Missing NTLDR file

[paparazi]

System I'm being asked about.
It has a single SATA drive that contains the OS (XP pro)
and two roms on Primary IDE (master/Slave)
No problems at all until they try to add this 10GB IDE, this is when they get the "missing NTLDR file" press ctrl Alt Delete to restart.
Now I have experienced a similar problem on my own rig when I tried to change the storage IDE drive (160 Boot SATA, 60 storage IDE) got this same message but figured out that some boot files must have been somehow stored on this second drive during OS config.
But why should this happen when adding an IDE HDD to a system booting fronm a single SATA.
I know motherboards try the IDE first on boot and give priority to IDE hard drives but why should adding a clean and formatted hard drive into the system cause a non boot?
Simple specs:
Via KT600 Jetway moby with SATA
Athlon XP2.2+
512 PC2700
80GB Seagate SATA
CDRW
DVDrom
Tried differant jumper settings and HDD on differant channel, on it's own and with a rom, all the same.
Maybe you have a comment about my problem as well.
Martin



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[wolluf]

Martin,

What is the boot order in the bios? (my wife's PC - which has a single SATA drive - happily booted from this drive when 'SCSI' wasn't on the boot order at all (IDE0 was second boot device after floppy) - its an Asus A78NX which should need SCSI set to boot from SATA. Just wondering if you've got similar setting - and then when you do install an IDE drive...)

 

[Freestone]

Look in boot.ini. Should see a line something like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

rdisk(0) has probably been taken over by the IDE drive.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmc_str_masc.asp

 

[Frank4d]

...No problems at all until they try to add this 10GB IDE, this is when they get the "missing NTLDR file" press ctrl Alt Delete to restart...."

Has the 10GB hard drive previously had Windows NT, 2000, or XP installed on it?

Sometimes Windows gets confused during the boot process and will try to boot from one drive and will look for files on another drive if it detects a Windows installation on another drive even though you set the BIOS to only boot from HDD-0.

 

[mainegeek]

Martin,
This is an excerpt from the included link from Microsoft.


"This problem may occur if the MFT root folder is severely fragmented. If the MFT root folder contains many files, the MFT may become so fragmented that an additional allocation index is created. Because files are mapped alphabetically in the allocation indexes, the NTLDR file may be pushed to the second allocation index".

Perhaps a combination of the above scenario and the presence of the 10gig be attached is causeing an additional allocation index to be created?

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320397

 

[paparazi]

Thanks guys,
As this is advice I'm seeking for a friend I will pass it on and let you know, thanks again.


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