Difference between FIXBOOT and BOOTCFG in Recovery Console?

Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch which
hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd like to
use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS was installed
"later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the Recovery Console or
BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru". Thanks!


--


-Jesse

Jucysterfry wrote:
> Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
> drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch which
> hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd like to
> use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS was installed
> "later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the Recovery Console or
> BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru". Thanks!
>
>


I am sure you can Google for the answer
but the important thing is to have the drive on the same channel it was
on when you installed the OS

You may also have to set the proper boot drive in the bios

> Jucysterfry wrote:
>> Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
>> drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch
>> which hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd
>> like to use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS was
>> installed "later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the
>> Recovery Console or BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru".
>> Thanks!


"philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:EKednYKJo7jKzZjXnZ2dnUVZ_tOdnZ2d@ntd.net...
> I am sure you can Google for the answer
> but the important thing is to have the drive on the same channel it was on
> when you installed the OS
>
> You may also have to set the proper boot drive in the bios


J...
We'll assume that when you connect your "newer" SATA HDD to the
motherboard's SATA0 connector, either your second HDD is disconnected from
the system or if it's still connected to another SATA (or IDE) connector
your BIOS boot priority order indicates a *first* boot to the "newer" SATA
HDD (as philo has mentioned). This is so, right?

To simplify matters, is there any chance you can fresh-install the XP OS
onto your "newer" SATA HDD and take it from there? Or have you programs &
data on that drive that you don't want to lose?

I assume that SATA HDD properly functioned at some point-in-time and this
"NTLDR is missing" message has recently occurred. Is that right?

If it is, do you have any clue as to why this has happened? You've checked
your system for any malware infestation, yes?

And just on the off-chance that you may be dealing with a defective HDD (new
or not), check out its health with the diagnostic utility you can download
from the disk's manufacturer.

Anyway, the more-or-less "tried & true" Recovery Console commands to
(usually) overcome this problem are...
fixmbr
fixboot
bootcfg /rebuild

chkdsk /r also helps at times.

If those don't work you should consider a Repair install of the OS.

In any event, before undertaking any of the above, if at all possible clone
the contents of that drive to another HDD so you have a complete backup or
at the least copy off to some media any files that are important to you.
Anna

Thanks for the feedback! To clarify: I added the "newer" hard drive (an
ExcelStor) after wanting a different drive for the OS; saving the old drive
(a Western Digital) for programs and files. I installed the ExcelStor to the
SATA 1 port, booted from the CD, formatted and installed XP; around Nov. '08.
After this, on start-up I must choose which OS installation to boot from.
Yesterday, I was cleaning my case and rearranging the components to make room
for a card on the way. I wondered if I could plug the drives into any SATA
port on the mother board because of space requirements. This rearrangement
did not work: the computer froze on the BIOS page; I remembered the words of
my supplier "Always fill you SATA 0 port first". So I plugged the ExcelStor
into SATA 0 port (being the primary OS disk, or so I thought) and I plugged
the Western Digital into SATA 1. This is when I encountered "NTLDR is
missing..." I called my specialist and he said "It's very complex, you need
to take your computer in. Maybe you destroyed things with static." Then,
thinking of the original configuration, I switched the SATA cables so the
Western Digital was in it's position of last functioning, the SATA 0. I am
writing you today on the functioning computer, yet I want to put the
ExcelStor (OS disk) in the SATA 0. Do I FIXBOOT or BOOTCFG to activate the
ExcelStor in SATA 0? Thanks for the interest!

--

-Jesse




"Anna" wrote:

