NTLDR Is missing, WinXP won't boot

[k0mpressor]

Okay, heres the problem I'm having with my brother's computer. Ever since a POWER OUTTAGE the computer would not boot the hard drive.

After the power outtage it sat at a blank screen after BIOS screen and did nothing. To fix this i went into the recovery console and did 'fixboot', windows booted just fine and ran the rest of the day. The next time the computer was restarted it says "NTLDR Is missing, press any key to restart". I did some googling and copied NTLDR and NTDETECT.com from the windows xp boot disc to C:\ This failed, along with repeating the 'fixboot', 'fixmbr', and a few other recovery console boot commands.

I'm trying to figure out the cause of this problem, and im down to two possibilities
A. Something happened when my house's power went completley out ( what i don't know )
B. Some sort of virus is affecting this ( once again, I don't know what )


Some other things : Bios recognizes HDD, HDD Spins/makes noise, no recent hardware changes, no previous versions of windows, WinXP PRO, older AMD 750 not sure of exact specs

I'm open to all suggestions, possibilties, and recommendations. My main goal is to not format this computer

 

[RelaxTheMind]

what did you get after you copied the ntldr and ntdetect.com over?

did you do a "chkdsk /r"?

 

[BadThad]

Just do a repair of the XP install.

 

[dfuze]

I've seen this happen at work a few times and it stumped people... make sure there
are no floppies in the drive.

 

[k0mpressor]

-After i copied over the two files, it said file successfully copied for each one, and then i still got the same error message.

-I did chkdsk /r and it said the drive appears to be working fine

-Ive never done an XP repair before, will i lose data?

 

[k0mpressor]

floppy was the first thing i checked

 

[deathwalker]

You will not lose any data doing a repair install. However, I have fixed this problem using the Microsoft reccomended proceedure before. This can be done if you have a working system running the same OS as the pc with the problem. First create a bootable Floppy, then copy the NTLDR and NETDETECT files (in the root directory) from that system onto the bootable floopy. Then copy the Boot.ini file (in the root directory)from that system onto the floppy. Use the floppy created to boot the problem system. If the disk was created properly it should boot to windows. Then copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT files from the floppy to the root directory of your boot drive. Also insure that the boot.ini file on the problem PC is in the root where it belongs, if it is missing also copy the boot.ini file from the floppy disk to the root directory....good luck. I have used this process with sucess. Remember this has to be done from a pc with the same OS for this to work.

 

[k0mpressor]

chkdsk is now saying there is one or more unrecoverable problems

 

[Laputa]

possible a head crash spot at the boot sector. Can try using chkdsk util to fix the disk so it will move the damaged area data to a good spot and rearrange the boot sector table.

 

[k0mpressor]

K i finally got my lazy self around to removing the harddrive and slaving it onto my computer. When my windows loaded up, i did properties of the drive and it was 0/0 bytes and not formatted.

Windows is giving me the options to 'format' the drive now, should i do this?
Is there a chance i can get files back? i guess theres nothing to lose at this point...

 

[RebateMonger]

NEVER say "Yes" to a "Format the drive?" question if you have important data on the drive.

That's never the correct answer.

 

[k0mpressor]

Is there no way to retrieve the data?

 

[bluestrobe]

Search the forums for it. I recall several threads about it.