Ok, I have been handed what I beleive to be a 20gb hd that has been formatted (NTFS) and a legal copy of XP to put on it for a 5yr old computer.

When I try to install, I get a msg that says, 'NTLDR is Missing, press ctl+alt+del to restart'

I have:

*checked to make sure the cdom is the first place the bios tries to boot from
*Created a boot disk for the floppy drive with XP home (which doesn't include fdisk, and I could't get it to help)
*tried something called Ultimate boot CD
*tried to creat a boot cd with roxio, but I am unsure what image file to try or what (if any) emulation to use.
*no idea what to try next, and I know just enough about all this to be dangerous

It almost is like the cdrom isn't reading anything thats put in the drive, be it an OS disk or boot disk or what.

Ive googled to check any forums that relate to this, but Im not sure what else to do.

9/16/2006 12:27:25 PM

you get that message when trying to install???

9/16/2006 12:30:20 PM

Thats the only message I get after hitting the power button.

Ive also done the obvious stuff like make sure the physical cables are connected. It has two CD drives, and Ive tried unplugging one, just to see if that would help.

I don't know if this means anything, but when I remove the ribbon cable from the floppy drive, the message doesnt come up, there is just a cursor on the screen.

9/16/2006 12:34:08 PM

It sounds like it's trying to boot from the drive still. You have to go in to the BIOS and change the boot order to be from CD>

9/16/2006 12:52:31 PM

I did. the first boot device is the CDROM, then floppy, then hd


Im looking at this site now, going to try this fixntldr file and see what that does

http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/files/ntldr_missing.htm[/link]



[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 1:03 PM. Reason : .]

9/16/2006 12:59:53 PM

9/16/2006 1:41:07 PM

Quote :

"Ive googled"

http://www.google.com/search?q=ntldr+is+missing
First Hit: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Quote :

"Windows XP users 1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer. 2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key. 3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows. 4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter. 5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password. 6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer. copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\ copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ 7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot. "

If you want to be safe, before step 6:

rename c:\ntldr c:\ntldr.OLD
rename c:\ntdetect.com c:\ntdetect.com.OLD

If you can't get past step 5, let us know ... still alternatives (NTFS4DOS).

[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 2:41 PM. Reason : .]

9/16/2006 2:35:59 PM

Quote :

" 1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer. 2. when prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key. "

That is the problem:

I have not been prompted to do this yet. and Ive set the CD as teh first boot drive in the BIOS. The tower powers on, and then I get that message.



[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 3:07 PM. Reason : add]

9/16/2006 3:05:24 PM

Keep hitting the space bar whe you are booting. Some BIOS' hide the computer booting with something colorful (like a company logo) and you won't see the prompt.

9/16/2006 3:17:00 PM

yeah go into the bios and disable the logo splash screen if you have one of those BIOSes

you should see your memory being checked with a counter when you turn on your PC, then you should see all your system devices (depending on your BIOS) and THEN it'll start booting to an OS or whatever you've told it to boot to (CD drive).

if space bar doesn't work, try escape too. just get to an all-text screen.

9/16/2006 3:21:58 PM

^ is that to get into the BIOS menu? cause Ive been there...



OK, I added fdisk to the floppy that XP created to boot, and have created a single partition w/ some sort of FAT32 w/ large hd space support. Now when I power on, the screen comes up and says 'missing operating system'. I would like to believe that this is where I can put in the OS cd and go, but its still not reading.

9/16/2006 3:23:40 PM

Quote :

"you should see your memory being checked with a counter when you turn on your PC, then you should see all your system devices (depending on your BIOS) and THEN it'll start booting to an OS or whatever you've told it to boot to (CD drive)."

ok... The splash screen no longer comes up, but Im not sure what I did to cause that. I didnt see anything in the bios menu to enable or disable it. I haven't seen the mem counter or any display showing what devices are available.

I dunno if this helps, but the bios setup is for a dell dimension 4100

9/16/2006 3:30:54 PM

http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/files/ntldr_missing.htm

my neighbor doesnt know shit about computers and i was googling shit for him and like this was the second link we clicked

it worked for him(his was 3rd try, and you can set the computer to boot the "third try" automatically

9/16/2006 3:33:20 PM

Quote :

"^ is that to get into the BIOS menu? cause Ive been there..."

different BIOSes have different keys for things

but no, this is not to get into the BIOS setup menu, this is to clear the screen of any logos and useless screens so that you can see all the text going on 'behind' them.

Quote :

"created a single partition w/ some sort of FAT32 w/ large hd space support. Now when I power on, the screen comes up and says 'missing operating system'."

you didn't need to do that. you just changed the error message, but did nothing to solve your problem.

Quote :

"I would like to believe that this is where I can put in the OS cd and go, but its still not reading."

your CD should be in from when you power the PC on - have you been doing that?

9/16/2006 3:33:25 PM

Quote :

"dell dimension 4100"

can't you just call dell?

Quote :

"http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/files/ntldr_missing.htm"

the problem is not the NTLDR missing. the problem is he is trying to install windows on a drive and the PC keeps trying to boot from the drive which has no OS on it instead of booting up the CD to install windows.

9/16/2006 3:35:19 PM

oh, well cant he just change the order of shit that boots up

i know there is a way to like move it up and down the list...to make the cd drive first...i've also done it to boot from floppy disk first

9/16/2006 3:37:25 PM

Quote :

"the problem is not the NTLDR missing. the problem is he is trying to install windows on a drive and the PC keeps trying to boot from the drive which has no OS on it instead of booting up the CD to install windows. "

That is it exactly.