>
> > Jucysterfry wrote:
> >> Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
> >> drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch
> >> which hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd
> >> like to use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS was
> >> installed "later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the
> >> Recovery Console or BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru".
> >> Thanks!
>
>
> "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:EKednYKJo7jKzZjXnZ2dnUVZ_tOdnZ2d@ntd.net...
> > I am sure you can Google for the answer
> > but the important thing is to have the drive on the same channel it was on
> > when you installed the OS
> >
> > You may also have to set the proper boot drive in the bios
>
>
> J...
> We'll assume that when you connect your "newer" SATA HDD to the
> motherboard's SATA0 connector, either your second HDD is disconnected from
> the system or if it's still connected to another SATA (or IDE) connector
> your BIOS boot priority order indicates a *first* boot to the "newer" SATA
> HDD (as philo has mentioned). This is so, right?
>
> To simplify matters, is there any chance you can fresh-install the XP OS
> onto your "newer" SATA HDD and take it from there? Or have you programs &
> data on that drive that you don't want to lose?
>
> I assume that SATA HDD properly functioned at some point-in-time and this
> "NTLDR is missing" message has recently occurred. Is that right?
>
> If it is, do you have any clue as to why this has happened? You've checked
> your system for any malware infestation, yes?
>
> And just on the off-chance that you may be dealing with a defective HDD (new
> or not), check out its health with the diagnostic utility you can download
> from the disk's manufacturer.
>
> Anyway, the more-or-less "tried & true" Recovery Console commands to
> (usually) overcome this problem are...
> fixmbr
> fixboot
> bootcfg /rebuild
>
> chkdsk /r also helps at times.
>
> If those don't work you should consider a Repair install of the OS.
>
> In any event, before undertaking any of the above, if at all possible clone
> the contents of that drive to another HDD so you have a complete backup or
> at the least copy off to some media any files that are important to you.
> Anna
>
>
>

On Fri, 8 May 2009 23:33:01 -0700, Jucysterfry
<Jucysterfry@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
>drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch which
>hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd like to
>use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS was installed
>"later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the Recovery Console or
>BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru". Thanks!

"Ntldr missing" means the hard drive the motherboard Bios is booting
from does not contain the file ntldr in its root directory.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\auser>cd \

C:\>dir /ah
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 842F-077A

Directory of C:\

05/09/2009 11:01 PM 211 boot.ini
05/09/2009 11:09 PM 0 IO.SYS
05/09/2009 11:09 PM 0 MSDOS.SYS
04/13/2008 01:13 PM 47,564 NTDETECT.COM
04/13/2008 03:01 PM 250,048 ntldr
05/09/2009 11:16 PM <DIR> System Volume Information
5 File(s) 297,823 bytes
1 Dir(s) 30,150,651,904 bytes free

C:\>

Fixboot doesn't need to be used, since the existing boot sector is
already trying to run the missing ntldr.

Bootcfg /rebuild will create a new boot.ini. Also needed in the
directory are files ntdetect.com and ntldr, which can be copied from
the i386 directory on the Windows XP CD.

>> Jucysterfry wrote:
>>> Simple question looking for a simple descriptive answer. I have two hard
>>> drives in my computer. Why do I get "NTLDR is missing..." when I switch
>>> which hard drive is plugged into the SATA 0 port on the motherboard? I'd
>>> like to use the newer hard drive as the "real" boot disk, yet it's OS
>>> was installed "later" than the old drive. So... do I use FIXBOOT in the
>>> Recovery Console or BOOTCFG? A question for the right "quazi guru".
>>> Thanks!
>
>
> "philo" <philo@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:EKednYKJo7jKzZjXnZ2dnUVZ_tOdnZ2d@ntd.net...
>> I am sure you can Google for the answer
>> but the important thing is to have the drive on the same channel it was
>> on when you installed the OS
>>
>> You may also have to set the proper boot drive in the bios



"Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote in message
news:O7QU8lK0JHA.4800@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> J...
> We'll assume that when you connect your "newer" SATA HDD to the
> motherboard's SATA0 connector, either your second HDD is disconnected from
> the system or if it's still connected to another SATA (or IDE) connector
> your BIOS boot priority order indicates a *first* boot to the "newer" SATA
> HDD (as philo has mentioned). This is so, right?
>
> To simplify matters, is there any chance you can fresh-install the XP OS
> onto your "newer" SATA HDD and take it from there? Or have you programs &
> data on that drive that you don't want to lose?
>
> I assume that SATA HDD properly functioned at some point-in-time and this
> "NTLDR is missing" message has recently occurred. Is that right?
>
> If it is, do you have any clue as to why this has happened? You've checked
> your system for any malware infestation, yes?
>
> And just on the off-chance that you may be dealing with a defective HDD
> (new or not), check out its health with the diagnostic utility you can
> download from the disk's manufacturer.
>
> Anyway, the more-or-less "tried & true" Recovery Console commands to
> (usually) overcome this problem are...
> fixmbr
> fixboot
> bootcfg /rebuild
>
> chkdsk /r also helps at times.
>
> If those don't work you should consider a Repair install of the OS.
>
> In any event, before undertaking any of the above, if at all possible
> clone the contents of that drive to another HDD so you have a complete
> backup or at the least copy off to some media any files that are important
> to you.
> Anna


