NTLDR problems....

[moonbeambriter]

hi i have a big problem! i have a compaq which when i bought it ran windowsME but was a upgrade from windows 98... recently i upgraded to windows 2000 pro... which i hate.. i wanted to reinstall windows 98 .i for some reason had 3 operating systems all windows 2000 pro...[dont know how that happend..tried to remove 2 or them so i could go to windows 98.. and recover some space. i screwed up[imagine that] lol i think i reformatted 1 time too many!
when i turn my puter on now...it starts up and displays the compaq logo i then sign in to the poweron password.. then it says"NTLDR is missing press ctrl=alt=del to start... and it says the same thing everytime.. i tried putting in the windows 2000 pro disk [upgrade] says same thing... then i tried the 98 boot disk...same thing.... i dont know what to do now.. did i break it beyond repair??????? can anyone help me please?? in simple terms? should i just take it somewhere is it fixable? thanks!
moonie

 

[wolluf]

what's a poweron password? (bios?)

If your bios is set to boot from floppy drive first, a win98 boot floppy should boot (if it doesn't, something wrong with drive or floppy disk).

From a win98 floppy, run fdisk. Enable large disk support and use the delete option. It should find the 2k partition (s). If it was ntfs, will show as non-dos. Just delete it (all data will go - so if you have data to save, backup up first - eg, slave drive in another machine. If you have access to another machine, you could also format the drive there). You can now create a new partition for win98.

The reason for the message is you have a 2k boot sector, but file ntldr is missing from it.

PS. I gave up 98 for NT 4 years ago, then moved to 2k. NO WAY would I ever go back to win98 - but of course its your choice.

 

[moonbeambriter]

power on is to bios....i cant get in there to change it to no password...
my floppy drive has never worked... i do have a cdrom and cd burner.. i tried to boot to the windows pro that i have from cd..but it is the upgrade version... i do however have a boot cd for windows 98 but it still told me the same thing... do i need a bootable cd for windows 2000 so i can at least get back up and running till i decide which windows to use???????? thanks so much
ps what is NT????

 

[wolluf]

How did you install win2k in the first place? (did you start it off from within ME?)

Bottom line is you need to be able to boot from floppy or CD (which means you have to set the bios boot sequence to CD first if your floppy drive doesn't work - or buy a new floppy drive). If its not booting from CD now, then it must be set to boot from hard drive first (has it ever booted from CD?) and as there is a 2k boot sector on that hard drive, it will try to boot from it.

Without knowing your circumstances (whether you can get into the bios at all, what the boot sequence really is, can you fix floppy drive, have you got access to another machine) its difficult to advise. My first priority would be to make machine bootable from floppy or CD. Once you've done that, everything is basically possible.

Two suggestions if you do have access to another PC.

1. Disconnect PC's drive, connect yours and install win98 (If your drive is ntfs, use fdisk to remove existing partition and create a new one. Then reboot and format it. If its fat32, just type format c: /q). When its finished, go to device manager and remove everything you can. Put drive back in your PC and see it it boots (it should try to load device drives for your PC, but may not work at all).

or

2. Disconnect PC's drive, connect yours. Boot PC from a win98 boot floppy. If your drive is ntfs, use fdisk to remove existing partition and create a new one. Then reboot and format it. If its fat32, just type format c: /q. At the A: prompt, type sys C:. Then copy the entire contents of the floppy drive to the hard drive. Put the drive back in your PC - it should boot to a dos prompt (with CD support) like a boot floppy. You should now be able to install windows 98.

 

[Dukey]

For what it's worth, I have had this same problem from time to time running Windows 2K Pro. In every instance it happened because I had a floppy in the A: drive and my BIOS is set to boot from the hard drive. Once I took the floppy out of the drive the system booted just fine.

 

[moonbeambriter]

yes i started it of with window me, then went to windows 2000 pro as an upgrade.windows me came with my compaq... ok i can get into dos mode... it says at the top of screen..compaq computer corporation...
this is my system info
compaq pc
amd duron
800 /100 mhz
64 mb
rom date 11/21/00
family 786k1

it says systenms options not set....

i dont know what else to do...


thanks
moonie

 

[moonbeambriter]

i was able to run a IDE DPS self test
results
drive info
size 38166mb
model st340823a
firmware 3.o7
serial 7ef09ffs
location primary drive0


umm what does that mean and does that help me any lol thanks
moonie

 

[wolluf]

moonie,

I'll just say it again - you need to get access to that hard drive. either by booting from a floppy or CD in your PC or by taking it out and installing it in another PC.

The drive is obviously ok, but its got a useless boot sector on it - which needs to be removed/replaced. You can only do this 'externally' as the drive has no bootable operating system.

I've not had much experience with compaqs, and what I have had generally does my head in. Will it let you into the bios settings if you press F10 key during boot 'when square in top RH corner of screen' - copied from elsewhere. If you can't get machine to boot from floppy or CD, you're not going to get an operating syatem loaded.

 

[moonbeambriter]

i have access
i was able to get it too take 98 said system transfred then it says A:\>


i dont know what to do now i can find my info on installing 98....
moonie

 

[wolluf]

Does this mean you've booted it from a win98 boot floppy? Your post isn't clear. 'system transferred' is message after you run format c: /s or sys C:. Is this what you've done? If you've booted from win98 boot floppy with CD rom support, and you've got a fat/fat32 filestore partition (which you must have to run the above commands), you can install win98 by running setup from the CD drive.

 

[moonbeambriter]

sorry im a pain.. i gave up. lol according to my kids no i didnt boot form a floppy of 98... it was a cd from someone elses computer...accoding to my kids[they know way more than me lol] that my old windows 2000 is still there.. i just need to boot it... i dont have a boot disk for that... i have the upgrade cd...any ideas where i can get one? i appricaTE all the help >smile> think i will let the kids take over lol i asked them once that what started my mess lol they didnt have time... now im beggin lol they know why more than i lol but im trying to learn .. lol
thanks agin so much for your help
moonie

 

[wolluf]

go back to your first post - 'shall I take it somewhere'
yes - unless your kids can fix it for you.

I think I could have a good atttempt with the machine on my desk, but I haven't got a clue as to its state now!

Sorry - its certainly repairable, but I think a good local technician is your best bet.

 

[moonbeambriter]

thanks so much... my kids couldnt fix it. lol but finally did get it straigtened out... we used ur suggestion..."Disconnect PC's drive, connect yours. Boot PC from a win98 boot floppy. If your drive is ntfs, use fdisk to remove existing partition and create a new one. Then reboot and format it. If its fat32, just type format c: /q. At the A: prompt, type sys C:. Then copy the entire contents of the floppy drive to the hard drive. Put the drive back in your PC - it should boot to a dos prompt (with CD support) like a boot floppy. You should now be able to install windows 98."
it worked great!!!! thanks so much.. we did pretty good concidering we dont know much lol couldnt have done it with out ya.. many many thanks!!!!!!!!!!!
moonie

http://www.geocities.com/moonbeambriter

 

[wolluf]

glad you got it sorted.