Quote :

"this is to clear the screen of any logos and useless screens so that you can see all the text going on 'behind' them. "

Ok, that is done. It shows the memory test, serial & paralell ports, and usb port. IT doesnt list any of the optical drives before the screen disappears.

Quote :

"you didn't need to do that. you just changed the error message, but did nothing to solve your problem."

yeah, pretty much got pwnt on that one

Quote :

"your CD should be in from when you power the PC on - have you been doing that? "

Yes. my bad on saying that wrong.

Quote :

"oh, well cant he just change the order of shit that boots up"

Tried that in the Bios but it hasnt worked for me yet. It will read a boot disk in the floppy drive, but thats it.

[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 3:40 PM. Reason : ^]

9/16/2006 3:39:26 PM

is it fat or ntfs?

i'm pretty sure either me or my roomate could figure this out in like an hour if we had the computer

[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 3:42 PM. Reason : partitions i mean]

9/16/2006 3:41:06 PM

is the CD drive even recognized in the BIOS?

9/16/2006 3:42:50 PM

doesnt xp have any kind of floppy boot disks you could make really quick...or maybe load a command prompt and then have the cd boot it up?

9/16/2006 3:45:53 PM

Quote :

"is the CD drive even recognized in the BIOS?"

Only as an option in what sequence of divices I want to boot from

Quote :

"doesnt xp have any kind of floppy boot disks you could make really quick...or maybe load a command prompt and then have the cd boot it up?"

I Created a boot disk for the floppy drive with XP home (which doesn't include fdisk, and I could't get it to help). The only resources on that disk are labeled COMMAND, MODE, and KEYB. As for making a cd, you need cd burning software, which requires some kind of image and a question on emulation.

[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 3:59 PM. Reason : .]

9/16/2006 3:58:31 PM

i don't think your CD drive is working properly

supposedly you've got everythinge configured correctly

[Edited on September 16, 2006 at 4:00 PM. Reason : maybe i can fit it another -ly, possibly]

9/16/2006 3:59:50 PM

^ Ive tried this with three diff. cd drives... could it be the cable you think?

9/16/2006 4:00:35 PM

you are absolutely certain all cables are connected correctly?

9/16/2006 4:01:18 PM

Ive just checked them again. Everything is snug.

9/16/2006 4:18:10 PM

my laptop kept doing this and i ended up having to send it back to IBM

9/16/2006 4:23:36 PM

Ima prolly see if my IT lady at work sees anything that Im missing

9/16/2006 4:28:52 PM

Is the "legal" copy of XP a burned disc with a real serial?

If so the disc might not be bootable. Just a thought.

9/16/2006 11:25:13 PM

It sounds to me too that the system is not detecting the CD drive.

Make sure the pins and stuff are right, and the cable is good, and it's set for master and trivial things like that.

9/16/2006 11:33:53 PM

I had this same problem and what I believe caused it was I bought a new motherboard, processor, and RAM and tried to use the same hard drive that had been formatted with my old motherboard and RAM. I tried everything and I think what worked was slaving the drive on another computer and copying the NTLDR file to the primary partition. It was either that or reformatting the drive while it was slaved...cant remember, but spent like a day and a half banging my head against the wall.

Did this turn up in one of your searches?

http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/files/ntldr_missing.htm

9/17/2006 2:53:13 AM

try a DOS boot floppy with CD-ROM drivers (http://www.bootdisk.com). can it access the CD-ROM ( D: )?

if yes, then your BIOS is fucked or your CD-ROM drive is non-standard, you can work around a fucked BIOS but it may not be worth your time*

if no, then your CD-ROM drive is fucked or non-standard

does the CD-ROM drive connect internally to a sound card or anything other than a 40-pin IDE header on the motherboard? if so you should investigate why the PCI option ROM for that card is not booting from it.* if not, your CD-ROM drive is fucked.

* more troubleshooting details for this later if you don't give up at this point

[Edited on September 17, 2006 at 3:24 PM. Reason : .]

9/17/2006 3:20:42 PM

Quote :

"if so you should investigate why the PCI option ROM for that card is not booting from it.*"

say what?

9/17/2006 4:46:34 PM

every PCI device can define an option ROM that is loaded and booted during the boot process... SCSI cards, RAID controllers, network cards, and proprietary CD-ROM interfaces use this to allow booting from that device. if it is not booting from that device it may not have an option ROM, can possibly be firmware upgraded to support it, or might have to be enabled for it from within the configuration dialog that it might mention when it boots. booting the option ROM might also be disabled in the BIOS, and certain combinations of sound/video/disk controllers will not be able to load their option ROMs on certain motherboards (due to an arbitrary memory limitation placed on option ROM size).

9/17/2006 9:46:58 PM

At this point, take your hard drive and windows cd to somebody else's computer with a working CD-ROM that you can boot from, pop them in for 5 minutes, copy files, done.

9/18/2006 7:04:22 AM

In addition to the other suggestions, I would say get someone else's CD and see if it does anything in your drive. This would show you if your CD is messed up and is not being recognized.

9/18/2006 12:36:10 PM

Quote :

"Is the "legal" copy of XP a burned disc with a real serial?"

No, its the real deal from microsoft.

Quote :

"Did this turn up in one of your searches? http://www.tinyempire.com/shortnotes/files/ntldr_missing.htm"

Yeah, posted it on the thread

Quote :

"reformatting the drive while it was slaved...cant remember"

I believe that was how this hd was erased...would this erase the boot sector as well?


Im going to test the cd drives in another pc after work to see if its fucked or not.

Ill post if this is the answer

9/19/2006 3:35:43 PM

Turns out it was a bad CD drive. Replaced and installed XP with no problems

Thanks for the help fellaz

9/20/2006 1:15:57 PM