New Build - NTLDR Missing

[E6BAV8R]

So I'm building a 2nd PC using PC parts from a previous build after I upgraded my main PC. I got everything hooked up and built but when I boot up the PC I get the error message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart". The HDD that I am using was used as a 2nd HDD on my main PC, so it isn't new and does have files and such on it (but no OS). I was going to format it and use it as the only HDD but I can't even get to the point to boot from the Win7 DVD to format it. The HDD and DVD-ROMs are all recognized correctly in the BIOS, so I don't believe it is a hardware failure here.

I've ensured the Win7 CD does boot and work, as well as used and tested 2 different DVD-ROMs and they all work correctly. I've also ensured everything is set correctly in the BIOS to boot from the DVD-ROM. When I boot up to load from the Win7 DVD and get to the "Press any key to boot from CD/DVD" screen, hitting a button on the keyboard doesn't do anything and it is as if it doesn't recognize my keyboard stroke - the NTLDR is missing error then pops up. If I disconnect the HDD than the PC will boot and load from the DVD past the previous "NTLDR is missing" screen but it freezes up at the "Starting Windows" screen.

So, what am I missing here? Would it do any good to hook up the HDD to my main PC, format it and then plug it back into the old PC? I don't know what else to try here.

Thanks

 

[Virgorising]

Never mind, just see you said yr boot priority in the bios is right....I posted asking but erased that when I saw.

Yes, I would format the drive with the files but no OS using the other computer, tho I think you shouldn't have to, but I would try it.

When you say yr disks work, do you mean in a system you already used them successfully to load W7 in? Or a system you have not?

 

[postmortemIA]

that second disk of yours was sometime in past main disk, so there is still bootloader on it. nevertheless, as virgorising is suspecting, your boot order probably has hard disk as first choice. so bios tries to boot from disk, as it has bootloader installed.

your second problem is that your USB devices are not recognized. can you enter the bios?

 

[Virgorising]

that second disk of yours was sometime in past main disk, so there is still bootloader on it. nevertheless, as virgorising is suspecting, your boot order probably has hard disk as first choice. so bios tries to boot from disk, as it has bootloader installed.

your second problem is that your USB devices are not recognized. can you enter the bios?

I din get the part U got re the boot order on the drive itself! That is the brilliant part!!!:thumbsup:

So he should totally reformat the drive in any system he can.

 

[E6BAV8R]

Yes, I would format the drive with the files but no OS using the other computer, tho I think you shouldn't have to, but I would try it.

When you say yr disks work, do you mean in a system you already used them successfully to load W7 in? Or a system you have not?

Per the disks question, I was referring to making sure the CD is readable and that the DVD-ROM is actually loading items from the disk. I checked both the disk and the DVD-ROM using my main PC. The Win7 disk is brand new.

 

[E6BAV8R]

that second disk of yours was sometime in past main disk, so there is still bootloader on it. nevertheless, as virgorising is suspecting, your boot order probably has hard disk as first choice. so bios tries to boot from disk, as it has bootloader installed.

your second problem is that your USB devices are not recognized. can you enter the bios?

You may be right. I've been using it for so long as a 2nd drive but I've got multiple drives at this point.

I have verified and confirmed that the boot order in the BIOS is set as the DVD-ROM. However, after setting it as the main boot disk and I get the "Press any key to boot from CD" but it isn't recognizing any key strokes from the keyboard. My USB keyboard is recognized and working in the BIOS.

 

[Virgorising]

Per the disks question, I was referring to making sure the CD is readable and that the DVD-ROM is actually loading items from the disk. I checked both the disk and the DVD-ROM using my main PC. The Win7 disk is brand new.

Thanks for the clarification! Now, I am not clear if you used this disk to load W7 into yr main PC or not.

While given the pivotal post about thr boot order ON the disk you need to reformat, and that ye,s you should reformat the thing in some other system, what I am thinking about, tho do not know all the details, is.....unless you have one of those magic disks dealers have, mass license or something....allowing you to load the OS in multiple systems, I am not sure if you can use your disk in more than one.

 

[Virgorising]

You may be right. I've been using it for so long as a 2nd drive but I've got multiple drives at this point.

