NTLDR is Missing

I receive the following error when booting up my Windows XP Home PC:

NTLDR is Missing

I then booted from the Windows XP CD and entered the Recovery Console.
Then I tried to copy the NTLDR file using the following command:
Copy D:\i386\NTLDR C:

I receive the following error:
The file could not be copied.

When I try to access the hard drive by typing DIR at the C prompt, I receive
the following:

Directory of C:\

An error occurred during directory enumeration.

I cannot access the hard drive.

What can I do to restart this computer?

Run CHKDSK /R. If that doesn't help, and if it is not the case that you
left a floppy in the diskette drive, you might have to do a Repair (boot
using the Windows install CD and select the *2nd* repair option to do an
in-place upgrade; the first Repair option puts you into Recovery Console
mode). If you have applied SP-2 and your CD is SP-1, you'll need to
create a slipstreamed Windows install CD that includes SP-2 (i.e., you
don't want to use an SP-1 install CD in trying to repair an SP-2
installation).

Windows XP Home Edition SP2. On startup, I am getting the message "ntldr is
missing". My son thinks he moved the file to another folder when he was
moving his own files! I have the XP re-installation disc, and have got as
far as the prompt for Administrator Password in the Repair menu, but I can't
remember what it is. Is there a way around this???

Check to see if their is a floppy in A drive if not......

NTLDR is missing?
From a newsgroup post by late Mr.Alex Nichol, Microsoft MVP:
The MBR code hands the boot on to the Active partition; the boot code in
that loads NTLDR. There are two cases:

"NTLDR not found" at all may arise because the incorrect partition has been
set as active. This can happen if you have a dual boot and have messed with
the files in that partition that boot; this is not the XP one, or have
shifted the boot to the XP partition which does not have NTLDR in it.
"NTLDR damaged" means what it says, the file is there but not working.
Either way, if you have a proper retail type XP CD, not some maker's
recovery disk:

Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot the XP CD and, instead of
Setup, take the immediate R for Repair. Assume any password requested is
blank, and TAB over. Assuming this sees the CD as D (likely) give:

COPY D:\i386\ntldr C:\
COPY D:\i386\ntdetect C:\
(a file that may also be missing)
then rebuild the boot configuration boot.ini file by
Attrib -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
(if not found skip the next line)
DEL C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

Other options>

Do not use the repair option in the recovery console,this link will explain
it.

This won't help you now, but once your system is up and running again do
this edit so the RC won't ask for a password in the future.

The recovery console needs the pasword for the person who installed XP, not
for just any administrator. If the install was done by a major PC maker,
you may need to contact them for it.

However, the password is sometimes blank. So, try just pressing enter when
you are asked for a password, it may help.

Or, if you can get into XP, even safe mode, you can arrange to bypass the
password by the following registry change:

Instead, just run REGEDIT (Start à Run à Regedit)Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrentVersion\Setup\Recover
yConsole
Set the DWORD SecurityLevel value to 1

On my comp. WIN XP Pro. incl. SP3, I get the message NTLDR is Missing.

I have cleared the CMOS , tried to put an Acronis image back no success,
but now the drive letters of the 2 HD have changed C is now D and D is now
C ????

Tried reload WIN XP but the comp. wont boot from the WIN XP CD and I get the
message NTLDR is Missing when loading from CD

How did you "clear the CMOS"..One must,remove battery,locate the CMOS
jumper pin,move from 1-2 to 2-3 position for .30 seconds or so,then back
to 1-2 position,replace battery,turn on power,start pc.On start-up,the BIOS
must be reconfigured,as its settings now are as it left the
factory,date/time,
boot order,etc all must be reset...

I have made some progress

I have disconnected the 2 nd HD normally "D" and now the comp. boot's
normally with C but when I connect the D HD again I still get the NTLDR
message

I have also tried to connect an other second HD but the same result

What to do ??

You can clear the CMOS *either* by temporarily removing the battery or
temporarily changing the jumper setting. Doing both is not required
and conveys no advantage.

Note that the time required to leave the battery out of the computer
varies, but is always *far* longer than .30 seconds. Usually 10-15
minutes is enough, but occasionally it can be as much as several
hours.

[yang]

hi
i am new to this forum. i have encounter this problem in my desktop.
i tried to insert a win xp cd and tried
copy d:/i386/ntldr c:/
copy d:/i386/ntdetect.com c:/
the follow files could not be copied..

i have also done chkdsk /r
and the response is the volum appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems

what should i do??

can anyone help me please..
thanks!!

[tottiekop]

Ello!

Need some assistance plse!
This is whats going on......

