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NTLDR issue...

M

M11293

Member
I just bought a new computer from someone on these boards. As far as hardware, everything is working. When I tried to install windows I got the "cannot find NTLDR press ctrl+alt+delete" message.

What do I do from here. Anything in the BIOS? How do I change the boot from hard disk to DVD-RW. DVD-RW is set as IDE-secondary master.
 
1) post full spec list. Sure we have psychic powers, but we charge extra if you make us use them. They're fueled by pizza, y'know 😉

2) If your Windows installation made it through the initial formatting & file-copying phase, and then rebooted itself and now gives you this message, then it's a boot-device-priority problem, which means you need to get into the motherboard's BIOS and alter the boot-device priorities.
 
AMD 64 3000+ (s939)
MSI Neo4 Motherboard
eVGA 7800 GT PCI-E 256 MB
2x512mb Geil PC 3200 RAM
250gb Seagate 7200.9 SATA HD
80gb Seagate 7200 IDE HD
Floppy Drive
NEC 16x DVD +/- RW 3520A
Zalman 350 watt Silent Powersupply
4 Zalman Silent 80mm fans
Skyhawk Aluminum Case

It is completely formatted. I can't even get into the windows installation setup. Black screen comes up after motherboard load and it won't go any further, "NTLDR missing."
 
Which would be best? 250gb SATA or 80 IDE?

I'm not positive on how to switch which one I want it installed on.
 
How about use the 80GB for Windows and programs, and that leaves the 250GB available for music and stuff, so if you have to blow away your Windows drive, nothing happens to the rest.

So begin by completely taking out the 250GB drive so Windows Setup doesn't get confsued. Also unplug any USB memory-card readers or USB drives of any kind, so the only drive is the 80GB IDE drive. Don't add more drives until after Windows is all installed.

Now go into the motherboard's BIOS menus. Go into Advanced BIOS Features > Boot Sequence and set First Boot Device to CD-ROM, and then have the HDD be one of the other two boot devices. Save & exit, and now try starting it up with the Windows CD in the drive.
 
Hmmm.

1) You might also try unplugging the 80GB drive too, so the NEC is the ONLY drive of any kind, and see if you can force the system to boot from it, as a fact-finding step.

2) if #1 doesn't work, try a different optical drive instead of the NEC, and try the disc in a different computer just to confirm it's not a faulty disc (if you see the Press any key to boot from CD prompt, that's good enough).

3) try moving the optical drive to the primary IDE channel just to see if that makes any difference.
 
That's a good start, now you know that the drive and CD are good. So if you add your hard drive again on the other IDE channel, do you see a Press any key to boot from CD... prompt, or does it stop checking for bootable CDs again?
 
Well I tried the 250 GB and it installs. I tried the 250 with the 80 again and it didn't work again. Should I just go with the 250 for windows and the 80 for whatever.
 
There's nothing wrong with using the 250, but I do wonder what's the problem that keeps it from working with the 80.

If the 80 is on an IDE cable by itself, make sure that the cable is an 80-wire Ultra100 or Ultra133 cable, not the coarse 40-wire Ultra33 cable, and set the drive for Cable Select on its jumper.

If the 80 is on the same IDE cable as the NEC, then I'd change that and put it on its own separate cable, but it sounds like that's what you were doing already.

Anyway, if you end up using the 250, have fun and do be careful about worms. If your WinXP CD is not already equipped with Service Pack 2 built-in, then keep it isolated from networks (wired or wireless), download the whole Service Pack 2 installer file onto a CD-R or a USB drive, and patch your fresh Windows to SP2 level while it's safely isolated, so it's not as vulnerable to worm attack.

Since your new build supports the Data Execution Prevention feature in WinXP SP2, also turn on DEP completely and this may help stave off future exploits 🙂
 
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