'NTLDR is missing'

This is the first time I've ever seen this, so bear with me here. I thought I was finished making a new computer for my dad, and everything is going along nicely until this pops up. Basically this is what pops up:

'NTLDR is missing

Press CTRL+ATL+DEL to restart'

and the same thing happens at every restart? How exactly do I fix this? I don't exactly have a floppy drive to work with, just in case someone recommends flashing the BIOS.

Most amazing jew boots

Originally Posted by RushJet1

make sure it's looking at the right drive when it starts up. my PC says that every time my 160GB hard disk is loaded from instead of my 74GB (usually happens after a BIOS reset).

That wouldn't make sense since this is a new build, and the HDD is 320GB SATA. Does it have to do with the fact that the computer is recognizing the drive as being on IDE Channel 2? SATA mode is on, or is this somehow the BIOS' way of acknowledging SATA drives?

Originally Posted by Cetra

This really does sound like an outdated BIOS so you might need to get a floppy drive in the system one way or another. A simple fix you can try before that is to copy those files from the WindowsXP CD via the recovery console and to check the boot.ini file.

Boot from the WinXP CD, enter the Recovery Console when the option is given, then type:

Code:

copy <cd-drive>:\i386\ntldr c:\ copy <cd-drive>:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\



If that doesn't help, load up windows, and go to run and type:

Code:

Edit c:\boot.ini


Make sure this line is under boot:

Code:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S


And this under operating systems:

Code:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP" /fastdetect


This specifics where the Windows folder is located and unless you installed windows on a different partition or drive and not at the default C:\Windows then this line should look exactly like this. If it doesn't, copy these lines and replace them in the boot.ini file and save it. Note the version of windows in quotes depends on the version being used. If this is the home version, it would say "Microsoft Windows XP Home." This really doesn't matter as it is simply a friendly name.

Damn, I can't even install Windows on said machine, let alone access it and I have no way of getting a floppy drive at the moment. So I'll try your first part, Cetra, otherwise I have an affordable pile of components sitting here.

Do I do the Windows part on the afflicted computer or on another in order to make the floppy disk?


Double Post:
Damn, I tried it Cetra, and it apparently found NTLDR on the drive and as I was installing Windows I got an error that was basically:

NTL_PARTS_NOT_EQUAL or something like that, and the installation shuts down to prevent damage to the computer. When I restart the computer, NTLDR is not found... once again. Someone told me to go to the recovery console and run CHKDSK and CHKDSK /p and it found 'one or more errors on the volume'.

What do I do now?
Does this mean the drive is bad?

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Cetra

This is sounding more and more like a BIOS issue. Is this a new computer with a new motherboard?

This baby's still wet behind the ears, man. All this stuff is new, though you're on the money about the BIOS being old. Earlier, I put in a customer support email to ECS and saw that the version that the motherboard has is a tad old. The update didn't seem to have anything fixing any NTLDR issue though.

Quote:

CHKDSK finding errors is somewhat expected, though I don't think the drive is bad, rather something is corrupting the file system.

This is probably it, since I ran FIXMBR and wiped the slate clean and get no NTLDR error. However, when I don't have that problem and I'm installing Windows I get one of 2 errors at the start:

Missing Shell.dll

Missing MRDX

And after the installation continues, I get the full screen error with a swarm of 1s and 0s with intermittent Xs.

It says this for both my bootleg XP Professional disc and the official XP Home Edition disc. After I reset the computer when this error comes up, it goes through POST and rams right into NTLDR again. I don't know exactly what's going on, but my attempted installations and their missing files seem to be screwing around with something.

Quote:

One last thing you can try besides a BIOS update is to boot into windows safe mode, put the Windows XP cd in the drive it was originally installed from and go to Run and type:

sfc /scannow

This will do a scan of all windows system files and replace any files that are missing or don't pass a checksum. It will also use any service pack files so it isn't quite as a 'shotgun' fix as a repair install is.

Question: How do you boot into Windows safe mode from DOS? That sounds like this would work, especially in fixing whatever my discs are lacking.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.