I've got a SATA(windows) drive aswell as a IDE drive! MY cd-rom is master and then my IDE is slave (is this right?) but when my pc starts up it gives me the error : NTDLR is missing, press ctrl + alt & delete to restart.... So what i founded out is that my BIOS is looking for the MBR on the IDE drive and not on the SATA drive! I used recovery console and according to DOS my IDE is the c:\ drive and my SATA is the d:\. So if i unplug my IDE then windows boots up normal. Now ive tried to change the hard drive boot sequence so that he reads the SATA drive first but with no success, he keeps the IDE drive first on the list :( another thing i tried before i knew what was going on is in recovery console i tried the fixboot so it asked to write a new boot to the c:\ and i said yes. (this is before i knew that my IDE is the c:\ drive) Could this be the problem...... ???.

Now this all worked fine before but after i made a small partition on the IDE drive to install Vista (just to start learning the thing) this error started occuring. So i deleted the small partition via windows setup so all is like it was but still the missing NTDLR error.......

Any thaughts would be much appreciated...

Thanx

This is a problem with the BIOS Boot Order or startup configuration, you
*must* place the SATA drive at the head or top of the hard disk boot
order. If you absolutely cannot do this (as you seem to be implying)
then you will have to create a System Partition on the IDE disk and use
it to boot the installation on the SATA drive.

[_Rosco_]

NTLDR is missing step by step solution guide available here....

http://www.proposedsolution.com/solutions/ps0013.php

Hope this helps guys.

Rosco

[johnconnor2811]

for more information on NTLDR related errors visit

[akumageorges]

About a month ago, my laptop (with vista as OS) started acting up, giving me error messages such as “windows\system32\boot\winload.exe missing or corrupt” as well as “windows\system32\stsem missing”. I tried everything I could in vain, and I decided to go ahead and format my hard drive, through another computer using an enclosure kit since I couldn’t even get into safe mode or any other mode without getting the error screen right away. I seemed that the problem was getting worst as I restarted my computer.
As I mentioned above, I formatted my disc, thus lost all data, hoping to be able to install a clean version of VISTA. I reinstall my hard drive in the laptop, and just to make a quick test, I started the computer without the VISTA DVD in and I got the error “NTLDR is missing Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart”, and wondering what that was about, I looked it up on the internet, and most people seemed to say that error message was a typical windows XP type of error. But I never had XP on this computer. So I didn’t do anything about and put the VISTA DVD in the drive and restarted the computer. I got the message “press any key to boot from CD or DVD…” When I didn’t push any button, I got the error message “NTLDR is missing Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart”, and then I restarted it and pushed a key to boot it from the VISTA DVD. I then got the “windows is loading files” screen. Once it was done loading files, it went straight to the error screen “Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause …windows\system32\boot\winload.exe missing or corrupt … status 0x0000001…”.
At this point I really don’t know what to do, and I’m totally confused, since my hard drive is totally empty and I still get those error messages.

Please help

You should be asking about Vista problems in one of the Vista help groups.

You are getting the NTLDR is missing error message because you formated
the drive with an earlier than Vista NT version (Windows 2000 or Windows
XP). When you format a drive a new boot sector is written to the
partition, the boot sector contains a small bit of code and instructions
that is executed when the partition is booted. Being that you formatted
the disk with Windows 2000 or Windows XP the code in the boot sector is
written to find and execute NTLDR, the boot loader for the operating
system that formatted the drive. When you install Vista the boot sector
will be rewritten to point to Winload.exe, the boot loader for Vista.

Stick your Vista DVD in the machine and when the computer boots select
the proper option to install Vista. Read the instructions that came
with the laptop.

John

akumageorges wrote:
> About a month ago, my laptop (with vista as OS) started acting up,
> giving me error messages such as
> “windows\system32\boot\winload.exe missing or corrupt” as
> well as “windows\system32\stsem missing”. I tried everything
> I could in vain, and I decided to go ahead and format my hard drive,
> through another computer using an enclosure kit since I couldn’t
> even get into safe mode or any other mode without getting the error
> screen right away. I seemed that the problem was getting worst as I
> restarted my computer.
> As I mentioned above, I formatted my disc, thus lost all data, hoping
> to be able to install a clean version of VISTA. I reinstall my hard
> drive in the laptop, and just to make a quick test, I started the
> computer without the VISTA DVD in and I got the error “NTLDR is
> missing Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart”, and wondering what that
> was about, I looked it up on the internet, and most people seemed to say
> that error message was a typical windows XP type of error. But I never
> had XP on this computer. So I didn’t do anything about and put the
> VISTA DVD in the drive and restarted the computer. I got the message
> “press any key to boot from CD or DVD…” When I
> didn’t push any button, I got the error message “NTLDR is
> missing Press CTRL+Alt+Del to restart”, and then I restarted it
> and pushed a key to boot it from the VISTA DVD. I then got the
> “windows is loading files” screen. Once it was done loading
> files, it went straight to the error screen “Windows failed to
> start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause
> …windows\system32\boot\winload.exe missing or corrupt …
> status 0x0000001…”.
> At this point I really don’t know what to do, and I’m
> totally confused, since my hard drive is totally empty and I still get
> those error messages.
>
> Please help
>
>