when i boot for the first time an error comes up saying "ntldr is missing...press contral alt delete to restart". computer always starts on second boot. anyone know what i am missing?
win 7 boot twice to start
- Thread starter fleflikr
- Start date
Billb2
Diamond Member
- Mar 25, 2005
- 3,035
- 70
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Yeah, punctuation and grammar................
yes the boot loader for some reason your W7 install can't find it's boot loader on the HDD a repair install, BCDedit or EastBCD may fix your problem are you sure that you have the drive that was set as the boot drive when you installed W7 still set as the boot device in your BIOS
...see?
Sorry Mr. Bill! Didn't realize i was addressing a grammar school class.
Thank you kindly for your advice.
Thank you kindly for your advice.
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
- 13,576
- 6
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ntldr = NT loader.
NT is a type of windows used in windows NT 1 through 5, windows 2000, XP, vista, and win7. The older 9x type (used in windows 95, 98, and Me) has been abandoned due to sucking compared to the NT branch.
Loader means just that, it loads windows. You are missing your windows boot files for some reason, this could happen if you had a second HDD when installing windows that was since removed, or if they were corrupted due to some reason or another (typically hardware problems)
NT is a type of windows used in windows NT 1 through 5, windows 2000, XP, vista, and win7. The older 9x type (used in windows 95, 98, and Me) has been abandoned due to sucking compared to the NT branch.
Loader means just that, it loads windows. You are missing your windows boot files for some reason, this could happen if you had a second HDD when installing windows that was since removed, or if they were corrupted due to some reason or another (typically hardware problems)
Well i did recently replace the 1 tb hd due to failure. Is there a way to replace the NTLDR or should i just reinstall win7?
(velociraptor is the boot drive)
(velociraptor is the boot drive)
taltamir
Lifer
- Mar 21, 2004
- 13,576
- 6
- 76
reinstall windows... ALWAYS make sure ONLY ONE drive is physically plugged in when installing windows, it often put the boot files on the wrong drives and you are stuck with missing ntldr.
However, you might have to configure your bios to boot from your specific drive first...
So:
1. Reinstall windows with only 1 drive attached
2. attach extra drives
3. configure bios to boot from the the HDD on which you installed windows.
However, you might have to configure your bios to boot from your specific drive first...
So:
1. Reinstall windows with only 1 drive attached
2. attach extra drives
3. configure bios to boot from the the HDD on which you installed windows.
quick question: Where is the computer finding the NTDLR on the second boot? It always boots up perfectly on the second boot.
It sounds like you have more than one boot loader on the system. How many drives are marked as active in windows disk manager (should be only one, but possible to get two...)? Are you intentionally dual booting? Is there ANY operating system on the 1TB drive you just replaced (functional or not)? Was there ever an OS there?
Look into EasyBCD or vistabootpro. One of these can help you diagnose and repair the boot loader(s). EasyBCD is free, so you may want to start there, but the vistaboot forums are very helpful.
Look into EasyBCD or vistabootpro. One of these can help you diagnose and repair the boot loader(s). EasyBCD is free, so you may want to start there, but the vistaboot forums are very helpful.
disk 0 (D) is the terrabyte hd used for storage only and is marked as (active, primary drive)
disk 1 (C) is velociraptor hd used for OS and is marked (Healthy, system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition)
can i tag terrabyte drive as non-active without losing data? i have acronis disc manager if this is possible.
guess i did a poor job installing os.
terrabyte drive is new and never had an os on it.
disk 1 (C) is velociraptor hd used for OS and is marked (Healthy, system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition)
can i tag terrabyte drive as non-active without losing data? i have acronis disc manager if this is possible.
guess i did a poor job installing os.
terrabyte drive is new and never had an os on it.
There's your problem - two active partitions. See if you can mark the non-OS drive as not active. If you have any boot problems after changing the active setting, the Win7 DVD should be able to fix the boot settings.
"Active" tells your system which drive is the boss during bootup. You have one too many in charge.
"Active" tells your system which drive is the boss during bootup. You have one too many in charge.
Nothinman
Elite Member
- Sep 14, 2001
- 30,672
- 0
- 0
No, you can have as many active partitions as you have drives. The MBR of whichever drive you boot from determines what happens next. The default one from MS just blindly jumps to the active partition, but it doesn't even look at other drives so they won't interfere.
No, active only tells simple boot loaders which partition to chain load to. The BIOS determines which drive's MBR gets loaded and then unless it's a smart boot loader like GRUB the other drives don't matter.
Ummm, right. Linux is better, got it. But, he's running windows so that's really not relevant here.
My point still stands, the OP's problems are almost certainly caused by two active partitions. I've seen the exact same behavior. If you have something constructive to add, feel free to post it.
