NTLDR is missing

[vece_78]

       Hi everyone, recently I have re-formatted my old computer with Window 98 operating system. I wanted to install Window XP into this system. Half way of the installation, the system hang and I rebotted the computer. However, after restart, the message "NTLDR is missing, press ctr+alt+del to restart".
      My understanding to this problem is that there is no NT loader exist in my MBR. First, I have double-check the BIOS setting to make sure my first boot device is set to CD-ROM drive. Since I have formatted the hard disk, the NT Loader should be from my boottable CD which is my WinXP installation CD. I have tried to change to other different copy of WinXP CD but still the same error come out. Any suggestion on how to solve this ? Would it be my hardware problem such as motherboard battery flat or hard disk problem ? I appreciate for any suggestion from anyone. Thanks !!

[cigarman]

Ok your Xp install hanged halfway, on reboot you should hit "esc" or F1 or F2 to enable you to boot from CD again, this will continue the installation where XP had stopped.  Has this been done to complete the install?

[vece_78]

It totally cannot detect any CD from my CD ROM. That's the reason it can't boot from CD. However, I have checked and detect the CDROM drive from my BIOS and it is detectable. I have read some article that can download NTLDR from web and try to load into my system to try. Another alternative I can think of is try to change other CDROM drive and install again. The problem for me is the PC is not with me and I will only have chance to visit my friend once a week to help them to fix their PC. I hope to gather as much information as possible before I go there this coming weekend. Therefore, any suggestion would be appreciated and I will have to try until I succesfully fix it. Hope to hear from you guys comment. Thanks !!

[SKy]

Hi vece,

"NTLDR is missing"

A PC can (usually) either boot from hardisk or CD-ROM. To boot up, some system files are required. And you need to set in BIOS which to boot from ie hardisk first, or CD-ROM first.

Suggest you check that you winXP CD is bootable on your own PC.

I think what happens is that after u partially install winXP, the system files are not properly setup, then when u retry the boot option is set to boot from harddisk. That's explains why u get "NTLDR is missing".

Cheers

[vece_78]

Hi Sky,
         I agree with you regarding
         
        Sky: I think what happens is that after u partially install winXP, the system files are not properly setup, then when u retry the boot option is set to boot from harddisk. That's explains why u get "NTLDR is missing".
       
         My problem is after this I can't even boot from my CD-ROM at all to format my hard disk again even though I have change the First Boot Device to CD-ROM. Everytime I restart the computer, it keep showing this message "NTLDR is missing, press ctrl+alt+del to restart". Is it possible after the first installation got hang, it somehow always look for NT loader from hard disk Master Boot Record to load the WinXP no matter which First Boot Device I set ?

         Besides, I have read from some article that this also might caused from boot sector virus. Will this virus affect my installation CD or CD-ROM ?

         I have created WinXP bootable diskette and I want to try to boot from my floppy and format my hard disk. Will this help ?

[SKy]

Hi vece,

I'm not familiar with boot sector virus, but I understand that it shdn't affect your boot device settings. This setting is located in ur BIOS config, while boot sector virus resides on ur harddisk. When ur comp boots up, the program flow goes to ur BIOS 1st. Boot sector virus resides on ur harddisk. Thus i think logically if u boot up from CD-ROM, bootsector shdn't affect u at this stage.


My opinion is:
- if u'r very very sure ur 1st boot device boots from CD-ROM, then ur winXP CD is not bootable. Original winXp CD is bootable. But if u just copy out the files to another CD, that new CD will not be bootable. This is bcoz for a CD to be bootable, there r some specific files that is to be copied to a certain location on ur CD (google for bootable CD). I tried created 1 some time back, n it took me some time.

- Using a bootable diskette is a good idea, it'll help isolate ur problem (it'll b good to test ur bootable CD / diskette on another PC too). u can enable write protect on ur floppy (by opening the small hole at the corner) before u boot from this floppy in case there is a boot virus and it trys to copy itself to ur floppy.

BTW, while i was experimenting with bootable CDs, for those failed CDs I also receive the error "NTLDR is missing". I think during those failed attempts, I created bootable CDs that is only able to read FAT (win98 filesystem) and not NTFS. Then I use them to boot up a NTFS win2000 system. Might this be related to ur problem as well?

cheers

[vece_78]

Hi everyone,
Finally, I'm able to format the system. First, I used fdisk to delete active partition in HDD after successfully boot from my Win98 Bootdisk. Although I manage to delete the partition, I still can;t run the WinXP installation CD. I guess it is because the CDROM couldn't read the CD properly and hence can't boot from there. Later, I decided to change to other CDROM and give it a try and it works ! I really didn;t expect that before that I can install my WinXP from the old CDROM and then got hang. I think after the system hang and then the CDROM just went wrong. Anyway, thanks for everyone's reply !! Really appreciate that...