NTLDR is missing

[Class]

Hi!

i searched with google, tried a lot of things, but I still get NTLDR is missing on boot up. What can I do?

Done:

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\

copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

fixboot

fixmbr

bootcfg /rebuild

Tried aswell:

fixntldr.exe

Nothing will work. Any ideas? =/

*Thanks in advance...*

[sghiznaneck]

Hi!

i searched with google, tried a lot of things, but I still get NTLDR is missing on boot up. What can I do?

Done:

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\

copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

fixboot

fixmbr

bootcfg /rebuild

Tried aswell:

fixntldr.exe

Nothing will work. Any ideas? =/

*Thanks in advance...*

You'll have to reinstall. Believe that is a file which can only be loaded upon installation.

[Joel]

Do a repair install from the boot CD.

[Class]

You'll have to reinstall. Believe that is a file which can only be loaded upon installation.

*Thanks

Do a repair install from the boot CD.

Now i'm doing the repair installation...I hope I won't have to reinstall everything on it, and hope my data won't be lost...

[Class]

Do a repair install from the boot CD.

Well, I've it a coupl of times, but still get that the message! what now? maybe a 'clean install'? :pinch:

[Freedom Phantom]

I always have to format when I receive a NTLDR error on any of my Windows machines.

[Class]

I always have to format when I receive a NTLDR error on any of my Windows machines.

Yeah, I see what you mean, because I've tried now anything what that windows boot cd could do, but I believe I have to format! :(

[Class]

Well, since nothing helped, so I removed both HDD-s to stick into a working XP to backup my data and then to format it. First I tried put in the storage HDD without OS, and somehow the BIOS recognized my HDD, but inside windows xp there where no drive, just recognized and unpartitoned 60GB HDD, and mine was 120GB HDD with one NTFS partition, anyway I thought then I start with the backup of my 'C:', the HDD with the OS thet went 'NTLDR is missing', everything fine, backing it up right now. Meanwhile I tried to maybe set up on that storage drive the new OS, since I knew I have about 20GB free space on it, so it wont be a big problem if I install it there. I but it on, and started the boot cd, and it also recognized my HDD as a 60GB.

Where is the rest? ...did windows mess up my partition? ...is there anychance that I can restore my data on that drive? how can I set my partition back to normal with out formating it? (120gb) :unsure:

*Thanks for helping

[Guest Jeremy of Many]

Doing a repair install with this error message will not work. It has to be a format. If you have two SATA drives, this error will occur if you are working on your PC and happen to mix up the SATA cables. Anyway, you are forced to do a format. Make sure nothing is physically wrong with your HDD by testing it with the appropriate utility from the drive manufacturer. For future reference you might want to check out Acronis True Image. Make an image of your system when it is 100% working A-OK, and if you receive that error, do a full format and then do an image restore with Acronis. Back in business, no time wasted reinstalling/configuring. :)

[Class]

Doing a repair install with this error message will not work. It has to be a format. If you have two SATA drives, this error will occur if you are working on your PC and happen to mix up the SATA cables. Anyway, you are forced to do a format. Make sure nothing is physically wrong with your HDD by testing it with the appropriate utility from the drive manufacturer. For future reference you might want to check out Acronis True Image. Make an image of your system when it is 100% working A-OK, and if you receive that error, do a full format and then do an image restore with Acronis. Back in business, no time wasted reinstalling/configuring. :)

I checked my HDD, and it's working fine, so no physical problem.

I will try for sure this Acronis, if it's easy like you sad to get back in business with it...but how it's working exactly. It just makes an image of windows, or the whole partition?

[Lt-DavidW]

Hi!

i searched with google, tried a lot of things, but I still get NTLDR is missing on boot up. What can I do?

Done:

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\

copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

fixboot

fixmbr

bootcfg /rebuild

Tried aswell:

fixntldr.exe

Nothing will work. Any ideas? =/

*Thanks in advance...*

Next time don't try following advice you find on Google blindly.

fixboot and fixmbr in all likelihood have made the problem worse.

Insert your Windows XP CD and then in Recovery Console type in:

copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\ [press enter]

copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ [press enter]

Where D is the CD/DVD drive and C is the hard drive with the Windows installation.

To access Recovery Console you boot from the Windows XP CD, then press R when you see 'Welcome to Setup'.

After these steps, what error message do you now see upon booting?

[Class]

Next time don't try following advice you find on Google blindly.

fixboot and fixmbr in all likelihood have made the problem worse.

