ntldr

[Geek-9pm]

OK. Maybe I will start a new thread with a headline like this:

Alert! NTLDR is missing.
May have been taken from a floppy.
Call  hot line with any tips.
 
OR
Help us find NTLDR!
Travel the world and get clues
OR
Aliens capture NTLDR!
Walk the streets in pairs!

[BC_Programmer]

if a file doesn't exist, it's missing. I don't see the stigma over that.

[Broni]

There is a new record - 17 replies

[Kurtiskain]

18 

That's what I mean... it isn't windows or anything accessing the drive, it's the BIOS detecting and attempting to boot to the drive.

If it fails, it doesn't even try to move on to the greener pastures of the hard disk. Instead, it stops dead, leaving this epitaph: "No-system disk or disk error: replace and strike any key when ready"

However, sometimes, a disk might have been used as bootable disk with a NT boot sector. if the NTLDR file is removed (via a del *.*, etc) then the nt boot preloader starts, but fails to find NTLDR and halts with this memoir: "NTLDR missing. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to Restart."

What I mean though it these were brand new floppies, we all had to buy our own you see.

So its kind of like a boot between the floppy and HDD...because otherwise the BIOS wouldn;t know to look on the floppy for NTLDR 

the no system disk one is true though, it does just stop dead, though I have seen BIOSes go further with a floppy in.

mysterious..google might help us

and OP...are you still there or are you silently watching from the shadows?

[Geek-9pm]

if a file doesn't exist, it's missing. I don't see the stigma over that.

It is not missing. It is where it always was. In is still in its house. on the same street. Same Town. The Taxi went to the wrong town.Looked on the wrong street, parked in from of the wrong house. NTLDR does not live there. Don't blame NTLDR because the Dispatch gave out the wrong town to the taxi.  

[BC_Programmer]

It either boots from the floppy, or it doesn't, and boots to the  HD.

there is no "half boot" situation.

It's likely simply an artifact of any preformatting that occured with the floppies.

if a file doesn't exist, it's missing. I don't see the stigma over that.

It is not missing. It is where it always was. In is still in its house. on the same street. Same Town. The Taxi went to the wrong town.Looked on the wrong street, parked in from of the wrong house. NTLDR does not live there. Don't blame NTLDR because the Dispatch gave out the wrong town to the taxi.  

If the file is where it always was, why would the computer suddenly declare it missing?


Oh yeah, 19

[Kurtiskain]

Oh yeah, 19 

20 actually 

it is odd though, why would the computer want NTLDR when the floppy has never come into contact with it?

Emergency for "in case you are using floppy for boot disk and cannot reformat it"??

Because I have seen plenty of forums that say to...

WAIT! I think I have it!

Just before XP loads, it searches for NTLDR, right? Perhaps it searches for a copy on the floppy before the HDD version?

[BC_Programmer]

No. It doesn't. It just means the floppy has a NT boot sector.

[Geek-9pm]

No. It doesn't. It just means the floppy has a NT boot sector.

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