I have verified and confirmed that the boot order in the BIOS is set as the DVD-ROM. However, after setting it as the main boot disk and I get the "Press any key to boot from CD" but it isn't recognizing any key strokes from the keyboard. My USB keyboard is recognized and working in the BIOS.

Yes, he totally made a brilliant point! Please now reformat the drive in some other system. But I am still unclear re yr disk, and the limitations MS puts on all of them unless those for dealers.....as I just posted.

Yes, you said it was a brand new disk.....but still not sure what that means. Does it mean virgin OS never loaded into any other system?

 

[E6BAV8R]

Yes, you said it was a brand new disk.....but still not sure what that means. Does it mean virgin OS never loaded into any other system?

The Win7 disk is brand new and has never been loaded onto another system. As far as I am aware, you can use the disks to install the actual software as many times as you want, as I have done that in the past with my main PC, but you can obviously only use the CD key one time.

 

[E6BAV8R]

Please now reformat the drive in some other system.

OK - I will plug the HDD into my current system and see what I can do with that. Is there any particular software I should use to format it, or does Windows have the ability to format the drive?

 

[Virgorising]

The Win7 disk is brand new and has never been loaded onto another system. As far as I am aware, you can use the disks to install the actual software as many times as you want, as I have done that in the past with my main PC, but you can obviously only use the CD key one time.

the above re the minutae of an MS OS disk=correct.

OK, so now, I would try to reformat that drive, put it back in the system in question and see if you can install yr OS!

 

[Virgorising]

OK - I will plug the HDD into my current system and see what I can do with that. Is there any particular software I should use to format it, or does Windows have the ability to format the drive?

Excellent. Windows will do it for you....Control panel> Admin Tools> Computer Management>Disk Management.

Just made sure you format the right drive. Both should show up if both controllers are enabled in the bios of the system you will do this in (you may have to do that, enable the controller in the bios.

Right click on the drive in question and hit format.

 

[E6BAV8R]

Sounds good. I'll go it a go and see where that gets me. Thanks for the help.

 

[Virgorising]

Sounds good. I'll go it a go and see where that gets me. Thanks for the help.

U R more than welcome. Have fun and report back! Think of it as a little adventure!

 

[postmortemIA]

formatting disk won't get rid of master boot record... you are better off with using some software that writes all 0s on disk like active@ killdisk.

That being said, I think you still need to address the issue of KB not being recognized when you see "press any key to boot from CD/DVD". Are there any BIOS options for USB devices like enabling legacy USB? Does your mobo support PS/2 keyboards? Can you flash the latest BIOS? Many motherboards ship with terrible buggy BIOS.

As far as I remember, if you don't have bootable disk, then you don't see message "press any key to boot from CD/DVD", it boots straight to DVD

 

[Virgorising]

formatting disk won't get rid of master boot record... you are better off with using some software that writes all 0s on disk like active@ killdisk.

I forgot to add, he should remove any remaining partitions using Windows and THEN format the disk.
That's the way I do it, never had to use a third party app.

That being said, I think you still need to address the issue of KB not being recognized when you see "press any key to boot from CD/DVD". Are there any BIOS options for USB devices like enabling legacy USB? Does your mobo support PS/2 keyboards? Can you flash the latest BIOS? Many motherboards ship with terrible buggy BIOS.

Could it be a bad driver issue? Maybe he could download all the good drives, burn them to a disk and feed them to this system. It also strikes me, maybe he should try to plug the KB into to another USB port. Or try another KB. It really could be something mechanical. Kinda hope this part is.

 

[Ketchup]

Hello E6BAV8R, it sounds like the motherboard is not detecting your keyboard. Are you running USB? Make sure you have legacy USB support enabled in the BIOS. If you do, try different ports on the back of the board.

It is booting from the DVD without the hard drive plugged in because there is not other boot device available.

While in Windows setup, you can delete the old partition and create a new one, so do not waste too much time making sure the old one is clear beforehand.

 

[Matt1970]

I forgot to add, he should remove any remaining partitions using Windows and THEN format the disk.
That's the way I do it, never had to use a third party app.



Could it be a bad driver issue? Maybe he could download all the good drives, burn them to a disk and feed them to this system. It also strikes me, maybe he should try to plug the KB into to another USB port. Or try another KB. It really could be something mechanical. Kinda hope this part is.

