NTLDR always missing!

[jimelliot]

In an effort to get XP installed following troubles with boot up, I had to run FDisk from an WinME startup disk, and then a reformat of HDD. I am now able to get the initial install screen with my XP boot up disk. I got to the screen that reads The following list shows the existing partitions and unpartitioned space.
In the box below this I have the following:
Unknown Disk
(There is no disk in this drive)
286166 MB Disk 0 at Id0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR}
c: Partition1 [NTFS] 286158 MB (285566 MB free)
unpartitioned space 7 MB

I select c: Partition 1, and it asked if I want to format to NTFS or leave file system (no changes). Selected format to NTFS.

After complete, and setup copies necessary files, the pc reboots, after it displays press any key to boot from CD (I dont do anything at this point), I get NTLDR is missing.

I tried again and pressed R at the first setup screen, and let it do its business. At the C:\Windows prompt, I copied the NTLDR files to my C drive, by the following method
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Both files seem to have copied without error.

Ran setup from CD again, still getting NTLDR missing.

Now trying to run setup from XP Pro floppies, but now when it asks me where to install windows, it shows only 131 MB disk space. Where has the rest gone?

I am in the process of reformatting again (NTFS file system) on the 131 MB to see how far I get.

This is my third day at trying to resolve this and would appreciate all the help I can get. I am about to go and buy another HD (which I cant afford at the moment), and I am desperate for my pc.

TIA

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
Check the bios settings to see what disk/partition is set as the boot one..





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[Lemon13]

it might be that ur mbr is faulty, get a low-level diag tool from drive manufactor and do a deep test on the drive

 

[linney]

You could try starting from scratch once more.

Are these IDE drives or SATA?

HOW TO: Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP (Q313348)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q313/3/48.asp

Read the paragraph,
"How to Partition and Format Your Hard Disk by Using Windows XP Setup."


For more help (shows enlargeable screenshots) go here.

http://www.petri.co.il/install_windows_xp_pro.htm