ASUS EEE PC 701 - "NTLDR is missing"

[M0RPH]

I have a friend with this older netbook which has a 4GB SSD and Win XP installed. The computer suddenly won't start, giving the error "NTLDR is missing". This is the 2nd time it's happened to him, but the 1st time he took it to a repair shop and he doesn't know how they fixed it.

I'm guessing that it's a problem with the SSD drive. I've heard that these small netbook SSD drives are of low quality, and don't SSD drives in general only last so long before they die? Could it be that his SSD is dying on him? Would a normal hard drive diagnostic utility work for checking the drive out? I really don't have any experience with SSDs. Any other suggestions?

 

[Billb2]

"NTLDR is missing" means that the program that loads the Operating System can't be forund.

There are any number of causes to this, from a borked HDD to a bad BIOS configuration.

The fix will depend on what the actual problem is.

Check the Drive Mamanufacturer's site for a diagnostic program. He (you) will need one that is bootable, as, for all intents and purposes, there isn''t an OS on the computer.

 

[jtisgeek]

Since it's xp you can do a install over top will usually fix it. Now if hes smart you can run a fix disk /r I believe been a long time since I have worked on a xp machine.

Google fix disk command and fix mbr commands. Nut a reload will always work but you loose your stuff.

Could be the hard drive but doubt it also check and make sure his boot order hasn't changed.