NTLDR is missing

Maybe you will find this link helpfull

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Here's the most comprehensive troubleshooting guide on the issue:
http://www.tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

If the author appears to be somewhat too verbose or unclear, just scroll down and check the collection of links at the bottom - which is where he got his knowledge from.

You don't perhaps have an external USB storage drive or stick plugged in and it's trying to boot to the USB drive?
The other thought is that somehow the partition you installed it to is no longer active.
Try and set that partition active

Hello,

Check your boot sequence in bios.If boot sequence is proper.
Then Repair your Windows.Boot from CD & repair.

Regards,
Tushar Kaskhedikar

Thanks to all that answered my question. I guess I might not have explain my situation. The hard drive has been formatted, whenit restarted and went to boot up after the format is when I got the BTLDR error message. So I can't do most of the things that are suggested. When I go to start over with the cd I dont get the opption to boot from the cd, instead it get the NTLDR is missing  message. I ant do a repair or reinstall or anything. I am stuck. I hope I didn't scare you off with that reply but it is what it is..hehe

bbbb2

In the BIOS is it showing that its detecting the Hard Drive?

Hello,

Please check the USB ports.If pen drive or other external device is installed in USB ports, so please remove & then check.

Regards,
Tushar Kaskhedikar  

and as Kaskhedikar mentioned earlier, you may need to check the boot sequence in the BIOS.
Make sure the CDROM in the Boot sequence is before the Hard Drive or any other device. then make sure the hard drive is next after the CDROM.
Then try again and let us know if it boots to the CDROM or whatever else happens

Yes it is detecting the hard drive as IDE Channel 1 Master-(Its a SATA Drive if that matters). The boot order is correct, cd first, hard drive second. As for USB pen drives or flash drives I dont have any plugged in but the keyboard and mouse both use USB, NO PS/2 . I think i answered everyone.

Thanks
bbbb2

Boot using the Windows XP installation disk, press R. Then type the following commands:
note : you can test after each command

      FIXMBR
      FIXBOOT
      BOOTCFG /rebuild

      cd\
      copy E:\i386\NTLDR
      ATTRIB -arsh ntldr
      copy e:\i386\NTDETECT.COM
      ATTRIB -arsh ntdetect.com

E: should be the location of your CDRom where you have the Windows install disk located.
and check if those files are in the root :   NTLDR   boot.ini     ntdetect.com

Contents of the boot.ini file :
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

check this too for more info :  http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm#What_if_none_of_the_options_worked?

It is possible that your CD is not bootable. Does it boot from any other CD?
Next, when you boot the PC see what key is suggested to be pressed to call for Boot Menu. Normally it is F8 or F12. See which one is yours. Press it and get to boot menu where you can select which device to boot from.
The NTlDR is missing error indicates that your Boot.ini file is located either on wrong drive or wrong drive is given active flag. To correct this you need to make the system boot from CD or USB flash first.

Something may have gone wrong with the formatting.

Download the Ultimate Boot CD (http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/), burn the image to disk, boot off it, in the boot menu select 'Parted Magic'.
On the Parted Magic desktop, select the partitioning tool and make sure all partitions on your HDD are deleted. Then reboot off the XP installation disk.

@NOBUS, I can't get to that point of choosing R for repair. I can't get to "press any key to boot from cd. I could when I first loaded and formatted the hard drive but after it rebooted all I get is:
Verifying DMI Pool  Data................Update Success
Boot from CD :

NTLDR  is missing
Press Ctrl+alt+del to restart

Thanks
bbbb2

@Torimar,
I will try downloading the UBCD and burning it to an image. If I am not mistaken, I have tried that before but could never boot from it.

bbbb2

After downloading the Ultimate Boot CD is there a link forme to go to that shows me howto burn it to a bootable cd so I can read and run what is on the CD?
Thanks
bbbb2

Does it have .iso extension? If yes then use ISO burning software.
http://www.freeisoburner.com/

I have n-lite

But what do I do from there? With n-lite being my iso burning software, sorry

bbbb3

You mean what to do from n-lite? Or from UBCD?

Try changing the boot device to the main hard disk from CD-ROM and see if boots to your new installation of Windows, next if that does not work try disabling the second boot from hard disk option to disabled or CD-ROM with your bootable windows xp cd which I would further recommending try booting with in another PC before continuing just to be sure that its bootable. If that does not work the final step would be trying single pieces of memory modules at a time if you have more than one, if not try getting another for test purposes, and if you don't want to do that try getting a bootable copy of a utility such as memtest (http://www.memtest.org) and burning the ISO to a CD and boot from to check for memory errors as you previously stated that system was crawling for unknown reason thus prompting you to format system. If no memory errors are detected you probable better off trying a new disk drive.

>> "After downloading the Ultimate Boot CD is there a link forme to go to that shows me howto burn it to a bootable cd so I can read and run what is on the CD?"

For burning I recommend the free ImgBurn (www.imgburn.com ). Here's a graphical guide on burning iso with it:
http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

bbb2, imo  "Boot from CD :

NTLDR  is missing
Press Ctrl+alt+del to restart"  means you are NOT booting from cd.
check the bios priority, and set cd first (or disable others)
you can also test with another bootable cd

When I did a hardware test it said the hard drive was bad. I put in anther hard drive and the cd rom showed up asking to press any key to boot from cd. I did and it install with any problem. Thanks to everyone for there input.

bbbb2

Wait! I gave points to the people that had the best help to my problem. I dont know why it it did what it did.
bbbb2

Then request attention to this question by moderator to correct the process of closing.