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ntldr missing! help! not sure what to do

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onecoolcat

Junior Member
I have two hard drives, the boot being a SATA raptor and a secondary IDE used for storage. The problem is, I accidentally deleted the ntldr file as well as some other system files from the IDE drive. Now, I cannot boot the system with the second drive plugged in. I get the error "ntldr is missing". I know why, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I'd assume I need to make a boot disk and copy the files once I boot from that disk, but I'm not sure how to make it and what to edit. I'm running windows XP, ntfs of course. What do I need to do? Please help!

My e-mail is david@rekash.com. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I won't be able to check these forums often, so any help directed to my e-mail would be most welcome!

Thanks in advance!
David
 
You can repair it by booting from the Windows XP CD
and running the Recovery Console.

Then do the following:

Copy X:\i386\NTLDR C: (X is your CD ROM drive letter)
Copy X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:


 
any other suggestions?

I did what LiLithTecH suggested above and I also did:

fixboot c:

and I am still getting the "ntldr missing" when I boot.

btw, I am running Win XP Pro and it appears that the bios IS recognizing my boot drive.

The problem first occured the other day after a power outage...the pc was in "stand-by" mode and then the electricity went out for about 15 minutes. When I have tried to reboot since that time I get the "ntldr missing" message.
 
hmm, if LiLithTecH suggestion didn't work & you also deleted some files then a repair install of xp may be on the cards!
your data should remain intact.
 
Is a repair install of Win XP Pro an option on the Win XP CD? I only recall getting to a command prompt after choosing the repair option on Win XP Pro. From there I copied the ntdetect.com and ntldr files to my hard drive.

thanks.
 
If you boot with the install CD and proceed with an install, XP or 2000 will see your existing OS and ask if you would like to repair it or proceed with a new install. Choose "repair" and let it reboot. I think it will reboot twice, both times choosing repair. I would also backup any files you want to keep just in case!
 
Originally posted by: jonmullen
Have you tried rewritting your MBR?
Click to expand...

Somewhere on the internet I thought I read a little bit that the problem may be with a bad motherboard or hard drive. How do you rewrite a motherboard?

 
Originally posted by: ChunkiMunki
If you boot with the install CD and proceed with an install, XP or 2000 will see your existing OS and ask if you would like to repair it or proceed with a new install. Choose "repair" and let it reboot. I think it will reboot twice, both times choosing repair. I would also backup any files you want to keep just in case!
Click to expand...

Since I can't get Windows XP Pro to boot I would have to backup files via DOS? Is that right?

Thank you.
 
Originally posted by: rnmcd
Originally posted by: jonmullen
Have you tried rewritting your MBR?
Click to expand...

Somewhere on the internet I thought I read a little bit that the problem may be with a bad motherboard or hard drive. How do you rewrite a motherboard?
Click to expand...

He asked you to rewrite your Master Boot Record, not your motherboards. 😉

No idea how to do that, but just thought I'd point that out.
 
All the suggestions that you ( onecoolcat, rnmcd??) have been given were good ones, so it looks like that repair install may be the fix. Keep in mind that the hard drive may be hosed by that power spike from the outage; I lost one recently that way.
I would suggest using a floppy utility, like maxtor's or IBM's drive fitness test, before putting much effort into a repair install.
 
You can do a parallel installation over what you have, backup your data then reformat and start from scratch. I know it may be a pain but it is the most reliable way I believe. If you choose to reinstall the OS, remember to leave the file system intact. You should see the option. DO NOT DELETE YOUR DRIVE OR FILESYSTEM.
 
i had this problem last week. u cant fix it with windows repiar console. it omly allows u access to %systemroot% and nothing else. u can type cd .. in the console to go down in the directory, but u will not have access to anything. the way i fixed it was copy all the system files in the root from another computer to a floppy. there should be like 5 or 6 files. the final thing u need is NTFSPRO, which will allow u to have write access to ntfs drive. just dont panic, after the fix, the OS seem fine afterward.
 
Originally posted by: skyking
All the suggestions that you ( onecoolcat, rnmcd??) have been given were good ones, so it looks like that repair install may be the fix. Keep in mind that the hard drive may be hosed by that power spike from the outage; I lost one recently that way.
I would suggest using a floppy utility, like maxtor's or IBM's drive fitness test, before putting much effort into a repair install.
Click to expand...

Hi skyking. I borrowed a harddrive from a friend that had Win2000 installed on it. I moved my harddrive to the secondary IDE and was able to look at all the files/programs I had on the drive. So do you think my harddrive is still okay since I can see the contents of the hard drive?
 
Originally posted by: rnmcd
Originally posted by: skyking
All the suggestions that you ( onecoolcat, rnmcd??) have been given were good ones, so it looks like that repair install may be the fix. Keep in mind that the hard drive may be hosed by that power spike from the outage; I lost one recently that way.
I would suggest using a floppy utility, like maxtor's or IBM's drive fitness test, before putting much effort into a repair install.
Click to expand...

Hi skyking. I borrowed a harddrive from a friend that had Win2000 installed on it. I moved my harddrive to the secondary IDE and was able to look at all the files/programs I had on the drive. So do you think my harddrive is still okay since I can see the contents of the hard drive?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. Download a utility and test it, it will take you a half hour total. Beats trying to repair an OS on a damaged drive!!!
 
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