"Jucysterfry" <Jucysterfry@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4CDAF33D-6124-4452-8C9B-958E71337E32@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for the feedback! To clarify: I added the "newer" hard drive
> (an ExcelStor) after wanting a different drive for the OS; saving the old
> drive (a Western Digital) for programs and files. I installed the
> ExcelStor to the SATA 1 port, booted from the CD, formatted and installed
> XP; around Nov. '08. After this, on start-up I must choose which OS
> installation to boot from. Yesterday, I was cleaning my case and
> rearranging the components to make room for a card on the way. I wondered
> if I could plug the drives into any SATA port on the mother board because
> of space requirements. This rearrangement did not work: the computer
> froze on the BIOS page; I remembered the words of my supplier "Always fill
> you SATA 0 port first". So I plugged the ExcelStor into SATA 0 port
> (being the primary OS disk, or so I thought) and I plugged the Western
> Digital into SATA 1. This is when I encountered "NTLDR is missing..." I
> called my specialist and he said "It's very complex, you need to take your
> computer in. Maybe you destroyed things with static." Then, thinking of
> the original configuration, I switched the SATA cables so the Western
> Digital was in it's position of last functioning, the SATA 0. I am
> writing you today on the functioning computer, yet I want to put the
> ExcelStor (OS disk) in the SATA 0. Do I FIXBOOT or BOOTCFG to activate
> the ExcelStor in SATA 0? Thanks for the interest!
>
> --
> -Jesse


Jesse:
Based on your latest post I'm gaining the impression that some sort of
dual-boot configuration is involved here, i.e., the XP OS has been installed
on both of your HDDs, presumably inadvertently. Since you've indicated that
you desire to use the "old" WD HDD as a secondary HDD for "programs and
files", and use your new Excelstor HDD as your boot drive, I'm assuming that
you do not need nor want a dual-boot configuration, i.e., an installation of
the XP OS on *each* of your two HDDs. It's on that basis that I'm making the
following suggestions. So if I have misunderstood your objectives and/or
situation at the present time, do *not* read any further, OK?...

(Assuming you plan to undertake the following steps I would urge you to
*first* copy any important/crucial data from either of your two HDDs onto
some removable media).

1. I'm going to assume that aside from the XP OS installed on your Excelstor
HDD, you can move any personal data on that HDD to your WD HDD. And if there
are any programs/applications installed on the Excelstor boot drive, you'll
have no problem re:installing them at a later time.

2. I'm further assuming that as the situation now stands, you can boot to
the WD HDD without any problem - that this "NTLDR is missing" affects *only*
the Excelstor HDD.

3. So if all the above is correct, do this...
a. Disconnect your Excelstor HDD and boot only with the WD HDD connected.
Delete the bios.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr files from the root (C:\)
directory.
Delete the WINDOWS folder so that all the files & sub-folders will be gone
from that drive.

b. After shutting down the PC, disconnect the WD HDD from the machine. And
as your "supplier" has informed you, connect your Excelstor HDD to the
*first* SATA connector on your motherboard (designated either SATA0 or
SATA1). Ensure the only storage device now connected in your system is the
Excelstor disk.

c. Boot to your XP installation CD and undertake a fresh-install of the XP
OS onto the Excelstor. Obviously you will be deleting the partition(s)
currently on that HDD during this process and I'm sure you are aware that by
so doing *all* the programs/data on that disk will be gone.

d. Following the fresh-install of the OS, check the BIOS to determine the
boot priority order correctly reflects that the Excelstor HDD is first in
HDD boot priority.

4. At this point you should have a bootable functioning HDD. Install
whatever programs and other data you want onto that drive. My inclination is
to always install one's programs/applications on the same HDD that contains
the OS. I'm not fond of segregating programs/applications on another
physical HDD other than the boot disk. But, of course, that's up to you.