My point still stands, the OP's problems are almost certainly caused by two active partitions. I've seen the exact same behavior. If you have something constructive to add, feel free to post it.
myocardia
Diamond Member
- Jun 21, 2003
- 9,291
- 30
- 91
This is your problem. No, not the fact that its marked active, that's fine. The problem is that your storage drive is Disk 0. Windows always puts the NTLDR on Disk 0, no matter what. That can't be changed. The problem is that Windows identifies the drives by the order the BIOS reports them. So, the drive you have attached to the lowest numbered SATA port is always identified as Disk 0, even if it's attached to port #7.
To fix your problem, you will need to unattach your 1TB drive's cables (actually, either will do), then reinstall Windows or repair install Windoze, then hook up your 1TB drive again. And if you're smart, you will go ahead and attach your Velociraptor to SATA port #0, so this can't happen again.
No, just a poor job of installing the hard drives. Don't worry, I made that same mistake once myself. It seems I've made almost every mistake that its possible to make with computers, over the last 29 years.
Douche-baggery?
He's got a storage drive as drive 0 and it's marked active. Even according to your own post, this is a problem:
So the MS boot loader is blindly jumping to the first active partition, right? Isn't that drive 0?
You didn't mention Linux? True, you did not say "Linux," but what about Grub, the boot loader that is pretty much never used with basic windows installs. You even called it a "smart boot loader" after implying that the windows boot loader was less smart ("blindly jumps").
I'm not trying to argue that GRUB isn't better than the MS boot loader(s). It is, but the point of my posts here has been to help the OP. Your posts seem to be aimed at correcting or attacking my over generalizations rather than helping the OP solve his issues.
His issues still appear to be two active partitions with the wrong one as drive 0. Marking drive 0 as not active will probably solve the problem. Even better would be to mark it as non-active, and swap the SATA cables to make the boot drive first. The Win7 DVD is very good at fixing the boot process with minimal knowledge.
He's got a storage drive as drive 0 and it's marked active. Even according to your own post, this is a problem:
So the MS boot loader is blindly jumping to the first active partition, right? Isn't that drive 0?
You didn't mention Linux? True, you did not say "Linux," but what about Grub, the boot loader that is pretty much never used with basic windows installs. You even called it a "smart boot loader" after implying that the windows boot loader was less smart ("blindly jumps").
I'm not trying to argue that GRUB isn't better than the MS boot loader(s). It is, but the point of my posts here has been to help the OP. Your posts seem to be aimed at correcting or attacking my over generalizations rather than helping the OP solve his issues.
His issues still appear to be two active partitions with the wrong one as drive 0. Marking drive 0 as not active will probably solve the problem. Even better would be to mark it as non-active, and swap the SATA cables to make the boot drive first. The Win7 DVD is very good at fixing the boot process with minimal knowledge.
RebateMonger
Elite Member
- Dec 24, 2005
- 11,586
- 0
- 0
The best possbility mentioned so far. Computers are good at doing the same thing over and over. If you aren't getting the same boot result each time, then something mechanical is probably interfering.
I have several PCs with two disks, and I boot to either one, depending on how I set my BIOS. Each disk has an Active partition. They always boot in the order specified by the BIOS.
http://technet.microsoft.com/e...y/cc779300(WS.10).aspx
"The system partition must be a primary partition that has been marked as active for startup purposes and must be located on the disk that the computer accesses when starting up the system. There can be only one active system partition on a disk at a time. You can have multiple basic disks and each can have one active partition. However the computer will only start from one specific disk. If you want to use another operating system, you must first mark its system partition as active before restarting the computer."
Nothinman
Elite Member
- Sep 14, 2001
- 30,672
- 0
- 0
Drives and partitions aren't the same thing. Every drive has it's own MBR and the default MS MBR code just jumps to the active partition on the same drive, it doesn't do anything with other drives.
Yes, all of that is true. GRUB is commonly used with Linux but isn't tied to it in any way and the MS MBR code is dumb and just blindly run the boot record of the first active partition. I'm even fairly sure it doesn't care about multiple active partitions and just jumps to the first one.
No, it doesn't. You mark partitions as active, not drives. And no MS tool that I know of will let you mark two partitions active at once because of their dumb MBR code. So unless he jumped through some hoops with 3rd party partitioning software that's not what happened.
RebateMonger
Elite Member
- Dec 24, 2005
- 11,586
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RebateMonger
Elite Member
- Dec 24, 2005
- 11,586
- 0
- 0
Any idea why it's booting on the second try?
Edit:
I just re-read the topic header. This is Windows 7. Windows 7 DOES NOT USE NTLDR.
The "missing" NTLDR is a symptom of the problem, but is not the problem.
A site that specializes in the "NTLDR is Missing" error.
O.P.:
Did this computer EVER work correctly? When did it stop booting? My interpretation is that everything was working fine, and then it stopped working for no apparent reason?
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