT startup menu and helps Windows NT load.

Try this as a possible fix in Windows XP:

Boot to the XP CD. When it asks you if you want to install or Repair, choose Repair. This will take you to the Recovery console. Choose the XP install to log into, usually there's only 1, and enter the password when prompted. For Home, the default password is blank. At the C:\Windows prompt type the following commands:

FIXBOOT, answer Yes
CD \
ATTRIB -H NTLDR
ATTRIB -S NTLDR
ATTRIB -R NTLDR
ATTRIB -H NTDETECT.COM
ATTRIB -S NTDETEC.COM
ATTRIB -R NTDETECT.COM
COPY X:\I386\NTLDR C:\
COPY X:\I386\NTDETECT.COM C:\
In steps 9 and 10, "X" is the letter of your CD-ROM drive.

I'm not sure if this was teststrips instructions but this is what I have found on this problem. Also read this :

AND... here's the result of the combined efforts of the people at PCTechforums : (in dutch, this is good for you) :

het werkt terug normaal

thanks to all searchers and posters

noby

So you got everything resolved?

(Sometimes you have to spell these things out for me in English)

Yep , geekgirl