NTLDR Missing

[djemima]

I'm running on Windows XP professional
When i try turning on my computer, i get the message:
"NTLDR is missing
Press cntrl alt delete to restart"

I know what you're thinking, simple enough. But nope. I followed this tutorial you guys have here:
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm specificially under-> Solutions: Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file: Windows XP users.
i get to step 6 no problem, but when i type in these commands, i get "Access denied" for both commands. The disk is in drive e, and so i'm following those commands perfectly - i've tried about 20 times each.
Am i doing something wrong? Any solutions? PLz help, i dont want to lose all of my data on my pc...

[Hedonist]

Need info on your pc, what hardware setup (laptop/desktop/notebook) etc...  Maker and model number..

[djemima]

Its a desktop running on Windows XP Professional (i have an original installation cd)
It is a custom built computer.
Here are some of the specs i had posted about it a while ago in a gaming community:

Motherboard:
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 3800+
Motherboard Name Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN,)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (PC3200 DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (11/26/04)
Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)
Communication Port ECP Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS (640 MB)
Monitor Compaq P1100 [21" CRT]

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter Creative SB X-Fi [NoDB]

Storage:
SCSI/RAID Controller NVIDIA nForce(tm) RAID Class Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller
SCSI/RAID Controller Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller

[Hedonist]

Nice one, do you have a floppy diskette drive?

[djemima]

yes i do have a floppy drive

(If your next question is if i have a floppy backup or anything like then the answer to that is no)

[Hedonist]

Now why would I think you had backup   LOL

Go here and follow the advice given by Dusty in his reply.

If the gods are smiling upon you and you manage to restart Windows then your hard drive has not failed, NTLDR has gone awol for another reason.  If the advice works for you, you should retain the floppy diskette for possible future use. 

Then maybe you could think of that backup regime you always promised yourself!! 

Good luck

[djemima]

thanks for the reply.

from that post tho, how/where can i find these files on the other computer. searching for them on my laptop yielded no results (this is probably a really beginners question, but im still a beginner )
Secondly, does it matter what kind of computer they're copied from and what kind of OS they're copied from?
my pc is a desktop running on xp professional. my immediate options to get these files from are from a laptop running XP (not professional i dont think) and from a desktop running vista.
should i go on a hunt to find a desktop running xp professional to make sure they are identical files?

[Hedonist]

Sorry about that, for some inexplicable reason I thought you would know, I should have asked.

The three files are Hidden, System files and as such have to be Unhidden. 

L.click My Computer
L.click C: drive (this may be labeled as Local Disk C:, this is the system partition.)
L.click Tools
L.click Folder Options
L.Click View

In Hidden Files and Folders bullet "Show Hidden Files and Folders"

A couple of lines below that untick "Hide Protected Operating System Files"

Click Apply>OK

The files mentioned should now be visible and can be copied.

As to where you can copy the files from, Dusty wrote

Copy these three files to a floppy diskette from any pc running XP.

  It doesn't matter whether its XP Home or XP Pro but it must be XP, Vista does not use those files. The type of computer, laptop/desktop is of no consequence.  Getting the files from your laptop onto a floppy diskette might prove difficult, I assume your laptop does not have a floppy drive.

There is another solution which might work for you.  Go to this site and download "Boot CD - Windows XP Emergency Boot CD" (158k 11-March-2007).  This is an ISO file and you must burn it to a cd (again assuming that you have the facility to do this).  The file can be downloaded/burned using any pc but will only perform where Windows XP is installed.   Ensure that on the problematical pc the bios is set to boot from the cdrom first, put the burned cd in the cdrom and boot the beast.  The theory (works for me) is that the system will use the boot files from the cd but load the version of Windows XP installed on your hard disk.

If the above works for you, unhide the folders/files as above and search for NTLDR.  I think you will find it is still on the hard drive but couldn't be found.

Edit:  Must go now, will check back in about three hours.