also wondering if you got a bootsector virus
Main Topics
Browse All Topics
Loading Advertisement...
Question
NTLDR missing, tried copying from install CD, fixboot, fixmbr, reinstall, none worked
I have a system with XP sp2, formatted NTFS. When I booted the machine today, it came up with the NTLDR missing message. I searched the web and tried the following things:
1. Booted from CD to and got to the repair console. Copied NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM over. Tried rebooting. No help.
2. Tried CHKDSK just in case. Found nothing. Tried rebooting - same problem.
3. Tried FIXMBR. This is a dell machine, so I tried it on the primary boot partition also which is the second partition on the machine. I also tried it on the dell specific partition. Same NTLDR missing on reboot.
4. Tried FIXBOOT. Same NTLDR missing
5. Tried a repair install of WinXP. Same NTLDR missing
6. Tried a reinstall of WinXP. Same NTLDR missing when it rebooted the machine.
At this point I realized I'm in over my head. Therefore I'm hoping you can help me achieve any of the following
1. In a dream world, I'd be able to reboot the machine without needing to repartition the drives. I am amenable to buying partition software if that would help.
2. If that's not possible, I'd like to be able to save some of the files on the hard drive -- it is formatted NTFS, but not encrypted and not compressed if that helps. I can yank the drive and throw it in another machine if it'll let me get the files off of it.
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get
Instant Access to this Solution
- Plus...
- 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
- Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
- Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
- Never be left without tech help again
Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.
- "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
- "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
- "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.
See what Experts Exchange can do for you.
Got a question?
We've got the answer.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
Need individual assistance?
Our experts are ready to help.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Want to learn from the best?
Read articles from industry experts.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Working on a long term project?
Store your work and research.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Trusted by the world's most respected brands.
Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Free Tech Articles
-
WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
-
SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
-
Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
-
Create a Win7 Gadget
This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
-
Outlook continually prompting for username and password
There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
-
Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...
Cloud Class Webinars
- Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
- Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
- IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
- Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
- How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...
Join the Community
Give a Little. Get a Lot.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
Answers
you can also see here
the part about disk probe
http://www.microsoft.com/r
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the help! --- the NTFS DOS product lead is a good one 'cept I can already read the drive through the recovery console of XP --- I checked out boot.ini and it does point to the correct drive/partition --- Since Dell sets up a partition for testing programs and such, it is pointed to partition(2) which is correct (partition 1 is Dell's) - but maybe it's worth trying partition(1) just to see... The recovery console doesn't let me run edit.com or anything, but maybe I can burn a CD and try copying a file from that. A bootsector virus - I hadn't considered that --- I guess I'd be surprised because I run it in a very secure environment (i.e. haven't recently installed anything, don't get html e-mail, run under a non admin account, etc.) - but anything is possible :) Anything I should try to see if it is a bootsector virus?
You could try ranish
http://www.ranish.com/part
free
Its because you formatted in NTFS..
Put in in another machine trabsfer the files...Good idea but also:
1. Find a boot disk/XP Bootable CD/Xp Boot floppies and format in FAT32 (Copying System files) this will make it bootabble. Thsi should work.
2. USe a disk utility--Partition magic to change files sytem and other options--Might loose some data though..
3. Check the BIOS settings (Boot options) etc for the HD--If everything is correct then finally try to Flash the CMOS batteryfor 30 min..Put it back---or Reset BIOS on the CMOS jumper on the MB.
Good luck
MD
Thanks so much for the help/advice!
Arggh, I guess that's why this is a Monday. I tried bootcfg /rebuild, setting the active partition, eating 18 hard boiled eggs, drilling a weather vane into my skull, none of it has worked so far... Although I do really enjoy seeing the NTLDR missing message about 95 times so far :)
I'm wondering what I've missed? Fixboot writes the boot sector, Fixmbr should make sure the file system is visible?, then bootcfg should make it so it can find NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM? So, if I understand it correctly, all of those have been done, so it should have been the active partition (i.e. windows was trying to find the boot sector on the right partition) which is also ok. I feel like this shouldn't be so hard - heck it can boot a CD-ROM, why can't I just get the files onto the hard drive in a way that it can boot from there? Am I missing something?
you can also copy the ntloader and ntdetct.com to a floppy and try and boot it from that
also here is barts pe builder
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilde
should let you see what;s on the drive
You're right, I don't have a floppy... The bios boot order is correct. The 'barts' tools were pretty cool and I was able to use them to get a bootable CD-ROM with partition magic's dos tools on it .. I messing with those now, but it looks like it may be to no avail :(... I wonder if it was some kind of MBR virus or something - it's just strange that even if it was that I couldn't use any of these tools to even make it bootable at all! So strange.
Thanks very much for your help, everyone! I ended up putting the drive in another computer, copying the contents over, and then reformatting and reinstalling on it (I tried just about everything including setting up a tiny boot partition with partition magic, and still couldn't get it to boot! So strange).
I'm not sure the protocol on points here, but I figure the right thing to do is give them all out and divvy them up based on how much everyone tried to help. Please let me know if that isn't the right thing to do - I'd much rather err on the side of giving away too many points than being stingy!
3 Ways to Join
Business Accounts
- Perfect for organizations
- Multiple users
- Save over 36%
- Create a Business Account
Answer for Membership
- Earn free access
- Showcase your knowledge
- No credit card required
- Sign Up to Answer
Loading Advertisement...
by: stevenlewisPosted on 2004-12-19 at 18:39:01ID: 12863930
>> If that's not possible, I'd like to be able to save some of the files on the hard drive -- it is formatted NTFS, but not encrypted and not compressed if that helps. I can yank the drive and throw it in another machine if it'll let me get the files off of it.
that should be possible, but we'll see if we can get this fixed
try this get ntfs dos
http://www.ntfs.com/produc
the free version is read only, but you should be able to read the boot.ini and see if it still points to the right drive/partition