Can't copy ntldr and ntdetect from CD on reinstall.

Hi cis4,
Have you used the extract command to decompress the files from the cd first? Otherwise it wouldn't work.

Thanks for quick reply. I used "copy g:\i386\ntldr e:", "copy g:\i386\ntdetect.com e:". How do i use extract command in recovery console??

cis4,
once you copied the file to the hard drive, use the Expand ntdetect.co_ command. That will expand the file to its proper name then copy it over the old file.

This explains more http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm 

>>>the root directory but on restarting it says ntldr is missing. Any suggestions?

Boot from Windows 2003 CD > Select Repair > Fast Repair > this will copy boot files from CD.

What90, the ntdetect and ntldr files have already been copied over to the hdd and cannot be expanded as they are not compressed. The link shows the expand command used on .cab files.

SystmProg, i had already formated the drive and this option does not appear on startup. On installing, it will copy to 99%, say that it cannot copy the two files, and give option to skip, retry or abort. I only used the recovery console to manualy copy these files over.

I've also tried formating then installing XP Pro with the same results

>>>SystmProg, i had already formated the drive and this option does not appear on startup. On installing, it will copy to 99%, say that it cannot copy the two files, and give option to skip, retry or abort. I only used the recovery console to manualy copy these files over.

Files either Ntldr or Ntdetect.co_ are corrupted on CD drive..do one thing copy these two files to any location in other computer...

Let me know.

Thanks for help guys. I used another machine to connect that hard drive up and format it from there. Read somewhere that it could have had something to do with security on the hard drive, maybe left from the existing installation??? Anyway, after formating again it has installed fine. Would liked to have known the true cause though. Thanks!!

One second...

You say it can't copy Ntldr and Ntdetect.com....could be the following causes: -

If windows installation process is not able to keep this file to memory first and then copying to hard disk because windows installation process extracts the file and keep it in memory and then copy the file to hard disk...so when it copies to hard disk it is not able to move it from memory.

Windows installation process can't extract the file from CD but it should give you a warining or error message if it can't copy.

Sorry for leaving this question open so long, totally forgot about it! Copied all my files over using another machine and wiped partitions/formatted from there. No problems after that and it installed fine. Thanks!