Need computer help (NTLDR keeps disappearing)

[aggressor]

This has happened twice so far, and I don't know why! Norton AV reports nothing, and using WDs Diagnostic tools show nothing is wrong with the drive.
I don't know what to do

First time it happened on March 27th:

Out of no where, Windows 2000 said something caused an error (lass.exe or something similar) and it gave me 30 seconds to shut down (I've NEVER seen that box pop up before). When I Restarted, it said "NTLDR is missing, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart"

I fixed it using the recovery console, but I ended up losing everything on C: (HD is partitioned into C: and D. I thought it was just a random thing, but now it's happened again.
I was transfering files over the network, when all of a sudden my PC reboots. NTLDR missing again. That's it.

Before this started happening, NOTHING was wrong with my rig, so I don't know what it could be now. Any ideas from you guys? I don't know what to do

System Specs:
Athlon XP 1900+
Epox 8HKA+
512MB PC2100 Crucial Memory
Western Digital 180gb Drive using NTFS (ZERO errors when using WDs Diagnostics tool)
Windows 2000 SP3 with all critical updates

 

[Viper96720]

Found this don't know if it helps. But it says something about contacting Western Digital. MKB Maybe you got some kind of virus. This also troubleshooting ntldr missing

 

[DannyBoy]

Dude, what version of 2k are u running?

Pro or one of the server family?

Also, it is a legit pressed disc isnt it?

If its a copy then youve likely got a dodgy copy, and i have to stop my help to you from hear

 

[aggressor]

Windows 2000 Pro, and no, it's not a copy

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Windows 2000 Pro, and no, it's not a copy

I had a bad copy of 2k Pro when i bought it originally, and had the exact same problems as you.

I returned the disc and got a new one.

Check the cd to make sure its not damaged, otherwise you might be getting underlying problems after youve installed it

Dan

 

[aggressor]

I don't think it's the CD :\

Could it be a faulty power supply or somethin?
I bought an Antec TruePower 430 before this all started happening, but I don't know if that would cause what's happening

 

[aggressor]

Also, after I use the recovery console to fix the MBR (Doesn't work), when I restart, I get little gibberish charcs on parts of the screen when it says the NTLDR is missing.

The gibberish happens in the same 3 places, and looks like a colored smiley face, a cross, and a blue S that's out of place.

 

[DannyBoy]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Also, after I use the recovery console to fix the MBR (Doesn't work), when I restart, I get little gibberish charcs on parts of the screen when it says the NTLDR is missing.

The gibberish happens in the same 3 places, and looks like a colored smiley face, a cross, and a blue S that's out of place.

:Q

 

[aggressor]

What?

 

[DannyBoy]

Ive never heard of a blue cross smily face etc in a dos prompt :Q

Ill do some research and get back to you.


Off to bed for an hour or two first.

Ill be back soonish

Dan

 

[aggressor]

Well, here is everything I did so far to get back in to Windows XP (Which is what I ran before I installed Windows 2000 in Feb\March)

WinXP Bootable CD\Setup > Recovery Console:

Trying to get the directory contents on my C: drive gives me an error. Going to D: (Which is the same HD, different partition) and doing the same works fine. Everything is there.
/fixboot and /fixmbr both do nothing for the readability of C:. D: remains fine. Now when I reboot, I get the same error (No NTLDR found) except I cannot CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot, plus I get those 3 gibberish charcaters on my screen in the same place each time.

So I put the WinXP CD back in and boot off of that, starting setup. When it asks to chose my partition it lists C: as having 100% free space, even though I didn't format it. I chose to format it using NTFS, regular format, not a quick one. WinXP install continues without problem, and I am now running without any problems. Everything on D: is readable, none of it is corrupt.

This is the exact same thing that happened last time. So, what do you think the problem is? I've only done 2 things hardware wise recently, one was simply switching cases, and the other was upgrading my generic power supply to an Antec TruePower 430. It can't be a virus because Norton AV finds nothing.

The only things I can think of:

1. I origionally formatted this HD with Windows XP, and later only formatted C: to install Windows 2000. I don't *think* theres a difference between Win2K NTFS and WinXP, but I'm not sure.

2. The power supply is doing something REALLY funky, but how could that cause the problems I'm having?

 

[Viper96720]

Have you ran chkdsk on the drive?

 

[aggressor]

Yes. I have also used Western Digitals Dianostics tool, both quick check and full check, and the drive was 100% fine.

 

[Green Man]

Originally posted by: aggressor

1. I origionally formatted this HD with Windows XP, and later only formatted C: to install Windows 2000. I don't *think* theres a difference between Win2K NTFS and WinXP, but I'm not sure.

Both are NTFS5, but dynamic disks are different between W2K and XP. IIRC basic disks are the same. Are you sure your virus definitions are up to date?

 

[NogginBoink]

This sounds like either a virus or filesystem damage.

Next time, run chkdsk from recovery console and see if that fixes the problem.

 

[aggressor]

I've run Chkdsk before. It finds some kind of errors and fixes them, but still results in total data loss on C:. And yes, NAV is up to date.

How would I know if its filesystem damage? Is there anyway to repair it without wiping the drive clean?

 

[aggressor]

Any other ideas?

 

[magomago]

This happened to me. What I did was go to my other computer, copy ntldr from the HDD and then booted into a win98 driver disc and copied ntldr into the c:\winnt directory and my problem was solved. I had to do that twice on my 500mhz machine about a year ago. And I remember also on the M$ site there was a known bug caused with NTLDR disspearing and it had no known solutions.

But that was my soltuion So I'd try that

I'm also guessing the latest SP (my disc is SP2 and that is what i'm running) will fix it

 

[prosaic]

The power supply is doing something REALLY funky, but how could that cause the problems I'm having?

What if one of the funky things the power supply is doing is that it is cutting power to the drive before the cache is cleared? That could mess up your file system and cause recurring problems in starting the operating system.

If you are having a PS problem (or motherboard-to-case contact issue) you need to fix that before trying to deal with any other issues, IMO.

- prosaic