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Nov 22, 2011, 07:34 PM
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This article was taken from http://ntldrismissing.com/ visit the site for more details
For Windows XP (or Windows 2000, or NT4, or Windows 98) users, here's what happened:
When your computer starts, the "BIOS" attempts to find the primary hard drive's active partition to read the first sector for the "Master Boot Record", it uses that info to load the rest of the OS. For Windows NT4/2k/XP the MBR is pointed to the NTLDR (New Technology Loader). If the BIOS looked at the wrong drive or the wrong partition, if the partition wasn't active, if the MBR was damaged, or the MBR didn't list NTLDR in the right place, or the location of NTLDR changed, if the system was not yet fully setup, or if you had a hardware failure in one of the connections (cable, drive, motherboard), or if your hard drive got erased, you'd get the error.
Did you just plug something in? Unplug it
If you recently changed hardware, or a BIOS setting change, change it back. This could be as simple as a floppy disk left in the disk drive, or a usb stick or external hard drive being plugged in. (What if I made new changes that I want to keep?).
Making the boot disk to work around the BIOS, MBR, NTLDR, and boot.ini problems
Step 1. Get a blank floppy/cd-r/usb (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer.
Step 2. If you have a working Windows machine download my fix: Floppy fixntldr.exe | CD-R fixntldriso.zip | USB ntldrusb.zip onto a working computer (Backup copies of these files available at http://ntldrismissing.com )
(What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?). (64 bit WinXP Floppy 64ntflop.exe | CD-R 64ntiso.zip | Files 64ntfile.zip)
Do you remember if the broken computers had the Windows installation in "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .
(If your backup system is NT4 or Windows 2000: What if my backup system is Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).
Step 3. Make the new boot disk:
*Floppy: Don't put the fixntldr.exe on your floppy drive, but the file on your desktop or anywhere on your C: drive. Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk. (If you don't like running an exe from me, you can run fixntldr_RawRite.zip and just replace the RawRite.exe file inside with one you trust) (now go to step 4)
*CD-R: This is not a normal file you burn to a CD, it is an "ISO" file, you must first extract the fixntldriso.zip file by right clicking it and choosing "Extract All" then Next>Next>Finish.
Windows 7: Double click fixntldr.iso and follow the prompts.
Windows XP: use "ISO Recorder" from http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm
Windows 2000: Install Active ISO Burner "IsoBurner-Setup.exe". Then right click the fixntldr.iso file and choose to "Copy image to CD" or "Burn ISO file" and let it burn the cd (now go to step 4)
*USB: Because its so complex, it gets its own page, when done, come back and move to step 4: Screenshots of every step of making the USB disk and boot with it
Step 4. Put the new floppy/cd-r/usb you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.
Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.
Step 5. Power on the broken computer with the floppy/cd-r/usb inside it/plugged into it (if the computer was already on, restart it). Once your computer gets past the BIOS screen your computer should try to access the boot disk and you should see a black screen with white letters (What if I don't see this screen?). That says:
1ST TRY THIS seleccione esto primero
2ND TRY THIS essayez ceci en deuxieme
3RD TRY THIS wahlen Sie diesen Third
4TH TRY THIS selezioni questo fourth
5TH TRY THIS selecione este fifth
6TH TRY THIS seleccione este sexto
7TH TRY THIS essayez ceci en septieme
8TH TRY THIS wahlen Sie dieses achte
9TH TRY THIS selezioni questo nono
10TH TRY THIS selecione este decimo
(I threw in some Spanish / French / German / Italian / Portuguese for international flavor.)
This file is set up to automatically select the "1ST TRY THIS" choice after 30 seconds. Try it first, if it was the wrong selection, you will likely get one of these four errors:
Error 1. Windows could not start because file "system32hal.dll was missing or corrupt
Error 2. Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.
Error 3. I/O Error accessing boot sector file multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)BOOTSECT.DOS
Error 4. Immediate reboot
I suggest going through all 10 options until you find one that works, if none work, you can try pressing F8 at the "1st Try This" selection screen, it will give you a prompt where you can select Safe Mode, and then try the "1st Try This" option again. Safe Mode is a special "minimal" version of Windows that doesn't load certain parts of the operating system that might have caused the problem. (What if none of the options worked?) .
Step 6. Use windows to fix the boot files on the hard drive. And *Please Donate* by clicking the Donate button below
If you got back into Windows, stop whatever you are doing and backup your most important information from this computer.
Now that you are done backing up the most important info, try to change back whatever you were last doing and boot normally, it that doesn't work, put the floppy back into the broken computer and double click the fixntldr.bat file on the floppy drive, if it asks you to overwrite a file, just type in y for yes (the file copies boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com from the floppy to the C: drive and removes the read only attributes). That process take a few minutes, then remove the floppy and reboot.
If you are using the cd or usb solution, copy the boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com files to My Computer > Local Disk C: > and overwite whatever files might be there, then right click each file, choose properties, uncheck the Read Only attribute, and click OK.
If you get back into Windows again, you can change that "1st Try This" menu by going into Start > Control Panel > PerformanceAndMaintenance/System > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section, Settings button > System Startup; then change the "Default Operating System:" to the selection that worked for you, and change the box that says "Time to display list of operating systems" to however many seconds you want (usually 1 second). Click OK twice. (screenshots)
If you copy the file over and boot up and get a "NTLDR is compressed" error message, be sure to uncheck "compress contents to save space" on the hard drive.
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