NTLDR missing, press any key to restart? WTF does this mean and how do i fix it

[mikef208]

I just transfered my entire computer from an Enlight 7237 to an Antec 1030b. Everything worked fine, but when I started it up I got this error. How do I fix it. I tried pressing a key and it doesn't reboot, so then I powered down and restarted and got the error again. help

 

[arod]

IT does this when you leave a floppy in the Floppy Drive...

 

[sitka]

The most common cause of NTldr is missing is a floppy sitting in the drive at boot up
Second is changing harddrive positions on the cable because the loader uses arc path naming which is hardware dependent.
If for exanmple your boot drive was on ide0 and is now on ide1 it has a different arc path.

 

[WildeBeast]

just curious, did you change power supplies? That is the only possible reason short of improper installation. Maybe you atached LED's incorrectly to the mobo, but that probably wouldn't result in that kind of error. Re-set the motherboard to the case, maybe the some lead is grounded poorly, or you damaged the motherboard during transfer.

 

[mikef208]

No that is a system disk error, remove and press any key to contine. this is differant.

I just found This, but if this is what I have to do then I have another problem. I can't seem to boot off my LS120, it is set as the first boot device in the BIOS, but I can leave any disk in it and it will still boot off the hard drive. Not to mention i don't know if I have the disk needed.

 

[sitka]

JYNX


Next most popular would be an incorrect bios setting. Like boot from CDROM
Then would be a corrupt Master Boot Record. Which can happen when a drive is turned upside down or side ways but not that often. Extreme bus speeds can corrupt boot records as can an incorrect power shut down.

 

[HYD]

Hey if you don't have a drive in there, and if you format and it still persists, you have a virus attacking the mbr. You have to format the mbr and everything will be fine. I had this exact problem and no one could help me. Someone just mentioned that it might be my mbr and to format it, finally did it and it worked.

If not then sorry, disregard this post!

Corrupt mbr too.

 

[mikef208]

Sorry arod, i didn't know it did that, but I don't have a disk in the drive, and as I said it won't boot off it anyway.

Next I did change the drives from IDE 0 to IDE1, it was just easier, but now I changed them back to IDE0 and rebooted and I still get the error.

I switched cases, so yeah I am using a differant hard drive.

 

[arod]

In the bios look for the boot sequene and set it either to boot floppy or CDrom first then put a floppy/cdrom in and run setup

 

[HYD]

mikef208: Try formatting your HDD (if it's possible) and see if you get that error again. Also do a format /mbr after the format to make sure you got rid of anything affecting the mbr.

 

[TunaBoo]

I didnt see this mentioned, but be sure to fdisk and THEN format. HD's usually come unformated if you buy OEM.

 

[mikef208]

Okay let me explain something. First i have 2 maxtors in Raid 0, then I have a WD 30.7gig that I am not really using. Plu s a ZIP LS120 and TDK burner. In the BIOS my boot options were LS120, HD1, then CDROM. This is what it has been for a while, but something just caught my attention. My computer was booting fine for quite a while, but now I don't know how. I have Win ME and Win 2K in dual boot on the raid array, but somehow my computer was booting. I just changed my boot devices all to ATA100Raid and it booted fine, that I understand, but how was it booting before since the array wasn't listed as a boot device. Secodnly I found out why pressing a key didn't restart it. I have a microsoft keyboard that uses the PS2 or USB connection, i had been using the USB, but apparently something isn't working. i plugged in the PS2 and it works.

 

[sitka]

<< I switched cases, so yeah I am using a differant hard drive. >>



explain?

 

[mikef208]

Thanks for all your help i think i fixed it, but I think your all missing something. I moved all the stuff from one case to another, that is the only change, well including the PS, so nothing is new and shouldn't need reformated, and I doubt it could be a virus or it wouldn't have just started. But it doesn't matter I got it thatnks.

 

[mikef208]

OH maybe thats were you gusy were getting that from. Someone asked me if I switched power supplies, I meant to say, I switched cases so yeah i switched power supplies. I guess i just had the hard drive on my mind. thanks

 

[sitka]

boot sequence would be A,... then the array in any form. On a card it would usually be SCSI. On board would be specified in bios as an IDE channel, but the bios dosen't know you have an array so it would point to a controller channel.

 

[randomlinh]

you need to enable usb keyboard support in the bios.

as for your problem, dunno.


you said you switched cases, so yeah, you're using a new HD, you have yet to explain that statement if all you did was switch cases... unless you were refering to the ide0/1 thing

 

[cableguy]

Are you sure you have the HD connected to primary IDE0?

Go into the BIOS, is it autodetecting your HD properly on boot up?

If both of those are OK, try to boot from the WinNT CD, your MBR may need repaired/NTLDR may need reconfigured.

 

[cableguy]

Doh, took to long to type my response

 

[mikef208]

I fixed the problem guys. I just changed one of the boot devices to ATA100Raid so it would boot off my raid array. I wish I knew how it was booting before without it on this. Also were in the BIOS is USB keyboard support. The keyboard works fine under windows, but it won't work during boot up or when i have to select what OS i want to load.

 

[Bozz]

I didn't get to this thread early enough either but another common cause for the NTLDR error is if your BIOS is left on 'AUTO' for HD type and you change the IDE cable, even the routing, if you are using the 80 pin cable, or the 40 pin cable on an ATA66/100 HD. The bios may incorrectly detect the HD as 'CHS' (Cylinder,Head,Sector) instead of 'LBA' (Logical Block Addressing).

This problem confused me for a whole of 8 minutes once.

Cheers

 

[Finality]

I've also heard swapping the DIMMS seem to help though I have only had this work once on about 3 seperate ocassions.