OT: computer NTLDR is missing

I found this in a Google search:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I had this problem too and this is what I did (Microsoft was wasn't of much help)

1. Boot from the WinXP CD and select REPAIR when prompted. This takes you to the RECOVERY CONSOLE.
2. Once recovery starts (i.e after entering ADMIN Password) copy the file NTLDR from the CD (i.e d:\i386)onto the root system drive (i.e C:\)

To be sure you can also copy the NTLDR file to the following folders (c:\windows, c:\windows\system32). Also verify the existence of these files (ntdetect.com, boot.ini).

Exit Recovery Console

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Good luck.

Karl Townsend wrote:

It usually means the CD you're trying to boot from isn't a bootable CD. - GWE

Unlike other operating systems, you usually can't just swap drives with XP/W2K/NT, particularly if it's from another box. That error message is telling you that the bootloader can't find the rest of the operating system, usually the drive isn't where it's supposed to be in the pecking order. With XP/W2K/NT, you usually have to reload/rebuild from scratch, it's not like the older Windows and DOS systems where you COULD get away with plunking in a bootable drive from another box and just change a few things. I have done it, but you have to start with a working system first and make a backup of the working hard drive. It takes several hours to get the replacement to the point where you can swap it in and boot it, it's usually faster just to reload the OS.

First thing to do is swap the hard drive cable out for a new one. The fact that you can't see the replacement hard drive tells me that something is wrong with that drive channel, the controller(not likely) or the cable. The cheapie chink ones that you can get these days just seem to go out every so often, just replaced one last night that caused all sorts of hell with the DVD burner and the video capture drive. It was about a year old. I always have a couple of spares, reminds me to make a note to get another one when I hit the computer store on Fri.

One thing you could do is to temporarily swap the suspect drive into a working box in Slave mode, boot up and see if you can read anything off the drive. That's assuming that the original has a Windows-compatible file system. If you can read it, copy all your data files off of it to another drive, just in case. Another working computer is almost a must when doing this sort of troubleshooting.

Stan

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