NTLDR is missing

[Lizardman]

I just formatted a hard drive in one pc to ntfs file system. When i put the hard drive into another computer and tried to boot win xp from the cd-rom it brings up the words

ntldr is missing restart system.

I know nt loader is missing and i tried to do the fix that was on the microsoft site but it didnt really work. Does anyone know whats going on here and how i can fix this. I just want to install windows Xp on my computer.

 

[bsobel]

Why did you 'preformat' the drive in another PC? The XP setup should let you partition and format the drive.

The ntldr is missing sounds like the system is trying to boot from the HD, not the CD. Is your bios set to give the CD priority? Also, is your cd a 'real' copy of XP (e.g. is it supposed to be bootable?). If you just copied the files and burned a new cd (licensing issues aside) it wouldn't be bootable. (You probably already know that, but I've seen a few other people get hit by that so I thought I'd mention it)

Bill

 

[sportykev]

I hate when that happens, sometimes I reboot and it's fine. Try copying the NTLDR file from another computer if possible...

 

[Lizardman]

Yes the cd rom has priority in the bios. I also tried to boot from a win98 cd. I reason i preformatted in another drive was silly but none the less i did it. The drive had about 10000 lovebug viruses on it.

 

[bsobel]

> The drive had about 10000 lovebug viruses on it.

Got it, the o'l "Nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure"

You mention you tried to boot from a Win98 cd, what happened in that case? If you still got the NtLdr error then that is NOT being caused by a problem on the W2k CD. This is an internal ide cd? Is it on it's own bus, primary or secondary?

Bill

 

[Flyingcool]

Originally posted by: sportykev
I hate when that happens, sometimes I reboot and it's fine. Try copying the NTLDR file from another computer if possible...

Thats what I usually do, it works

 

[bsobel]

Thats what I usually do, it works

It *may* work. ntldr must be on the first part of the disk where the bios i/o can access it.
Bill