NTLDR is missing!!!

[spyder850]

ive managed to get this upon booting my windows xp hd lately...ive tried going through the recovery console and typing in

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\


and ive done a fixmbr and a fixboot and still i get the same message...am i doing these things wrong? inthe wrong order? theres no floppy disks in my drive, no usb flash drives that are in there to conflict with bootup.

let me know if more information is needed.
any suggestions would be most apprieciated.

 

[BadBigBen]

see:

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[Diancecht]

It's an old topic: if you search this forum for NTDLR you will have some interesting results.

Cheers,
Dian

 

[spyder850]

in response to ben, i have came across that site through google, and when i get home ill try and do exactly as those instructions require...


and in response to dian, thanks, i did do some searching and ill try and tinker around with some of the results...

does anyone think i could ever fix this problem?


i think what had happned, i had a friend of mine install ubuntu 7.04 on one of my drives...and now grub has tried to take over all my mbr's across all three of my hdd's.


hes banned from my desktop.

Thanks guys for all the help, but again, any more suggestions would be appreciated!

-spyder850.

 

[BadBigBen]

Grub should not have done that... it will take over the BOOT partition of the ACTIVE DRIVE only, saves a copy of the MBR, and then replaces the MBR with the GRUB loader...

the error usually happens when the NTLDR is on another partition then what the pointer points towards...

another thing comes to mind, is that perhaps the C: partition is no longer ACTIVE, but the partition your friend has tried to install UBUNTU to...

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[spyder850]

In response to BEN yesss! that makes sense, when i had the grim thought of reinstalling windows xp on my C: it asked me to what partition do i want to install it on...and it told me my partition with windows xp is not active or inactive or something to that extent...so ubuntu would have done that if that drive was set as primary?

thanks.

 

[spyder850]

and BEN, how would i set this drive to active?

thanks.

 

[linney]

Have a look at the DiskPart tool in your Recovery Console.

Have you an old 9x Startup Floppy, perhaps you could run Fdisk and set a partition as Active?

Some partitioning tools like Partition Magic may assist you.

 

[spyder850]

aaah linney i sure dont...but i have my xp startup disk...could i run an fdisk command from the recovery console?



thanks.

 

[Freestone]

Various bootdisks:

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

linney,

DiskPart in recovery console is extremely limited, so I am unsure where you were going with that suggestion. See DiskPart section here:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

 

[spyder850]

okay guys...i think its time for a format...despite alll your best efforts nothing ive tried has worked for me!


i think its time to back up everything with my ubuntu live cd onto my external hdd and format...


guys, again, thanks for all your help!

 

[linney]

Fdisk is not part of the Recovery Console or XP Startup Floppy, you need a 98 or ME Startup Floppy.

Sorry about the Diskpart thing, but I only said to look at it.

The computer does not start after you change the active partition by using the Disk Management tool

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315261

 

[thefourthwall]

it does seem a bit ironic, doesn't it, that an NT-based OS might require the use of a 9x-based floppy boot for recovery...

 

[kjv1611]

If you haven't already formatted, and still want to attempt to fix this issue, you could try downloading "the ultimate boot cd" that is loaded with freeware apps for recovering from such problems as this.

You download the image, I think, and burn it to a CD. I had someone give me a copy, so I've not burned one to date, though mine is already out-dated. I have however downloaded just one of the programs that are on that disk in the past month, and ti worked great - that app was for recovering the Windows admin password, which I had apparently mistyped.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[spyder850]

In response to kjv1611, yeah, i have 3 drives, two of which ive still got trouble on, the other, ive installed Vista Premium back on it, so at least ive got SOMETHING to tinker with.

So i still have the issue with my XP drive.


yeah i would like to try that cd youre talking about, do you have a link to where i can download the.iso image?

the link that Freestone posted,

http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

wasent much help, i couldnt find an .iso image to download for xp.


Thanks.

 

[kjv1611]

This is the homepage:

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

It should have the file there, or either have direct links for you to download. I've not tried downloading it yet recently, so I can't say that for sure.

I also found this site that lists all sorts of stuff, but you might want to just try that first link to fix your problem, and keep the second for future reference/browsing:

http://www.all-internet-security.com/products_tools/index3.asp

That last site is VERY slow, but it has lots of links to various information, including bootable CD images of all kinds.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[spyder850]

awesome kjv1611, i will definitely give that a try.


thanks.

 

[spyder850]

kvj, which utility would be specific to my issue that im having? in other words, what program should i run from the disk? suggestions?

thanks.

 

[linney]

Have a look at the Partition tools list. The "PTDD Super Fdisk" specifically mentions "Active". Probably some of the others will too.

 

[BadBigBen]

Sorry for my late entry...

Spyder look @

http://www.techrescue.net/guides/guides.asp

especially the part about setting a partition as active...
(FDISK tut)

or use Super FDISK :

http://www.tucows.com/preview/361621

info:

http://www.ptdd.com/manual2.htm

Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."