Insert your Windows XP CD and then in Recovery Console type in:

copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\ [press enter]

copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ [press enter]

Where D is the CD/DVD drive and C is the hard drive with the Windows installation.

To access Recovery Console you boot from the Windows XP CD, then press R when you see 'Welcome to Setup'.

After these steps, what error message do you now see upon booting?

Well, weamwhile I'm on my way to solve tha problem, and backing up my data. But as I done that what you sad, I just got the same error message, that sad: "NTLDR is missing", so that's why I tried all others, as fixboot and fixmbr.

[JustGeorge]

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t136282.html

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

No promises, just found these on the net.

[Class]

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm DONE

http://www.techimo.com/forum/t136282.html DONE, EXCEPT THAT BOOT.ini CHECK

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm DONE

No promises, just found these on the net.

...but nothing helped! :(

Edited March 18, 2007 by Class

[JustGeorge]

S.O.L. then :)

[NoneAvail]

not to hijack the post, but i am having a similar problem.... and a fix without reinstall would be VERY VERY HELPFUL :)

[Class]

not to hijack the post, but i am having a similar problem.... and a fix without reinstall would be VERY VERY HELPFUL :)

Well, until now no one could tell help with that solution to get it back to work without reinstallation. I solved the problem, with my other HDD, without OS, I just took out of my case that NTLDR missing HDD and Installed a complete new one. Now I back up my data and then I will try to put it back, but I quess the it will be just the same message, so I guess as it was mentioned....to format is the only solution. But actually I do not uinderstand why!? :pinch:

[Eqwatz]

Well, until now no one could tell help with that solution to get it back to work without reinstallation. I solved the problem, with my other HDD, without OS, I just took out of my case that NTLDR missing HDD and Installed a complete new one. Now I back up my data and then I will try to put it back, but I quess the it will be just the same message, so I guess as it was mentioned....to format is the only solution. But actually I do not uinderstand why!? :pinch:

Cheap, or buggy chipsets:

Some chipset/bios combinations will not boot the second drive if the windows partition is on the first drive (with the partition "flagged" as "active" or "boot") and the grub installation points to the second drive. I don't know why. It will just refuse to boot anything at all. In this case, partition magic will see everything correctly and the drives will be accessible when running a Live CD such as Linux Puppy. If this is the case, and you have a good partition magic program which will safely resize NTFS; first make an Image of the windows partition and anything else you have on the first hard drive (Backup.) Then, resize whatever you have to in order to make a primary partition of 60M or so. This will be a copy of your /boot partition from your Linux installation. Then you will have to run grub with the target of the newly created "/boot" partition. You will have to do some reading to learn how to do this--I need to get going and don't have the time to write a tutorial on grub. Having a "/boot" partition as the second primary partition on the first hard drive is the most robust and "bullet-proof" installation that there is. But, it will take some getting used to, and there are tricks to make it safe and robust. You have to edit the /grub/menu.lst to point to the correct drive and partition for each installation. I don't mount that partition with an /etc/fstab entry, I copy all of the new kernels and initrd files to the partition manually with the "kernel' entry in /grub/menu.list having a root=[location of your installed Linux "/" as /dev/entry here]. This means that you can have as many installed Linux Distros that you wish as long as you ONLY RUN GRUB ONCE TO POINT TO THE MBR OF YOUR FIRST HARD DRIVE. All of the other Master Boot Records on all of the other hard drives/partitions will be ignored by your chipset/bios.

When the partitions appear to be correct, but something is terribly wrong:

In this case, the ntloader file will actually be there when you open the drive on another computer. In this instance, you must also check your Linux partitions to make sure that they are intact as well. If all is well except for the mysterious problem--running the microsoft check disk program twice in succession will probably correct the file system. After that, install the grub program to a floppy before you run the fixboot program, as fixboot will rewrite the Master Boot Record and wipe out grub; it will also re-link the ntdetect and ntloader programs necessary for the Windows partition to boot.

Then, you will have to re-install grub using Linux, after booting it using the boot-floppy.

For when the drive appears to be empty:

What it usually is: In a "known-good" drive; is that the partition information was lost at the root of the drive. Often as not, it is caused by forgetting to reboot after making changes to the partition table on the drive with windows installed. It used to be a common problem with one of the partition editors; I forget which one. If you did a partition resize and didn't follow directions exactly it will cause the problem.

http:www.google.com/linux

Is your friend. Google restore partitions. Google gpart.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/LILO-...scue-HOWTO.html

Specifically "gpart" a program which intelligently guesses the partitions on your hard drive. I had good luck with it in the past.

