NTLDR is missing

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: Smilin
From XP recovery console:

Use "fixboot" to fix your boot files.

Use "map arc" to verify your arc pathing.

Use "bootcfg" to create or edit your boot.ini

He won't get that far if he doesn't know the admin password. Unfortunately, he doesn't.

Tee hee!!!

WinPE or Knopix, or lay down a parallel install.

 

[DavidoFoo]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate it.

Knoppix isn't safe for ntfs partition write, so that didn't work. I'm gonna try a parallel installation.

 

[DavidoFoo]

 

[DavidoFoo]

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo

Originally posted by: DavidoFoo
Okay, now that I have done a parallel installation, has it restored my boot files? If it has, in order to boot normally, do I just delete the parallel installation?

edit: I guess it has, so how do I set windows to boot my original winxppro installation?

There are three installations to choose from, but only the top one works. When I try to select the other two, it says the hal.dll is missing. I deleted the two other failed windows installations(WINDOWS.0 and WINDOWS.1. Maybe that has something to do with it? My original c:\WINDOWS is there as is the c:\WINDOWS.2. I just don't know why the c:\WINDOWS isn't listed or why I can't boot it.

 

[Smilin]

Post the contents of your Boot.ini file here.

Tell us which install works.

 

[Scrubber]

You need one floppy disk for this which has been formatted using Win XP. If it hasn't, you can format it from a command prompt.

1. (Re)boot the system and immediately after the BIOS screen disappears, hit F8 a few times in quick succession.
2. From the menu that appears, choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" which loads CMD.EXE.
3. Type CD\ and hit Enter. This will take you to a C: prompt
4. Type: ATTRIB -S -H and hit Enter. A message will be displayed that the system can't find the Page file, but this isn't important.
5. Type: COPY BOOT.INI A: and hit Enter.
6. Type COPY NTDETECT.COM A: and hit Enter.
7. Type: COPY NTLDR A: and hit Enter.
8. Type: ATTRIB +S +H and hit Enter. The message about the missing Page file will appear again, but you can ignore it as before.
9. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the options dialog box.
10. Click the "Windows" tab and choose to restart the machine. Leave the boot floppy in the drive.

When the machine reboots, it will read the NTLDR file which points it to the Boot.ini and should enable Windows to load correctly.

 

[neonerd]

Originally posted by: Scrubber
You need one floppy disk for this which has been formatted using Win XP. If it hasn't, you can format it from a command prompt.

1. (Re)boot the system and immediately after the BIOS screen disappears, hit F8 a few times in quick succession.
2. From the menu that appears, choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" which loads CMD.EXE.
3. Type CD\ and hit Enter. This will take you to a C: prompt
4. Type: ATTRIB -S -H and hit Enter. A message will be displayed that the system can't find the Page file, but this isn't important.
5. Type: COPY BOOT.INI A: and hit Enter.
6. Type COPY NTDETECT.COM A: and hit Enter.
7. Type: COPY NTLDR A: and hit Enter.
8. Type: ATTRIB +S +H and hit Enter. The message about the missing Page file will appear again, but you can ignore it as before.
9. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the options dialog box.
10. Click the "Windows" tab and choose to restart the machine. Leave the boot floppy in the drive.

When the machine reboots, it will read the NTLDR file which points it to the Boot.ini and should enable Windows to load correctly.

just about to post that :thumbsup:

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: neonerd

Originally posted by: Scrubber
You need one floppy disk for this which has been formatted using Win XP. If it hasn't, you can format it from a command prompt.

1. (Re)boot the system and immediately after the BIOS screen disappears, hit F8 a few times in quick succession.
2. From the menu that appears, choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" which loads CMD.EXE.
3. Type CD\ and hit Enter. This will take you to a C: prompt
4. Type: ATTRIB -S -H and hit Enter. A message will be displayed that the system can't find the Page file, but this isn't important.
5. Type: COPY BOOT.INI A: and hit Enter.
6. Type COPY NTDETECT.COM A: and hit Enter.
7. Type: COPY NTLDR A: and hit Enter.
8. Type: ATTRIB +S +H and hit Enter. The message about the missing Page file will appear again, but you can ignore it as before.
9. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up the options dialog box.
10. Click the "Windows" tab and choose to restart the machine. Leave the boot floppy in the drive.

When the machine reboots, it will read the NTLDR file which points it to the Boot.ini and should enable Windows to load correctly.

just about to post that :thumbsup:

Let me add:

Take that information and use NERO or something to make a bootable CD.

(Read the first post - no floppy drive.)

 

[Scrubber]

Originally posted by: neonerd

Let me add:

Take that information and use NERO or something to make a bootable CD.

(Read the first post - no floppy drive.)

Wupps...missed that.