Removing partitions and formatting still wont effect the master boot record. It's not a driver issue as you have to get well past where his computer is getting stuck to before drivers load.

 

[E6BAV8R]

Yes, it is a USB KB. The KB seems to be intermittent if it works past the POST screen or not. There is an option in the BIOS for USB Legacy and it was Enabled by default. I moved it to 'Auto' and the next restart it detected the keyboard on the "Press any key to load from CD or DVD". It then loads files from the DVD but appears to have frozen on the "Starting Windows" screen. It has frozen on that screen a few times now and I haven't been able to get any further than that. I also noticed the keyboard had turned off at that point, and I also know that Win7 is rather hardware/software specific during install, so perhaps that is the reason it froze?

It does appear to be random when the keyboard is detected past the POST screen and when it isn't. I've tried all 4 USB connectors and both Enabled and Auto for USB Legacy but I can't get it to work 100% of the time in either setting / connection combination. Unfortunately I don't have a 2nd keyboard to try.

If I am able to get it loaded from the DVD, do you think it is freezing at the "Starting Windows" screen because of the apparent USB conflicts? Do you think using a USB to PS/2 Converter or purchasing a cheap PS/2 Keyboard would work? I'd have to go buy one but I remember having this problem in the past.

 

[Matt1970]

I would try another keyboard.

 

[E6BAV8R]

I would try another keyboard.

That's what I'm thinking. I'm going to head over to Fry's in a bit and pick up a keyboard and PS/2 converter just to be sure.

 

[Ketchup]

Yes, it is a USB KB. The KB seems to be intermittent if it works past the POST screen or not. There is an option in the BIOS for USB Legacy and it was Enabled by default. I moved it to 'Auto' and the next restart it detected the keyboard on the "Press any key to load from CD or DVD". It then loads files from the DVD but appears to have frozen on the "Starting Windows" screen. It has frozen on that screen a few times now and I haven't been able to get any further than that. I also noticed the keyboard had turned off at that point, and I also know that Win7 is rather hardware/software specific during install, so perhaps that is the reason it froze?

It does appear to be random when the keyboard is detected past the POST screen and when it isn't. I've tried all 4 USB connectors and both Enabled and Auto for USB Legacy but I can't get it to work 100% of the time in either setting / connection combination. Unfortunately I don't have a 2nd keyboard to try.

If I am able to get it loaded from the DVD, do you think it is freezing at the "Starting Windows" screen because of the apparent USB conflicts? Do you think using a USB to PS/2 Converter or purchasing a cheap PS/2 Keyboard would work? I'd have to go buy one but I remember having this problem in the past.

OK, good info in this post. Can you tell us more about what hardware you are running? A USB conflict would be odd. Do you have a lot of other USB devices plugged in? Do you have more than one hard drive plugged in?

 

[E6BAV8R]

OK, good info in this post. Can you tell us more about what hardware you are running? A USB conflict would be odd. Do you have a lot of other USB devices plugged in? Do you have more than one hard drive plugged in?

It is a Biostar TH67B with an Intel G850 CPU, ATI card, 4GB of RAM with a Samsung 80GB HDD.

Only 1 HDD and there are no other USB devices plugged in. Only bare bones minimum hardware is plugged in at the moment (only the PSU power cable, HDMI cable and USB KB are plugged in). As I said earlier, this PC is a PC I used to use a few months ago, so it isn't a new build and I used it for about a year up until recently (I just moved all the hardware into a new case and plugged in a HDD I don't use anymore). So, nothing has changed (hardware wise). I just need to be able to load from the Win7 DVD to format the HDD and do a fresh install. I've built my own PCs for about the past 15 years and I've never had this problem.

 

[Virgorising]

I would try another keyboard.

Yep.

 

[Virgorising]

Removing partitions and formatting still wont effect the master boot record. It's not a driver issue as you have to get well past where his computer is getting stuck to before drivers load.

??????? This belies my own experience. Ironically, not long ago, when the new/used WD Black drive I am writing from right now--- got it on ebay, arrived, the vendor said it had been wiped, of course, and I hooked it up, in Drive Manager, I saw clearly, a tiny, occupied partition remained. I assumed it was the MBR.

I just deleted the partition, formatted again just to make sure the drive was empty, tho my eyes said it was after I deleted the partition.....and went from there.