Also, there were conditions which led XP to eat the partition table. I could get XP and 2000 to repeat the error, but never figured out what exactly went wrong.

It the hard drive only had a couple of primary partitions and a couple of logical ones, and you haven't made too many repetitive changes-- the gpart program will probably work for you.

Once you have guessed the partitions, and they look correct, allow the program to write the partition table. Then try to make an image of the drive to dvd with true image. BEFORE running the windows checkdisk program, which must be run twice in succession if you resized the partition with a partition program. Hope that helps

Eqwatz.

BTW: thanks for bringing up the problem. I had forgotten the gpart program and spent hours rebuillding drives the other day in the shop. I have reached the "Mr. Magoo" stage of the "over-forty" set.

Edited March 20, 2007 by Eqwatz

[Eqwatz]

Cheap, or buggy chipsets:

Some chipset/bios combinations will not boot the second drive if the windows partition is on the first drive (with the partition "flagged" as "active" or "boot") and the grub installation points to the second drive. I don't know why. It will just refuse to boot anything at all. In this case, partition magic will see everything correctly and the drives will be accessible when running a Live CD such as Linux Puppy. If this is the case, and you have a good partition magic program which will safely resize NTFS; first make an Image of the windows partition and anything else you have on the first hard drive (Backup.) Then, resize whatever you have to in order to make a primary partition of 60M or so. This will be a copy of your /boot partition from your Linux installation. Then you will have to run grub with the target of the newly created "/boot" partition. You will have to do some reading to learn how to do this--I need to get going and don't have the time to write a tutorial on grub. Having a "/boot" partition as the second primary partition on the first hard drive is the most robust and "bullet-proof" installation that there is. But, it will take some getting used to, and there are tricks to make it safe and robust. You have to edit the /grub/menu.lst to point to the correct drive and partition for each installation. I don't mount that partition with an /etc/fstab entry, I copy all of the new kernels and initrd files to the partition manually with the "kernel' entry in /grub/menu.list having a root=[location of your installed Linux "/" as /dev/entry here]. This means that you can have as many installed Linux Distros that you wish as long as you ONLY RUN GRUB ONCE TO POINT TO THE MBR OF YOUR FIRST HARD DRIVE. All of the other Master Boot Records on all of the other hard drives/partitions will be ignored by your chipset/bios. **Just make sure that all of the kernels have unique names--or are put into their own distro-named directories in you new "/boot" partition.**

When the partitions appear to be correct, but something is terribly wrong:

In this case, the ntloader file will actually be there when you open the drive on another computer. In this instance, you must also check your Linux partitions to make sure that they are intact as well. If all is well except for the mysterious problem--running the microsoft check disk program twice in succession will probably correct the file system. After that, install the grub program to a floppy before you run the fixboot program, as fixboot will rewrite the Master Boot Record and wipe out grub; it will also re-link the ntdetect and ntloader programs necessary for the Windows partition to boot.

Then, you will have to re-install grub using Linux, after booting it using the boot-floppy.

For when the drive appears to be empty:

What it usually is: In a "known-good" drive; is that the partition information was lost at the root of the drive. Often as not, it is caused by forgetting to reboot after making changes to the partition table on the drive with windows installed. It used to be a common problem with one of the partition editors; I forget which one. If you did a partition resize and didn't follow directions exactly it will cause the problem.

http:www.google.com/linux

Is your friend. Google restore partitions. Google gpart.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/LILO-...scue-HOWTO.html

Specifically "gpart" a program which intelligently guesses the partitions on your hard drive. I had good luck with it in the past.

Also, there were conditions which led XP to eat the partition table. I could get XP and 2000 to repeat the error, but never figured out what exactly went wrong.

It the hard drive only had a couple of primary partitions and a couple of logical ones, and you haven't made too many repetitive changes-- the gpart program will probably work for you.

Once you have guessed the partitions, and they look correct, allow the program to write the partition table. Then try to make an image of the drive to dvd with true image. BEFORE running the windows checkdisk program, which must be run twice in succession if you resized the partition with a partition program. Hope that helps

Eqwatz.

BTW: thanks for bringing up the problem. I had forgotten the gpart program and spent hours rebuillding drives the other day in the shop. I have reached the "Mr. Magoo" stage of the "over-forty" set.

Edited to add info.