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| Thread ID: 41757 | 2004-01-21 08:05:00 | NTLDR is missing | Mike (15) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 208996 | 2004-01-24 04:34:00 | > Looking like a reload Mike? Yeah it does look like it at this stage :( I'll whack the drive into my machine and copy over any retrievable data. Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 208997 | 2004-01-24 07:48:00 | The same thing has happened to me b4 and a few others on this forum, i had succesfully fixed it wen it happened to me, just search the forum for old topics and files with NTLDR | vk_dre (195) | ||
| 208998 | 2004-01-24 08:53:00 | Skinnerjack is right - for NT based systems the message you get when you try to boot with a non-bootable floppy disk is that the NTLDR is missing. | JohnD (509) | ||
| 208999 | 2004-01-24 10:46:00 | > Skinnerjack is right - for NT based systems the > message you get when you try to boot with a > non-bootable floppy disk is that the NTLDR is > missing. How does the computer know what OS your computer uses BEFORE it has accessed the boot drive? The way I understand it (prepares for egg on face) is that if I have a floppy in the drive and said floppy drive is set to boot before the hard drive, then the hard drive boot sector shouldn't have been accessed yet, so how would the computer know that I have an NT based system rather than a typical DOS based one? And what if I dual boot anyway, then which system (NT or DOS based) would the computer decide to use when reporting while trying to boot from a non-bootable floppy disk? Of course if the Hard drive was set to boot before the floppy, then the floppy wouldn't be accessed and I wouldn't get such a message... All that said, this isn't my problem :D Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 209000 | 2004-01-24 10:49:00 | > > Skinnerjack is right - for NT based systems the > > message you get when you try to boot with a > > non-bootable floppy disk is that the NTLDR is > > missing. > > How does the computer know what OS your computer uses > BEFORE it has accessed the boot drive? The way I > understand it (prepares for egg on face) is that if I > have a floppy in the drive and said floppy drive is > set to boot before the hard drive, then the hard > drive boot sector shouldn't have been accessed yet, > so how would the computer know that I have an NT > based system rather than a typical DOS based one? > And what if I dual boot anyway, then which system > (NT or DOS based) would the computer decide to use > when reporting while trying to boot from a > non-bootable floppy disk? And to test this, I just put a non-bootable (blank) floppy into the floppy drive and started the system. "Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart." ;) Mike. |
Mike (15) | ||
| 209001 | 2004-01-24 12:41:00 | > > Skinnerjack is right - for NT based systems the > > message you get when you try to boot with a > > non-bootable floppy disk is that the NTLDR is > > missing. > > How does the computer know what OS your computer uses > BEFORE it has accessed the boot drive? The way I > understand it (prepares for egg on face) is that if I > have a floppy in the drive and said floppy drive is > set to boot before the hard drive, then the hard > drive boot sector shouldn't have been accessed yet, > so how would the computer know that I have an NT > based system rather than a typical DOS based one? > And what if I dual boot anyway, then which system > (NT or DOS based) would the computer decide to use > when reporting while trying to boot from a > non-bootable floppy disk? > > Of course if the Hard drive was set to boot before > the floppy, then the floppy wouldn't be accessed and > I wouldn't get such a message... > > All that said, this isn't my problem :D the system boot goes something like this........ 1. power on 2. motherboard POST test 3. RAM count / check 4. Drive check 5. end of post testing 6. load MBR (master boot record) of boot drive. 7. run code found in MBR the MBR on the hard drive of the system you have is from an NT system of some sort (NT4 or 2k or XP) The MBR has about 512 bytes of code that tell the system to load the OS by getting the NTLDR file and running it....... on a dos or win9X system the MBR will tell the system to load "msdos" your problem is that the MBR cant find the NTLDR or thinks its dammaged and so spits the error "missing NTLDR" the solution is to fix the MBR and fix the "system files" like NTLDR the best way to do this might be to reload windows over the top of the version you have and so replace system files but not trash the whole drive..... some programs might not work but you can recover the data..... final thuoght is that I had a problem like this on my system and couldent fix it, it turned out to be that the BIOS setting for the drive has been changed. the drive and OS where installed with the BIOS set for LBA drive but the settings got changed to "large" access mode and this caused the problem. just because the file look good to you dosent mean the the MBR can find them, an OS uses the FAT for locate the right sector to find files but the MBR code is a bit more blunt and just loads from a sector it "knows" has the NTLDR. changing the access mode changes the sector numbering system and so MBR code cant find files. good luck PS I am sure there are many spelling mistakes in this post but its 1:30am and I cant be bothered fixing stuff, goodnight everyone |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 209002 | 2004-01-24 19:54:00 | thanks robsonde couldnt have said it better myself, last time i got this error i tryed to install a dual boot for win2k / win98, found out the hard way win98 has to be on first, sigh. | skinnerjack (4296) | ||
| 209003 | 2004-01-24 20:00:00 | thanks robsonde couldnt have said it better myself, last time i got this error i tryed to install a dual boot for win2k / win98, found out the hard way win98 has to be on first, sigh. | skinnerjack (4296) | ||
| 209004 | 2004-01-25 00:46:00 | Hi Mike Please try the following fix Find another pc with XP Home or XP Pro Copy the system files from the root of C:\ NTLDR NTDETECT.COM IO.SYS BOOT.INI and maybe MSDOS.SYS onto a floppy, then boot with xp cd and go into recovery consol copy the files from the floppy to the root of c:\ reboot and it should boot up fine. |
tech_mister (433) | ||
| 209005 | 2004-01-25 00:52:00 | Sorry , forgot to mention that if the drive structure is different between the two pc's (eg. windows is installed on D:\ drive) then you'll have to modify the boot.ini file to suit. |
tech_mister (433) | ||
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