OK, buy a floppy drive then. This outdated piece of old technology comes in very handy at times.

 

[jsfiat]

I had a power outage, now I have the dreaded NTLDR missing. I get to the recovery console part from xp cd xp prof disk, type in fixboot(drive letter) part, but no matter what letter entered, C ,D, E, it gives a message back "cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid" I have a raid config 2+0 on "c". Is this why it cannot find drive? Anyhelp would be appreiciated

 

[Smilin]

Power outtage + disk problems = run chkdsk /p first.

 

[Scrubber]

Originally posted by: jsfiat
I had a power outage, now I have the dreaded NTLDR missing. I get to the recovery console part from xp cd xp prof disk, type in fixboot(drive letter) part, but no matter what letter entered, C ,D, E, it gives a message back "cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid" I have a raid config 2+0 on "c". Is this why it cannot find drive? Anyhelp would be appreiciated

Is the drive visible in the BIOS?

 

[Vcize]

How many HD's are you running? I got this error when I accidentally set my BIOS to boot from HDD1 instead of HDD0 (boot drive).

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Scrubber

Originally posted by: jsfiat
I had a power outage, now I have the dreaded NTLDR missing. I get to the recovery console part from xp cd xp prof disk, type in fixboot(drive letter) part, but no matter what letter entered, C ,D, E, it gives a message back "cannot find the system drive, or the drive specified is not valid" I have a raid config 2+0 on "c". Is this why it cannot find drive? Anyhelp would be appreiciated

Is the drive visible in the BIOS?

If he's getting a missing NTLDR message then the MBR is loading so BIOS is definately seeing the drive.

 

[Scrubber]

According to Microsoft you could possibly resolve the problem by using a boot floppy (mentioned in the last paragraph).

 

[jsfiat]

running 2+0 striped, and two others are running 1+0 stripe the op system is on the raid 2+0 can I do a safe mode boot and return to an earlier time?

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: jsfiat
running 2+0 striped, and two others are running 1+0 stripe the op system is on the raid 2+0 can I do a safe mode boot and return to an earlier time?

What?

 

[jsfiat]

4 hds all together 2on a raid array striped 2 as back and storage

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: jsfiat
4 hds all together 2on a raid array striped 2 as back and storage

Huh?

You mean, assuming 100GB drives, 100+100 striped, with the other 2 drives functioning as mirrors, hence a 200GB volume presented to Windows? In other words, RAID 0+1?

Anyway, when you boot into recovery console, are you prompted for the administrator's password? If not, it's not seeing your hard drive volume(s), so perhaps you need to hit F6 while booting and specify the appropriate floppy disk with your RAID controller's driver on it. Another possibility, as Smilin said, is that the disk is so corrupted that it can't do anything, so chkdsk is a good choice too; obviously if it lets you, drivers aren't the issue.

 

[Smilin]

Clarity in this is your friend. Although we may be familiar with raid here, we are not familiar with your system.

Are you saying:

A)
Running a pair of drives in a Raid 0 (striped) array.
Running two individual drives in addition to the above.

B)
Running a pair of drives in a Raid 0 (striped) array.
Running a second Raid 0 (striped) pair mirroring the first pair.

Boot to recovery console and get a chkdsk /P out of the way. While there, grab some info for me so I can get a better idea...

Run a "map arc" and post the results here.
type the contents of your boot.ini and post the results here.

Also
copy ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com to a floppy that has been formatted under NT/2k/XP/2k3. Try booting with that floppy. If it gives you a missing ntoskrnl message, check the boot.ini against the "map arc" that you did.

 

[Smilin]

D'oh. Yeah forgot. Anytime you start setup, be it for a repair or simply to drop to recovery console, be sure you are hitting F6 at boot and providing drivers. No shortcuts.

 

[jsfiat]

Ok, how to boot to recovery console? Hitting f6 the whole time thru boot and it still goes to the final screen "NTLDR missing". Do you mean put in the xp pro disc, go to the repair prompt and type in chkdsc command? this puter worked fine until the power outage, then went to reboot and you know the rest. the way the boot screen for the raid array looks 1) 2+o 310gb striped functional, 2) 1+0 striped 100gb functional, 3) 1+0 striped functional. Have a dvd burner, a cd writer, and a dvd rom drive, no floppy. But have a usb floppy. In my bios there is no option to boot from anything other than a cd rom or usb etc, but no hdd option. Running with a MSI KT3 ultra mb... thanks. I know this is a simple fix so as not to have to lose all info from my drives, I just want to do it right.I am definatly getting a ups after this,... I have learned my lesson

 

[jsfiat]

Oh , and no prompt for admin password. But I did not set one up

 

[dclive]

Can you read what Smilin and I wrote and answer all of our questions? Just spell out what you've got, too, because I still have no idea.