Cannot boot computer

[strikey_mate]

I bought a 2nd hand Dell desktop to network to another room. When I tried to set up the network it would not find the gateway or get on the internet, so instead of realizing my router was inadvertently switched off, I thought the problem was with the computer, so I decided to do a ghost image of the other computer and put it on this new one. Well ghost failed while still in the virtual partition of the new computer (a faulty cd) and could not reboot to windows or even get any other drives to be detected, all I could see was a blinking cursor, so I removed the HD and reformatted it in the other computer and reinstalled it back again. Now all I get is...

NTLDR is missing. Press ctrl-Alt-Del to restart.

I have made sure all external devices are disconnected but I keep getting the same message. I have entered BIOS and tried all boot positions but still no good. I cannot....repeat...cannot get even a cd in the rom drive or a floppy in floppy drive to be detected. I have a win 98 floppy which has got me out of trouble in the past, but its no good if I cant get ANY drive to be detected.

BTW...the ironical thing here is that the reason I could not get the network up in the first place before all the trouble was...the router and gateway hub was all turned off, so there was no reason to do a ghost image in the first place.

Any help much appreciated...don't know much...so be gentile

[Xan]

NTLDR is missing is most common problem which occurs due to corrupt hard disk file system so better to reformat hard disk again.......check here NTLDR is missing - can not boot also NTLDR file missing - Paragon format

[Lantus]

Please make sure you pull ALL cables and cards, Unplug all memory rams and plug only one. You may also found the solution discuss on this forum, Please check here or you may fallow the ahead solution. make sure you push it until it clicks both sides. if not, try unpluging your VGA card and in again, make sure its plugged right. if not, try unplugging the processor and back in again. Do you have spares of any thing around to try? How old is the computer if it is still under warrenty do not do any thing else to it and contact the company that sold it to you.

[strikey_mate]

Thanks Lantus and Xan. I will do that tomorrow when I tackle the beast again. For now though, this is what I have done since last posting:

Since the last post I have done a deep format of the HD and reinstalled win XP Pro by removing it and putting it in another computer. I could not do it in the troubled computer because I could not get it to detect the CD drive or the floppy. Once I installed win xp (as the master disk drive) I then slaved it and rebooted with the original master hdd. From there I used partition magic to delete the virtual partition Ghost created. Then I switched the troubled hdd back to master and tested it out and it worked perfectly on that machine. I rebooted several times to make sure...no issues at all. With all this success on another machine I felt confident the now fully working hdd would be ok to reinstall back in the troubled computer...but now it boots to a welcome screen saying...well I forget exactly, but something like ...choose a mode to start

normally
safe mode
safe mode with network
Last best known boot


...and no matter what choice I make it keeps coming back to that welcome window.

I then redone all the same stuff again just to make sure and it does the same thing again...except this time after reaching that welcome screen and choosing any of the options, it goes to a blue screen with error message saying something about damaged or mis-configured disk.

The fact I cant get it to detect any other disk i.e hdd, floppy, or cd drive...has me baffeled. I even tried another hdd with the same OS from another computer and I get that same welcome screen. Doesnt this mean it may not be the hdd thats the problem?

Good nite for now

[strikey_mate]

I decided to put aside the HDD issue and concentrated on why both the drives would not work. I knew they worked b4, and I also knew it would be highly unlikely both drives would bite the dust at exactly the same time, so I circled round in the bios for an hour b4 finding the trouble.

I THOUGHT that if the drive is listed in BIOS that it must be configured right....WRONG. I noticed a tick beside the HDD (in boot sequence) but not against the others. I wondered why id this so? I also noticed that by pressing the space bar toggles between a tick and no tick. No idea what this meant but who cares...just try it. Exit and save and voila ... both drives work fine now.

Surely you would THINK that manufactures would make this most important step a bit more clearer to the inexperienced operators like myself. I mean unless you knew this you would NEVER of known that not having a tick (no box btw) meant the drives were disable for crying out loud. And the question has to be asked....how did they become disabled on their own? I never did it. All I can think is Ghost had something to do with it. Might have disabled them as part of the restoring image so that there could be no interference, and when the crash came...well your guess is probably better than mine, but they would stay disabled I guess.

Anyway...problem solved and thanks to you guys for the help.

PS: anyone know how to close this thread now?

[Rudra]

Thats ok, no need to close this thread, similar problems will be posted here to avoid duplication...