5. After shutting down the machine, connect your WD HDD to the motherboard's
second SATA connector.

Hopefully, at this point you should have a bootable, functioning, stable
machine and the multi-boot menu will no longer display during bootup.

I would strongly suggest that you consider either a disk-cloning or
disk-imaging program that you can routinely & frequently use as a
comprehensive backup program. If you go that route consider installing *all*
your data, programs/applications, personal data, etc. on your boot drive and
use your secondary (WD) HDD - either in whole or in part (multi-partitioned)
as the "destination" HDD, i.e., the recipient of the cloned or imaged
contents of your boot drive. I believe that for the greatest majority of PC
users this is the most sensible course to take in organizing one's system
and providing the greatest level of security against loss of data.
Anna

Thanks to all who replied, the solution is clear now!
--

-Jesse


"Anna" wrote:

>
>
> Jesse:
> Based on your latest post I'm gaining the impression that some sort of
> dual-boot configuration is involved here, i.e., the XP OS has been installed
> on both of your HDDs, presumably inadvertently. Since you've indicated that
> you desire to use the "old" WD HDD as a secondary HDD for "programs and
> files", and use your new Excelstor HDD as your boot drive, I'm assuming that
> you do not need nor want a dual-boot configuration, i.e., an installation of
> the XP OS on *each* of your two HDDs. It's on that basis that I'm making the
> following suggestions. So if I have misunderstood your objectives and/or
> situation at the present time, do *not* read any further, OK?...
>
> (Assuming you plan to undertake the following steps I would urge you to
> *first* copy any important/crucial data from either of your two HDDs onto
> some removable media).
>
> 1. I'm going to assume that aside from the XP OS installed on your Excelstor
> HDD, you can move any personal data on that HDD to your WD HDD. And if there
> are any programs/applications installed on the Excelstor boot drive, you'll
> have no problem re:installing them at a later time.
>
> 2. I'm further assuming that as the situation now stands, you can boot to
> the WD HDD without any problem - that this "NTLDR is missing" affects *only*
> the Excelstor HDD.
>
> 3. So if all the above is correct, do this...
> a. Disconnect your Excelstor HDD and boot only with the WD HDD connected.
> Delete the bios.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr files from the root (C:\)
> directory.
> Delete the WINDOWS folder so that all the files & sub-folders will be gone
> from that drive.
>
> b. After shutting down the PC, disconnect the WD HDD from the machine. And
> as your "supplier" has informed you, connect your Excelstor HDD to the
> *first* SATA connector on your motherboard (designated either SATA0 or
> SATA1). Ensure the only storage device now connected in your system is the
> Excelstor disk.
>
> c. Boot to your XP installation CD and undertake a fresh-install of the XP
> OS onto the Excelstor. Obviously you will be deleting the partition(s)
> currently on that HDD during this process and I'm sure you are aware that by
> so doing *all* the programs/data on that disk will be gone.
>
> d. Following the fresh-install of the OS, check the BIOS to determine the
> boot priority order correctly reflects that the Excelstor HDD is first in
> HDD boot priority.
>
> 4. At this point you should have a bootable functioning HDD. Install
> whatever programs and other data you want onto that drive. My inclination is
> to always install one's programs/applications on the same HDD that contains
> the OS. I'm not fond of segregating programs/applications on another
> physical HDD other than the boot disk. But, of course, that's up to you.
>
> 5. After shutting down the machine, connect your WD HDD to the motherboard's
> second SATA connector.
>
> Hopefully, at this point you should have a bootable, functioning, stable
> machine and the multi-boot menu will no longer display during bootup.
>
> I would strongly suggest that you consider either a disk-cloning or
> disk-imaging program that you can routinely & frequently use as a
> comprehensive backup program. If you go that route consider installing *all*
> your data, programs/applications, personal data, etc. on your boot drive and
> use your secondary (WD) HDD - either in whole or in part (multi-partitioned)
> as the "destination" HDD, i.e., the recipient of the cloned or imaged
> contents of your boot drive. I believe that for the greatest majority of PC
> users this is the most sensible course to take in organizing one's system
> and providing the greatest level of security against loss of data.
> Anna
>
>
>