"NTLDR Is Missing" Error Message

[dcdomain]

For WinXP
For Win2K

I remember someone in Off Topic posting this problem last night, but was unable to find the post again. Hope these links help, because I had the same problem, and it was a no go for me...

 

[Saltin]

Place the 2k or XP CD (whichever) into your drive and allow it to boot from the CD.
Wait while it preps up, eventually you will get an option to repair (press R). It's right beside the install options.
Don't worry about not having an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). Just let Windows try to fix itself. Choose automatic repair. It will fix the problem I reckon.

 

[dcdomain]

Hehehe, I don't have a CD-rom drive. Been swapping out this harddrive into an other laptop, copying the i386 files over and then back. It worked all the time for Win2K, but I'm having problems with it now. I'm wondering if a USB CD-Rom drive and the 6 WinXP bootdisks will work...

 

[JackMDS]

Dcdomain, the two links in your original post are pertaining to the ntdlr problem during upgrade from Win98.

However if you lost the ntldr boot on an already Win XP functional Hard drive, there is another solution besides Booting from CD ROM.

You need one floppy, and few files from a good installation of XP.

Follow the instructions of the following link.

How to Use System Files to Create a Boot Disk to Guard Against Being Unable to Start Windows XP

After successful boot install Recovery Consol and run it, it will repair the Boot Loader (ntdlr) at the first run.

 

[dcdomain]

Hmmm what if I'm having trouble installing from scratch? What it does is... WinXP starts copying the files over... but when it reboots it gives me the error so I can't continue with the installation.

 

[woodie1]

nm

 

[dcdomain]

Well, I tried it and because I didn't have an existing WinXP installation on the drive, it gave me errors about not finding certain files in the windows/system32 folder...

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: Saltin
Place the 2k or XP CD (whichever) into your drive and allow it to boot from the CD.
Wait while it preps up, eventually you will get an option to repair (press R). It's right beside the install options.
Don't worry about not having an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). Just let Windows try to fix itself. Choose automatic repair. It will fix the problem I reckon.

I had the same problem recently (Win2k and Win98 dual boot, Win98 partition corrupted) and the repair function said that it can't do anything without the ERD. It was a big mess, ending with me reinstalling both OSes.

 

[dcdomain]

Okay, here's how my friend got it to work.
He installed some Win98 system files off of a boot disk. I guess just use a Win98 bootdisk and run sys a: c:
Then run the setup, and when it reboots after copying the files, it'll ask you which OS to pick. Pick XP and continue the setup... (new setup).

 

[dcdomain]

Damn... it almost completed installation, and after it got out of that screen, it just stopped on this aqua screen so I rebooted, and it gave me BSOD's...

Tried the disk method from the link above, same Hal error even though the file now exists...


Gave up... installed Win2K...