NTLDR is missing

Barry · 8th February 2005

I just had to replace both of my son's harddrives. In order to save some time, I cloned the operating system partition, using Ghost, onto the other drive. Everything looks the same on both drives, but the cloned version won't start up. I repaired with fixboot, but it tells me that NTLDR is missing. NTLDR appears in the same place (i386) on both drives. I copied the good NTLDR and pasted it on the i386 file of the new one, yet it still tells me that NTLDR is missing. How do I go about fixing this? I'd hate to have to do all the installs and upgrades all over again.

**Bmoore1129** · 8th February 2005

ntldr should be in the root of C: (Boot) drive.

Barry · 8th February 2005

I figured that fixboot would have fixed that. I copied and pasted my good boot partition to the one that doesn't work. I still end up with the same message. When I search for NTLDR on any of my boot drives, nothing comes up. Any suggestions?

Crack · 8th February 2005

More info in case you need it.

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

surferdude2 · 9th February 2005

There's an even chance that all you need to do is edit your boot.ini file so that it points to the correct partition. The reason would be that your son's old drive had a hidden partition and the OS was on the 2nd partition. Now the OS is on the 1st partition and the bootloader is looking for it on the 2nd.

Since the system isn't bootable now, you can do that by using the Recovery Console.

There are other ways that are often easier. You can create a "Bootloader" floppy that is simply a floppy formatted on a healthy XP system and containing the three bootloader files:

NTLDR
NTDECT.COM
BOOT.INI

That will boot the lame system right into Windows, providing that the bootloader files corruption was the problem. Then you can copy the floppy files to the root of the C: drive.

Another method is to use a bootini editing floppy. You can search this forum and find where to download one from. It will allow you to edit the boot.ini file on an otherwise unbootable system.

What you would be looking for in the boot.ini file would be this:

[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 Whistler Personal" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

If yours has a 2 instead of a 1 at those two occurances you see there, change both and save the change.

surferdude2 · 9th February 2005

Here is the boot.ini editor creating file. Download it and run it with a blank floppy in the drive bay. It will create the boot floppy that will allow you to edit the boot.ini file on your lame system.

http://webpages.charter.net/surferdude2/BootIniEdit.exe

Barry · 9th February 2005

I'm afraid this didn't help either. I even reformatted the partition and cloned the original partition over to it again. The boot.ini program doesn't help, as it only works with NTFS partitions. My first partition, that I believe my boot is on, is FAT32. The operating system is on the 2nd partition, which is listed as Extended. The boot.ini program says that this drive isn't NTFS, though it is. I guess I need another way to put the operating system and boot in touch with each other. Every time I try to repair with fixmbr, I'm told there is a problem with the master boot record, even after I fix it. Any other suggestions?

surferdude2 · 9th February 2005

Let's go through the basics. To single boot a NTFS system, you'll need to have it located on the same partition that the boot.ini file is pointing to. The boot.ini is to be located on the root of that partition. That's where the MBR will look for it. You'll also need to have the NTLDR file and the NTDETECT.COM file located on that same partition and in the root folder.

With those items in place, you should be able to boot if the OS is healthy otherwise.

If you imaged a NTFS XP system and placed it on this new drive, it will still be of the NTFS file storage type system. You need to determine what partition the image of the system was expanded upon. Then you will have the information that allows you to edit the boot.ini file so as to point to that partition. The partition must be set as "active" also. Generally the imaging program will ask if you want to do that. Then you need the files I mentioned above to be located on the root of that drive.

From your last post it sounds as if your 1st partition is FAT32 so the image would not have been placed there unless it was a FAT32 XP system. You would know that I presume.

With all that, it should boot if the system was healthy when you imaged it.

Good luck.

Barry · 9th February 2005

I copied both of the first two partitions to the other drive. Whatever existed on the first drive, that worked, was transfered to the 2nd drive. The problem is how to I get them to communicate with each other on startup. I can access any of the partitions through the first drive, and they are all identical. The operating system is on the 2nd partition.

surferdude2 · 9th February 2005

Let me see if I understand what you have there.

You said you had to replace BOTH of the drives. You said you cloned the existing OS to one of the new drives. I presume you had the new drive set as a slave to the existing primary drive.

When you say you cloned the OS, do you mean that you cloned the entire partition that the OS was on? If not and instead you just cloned the OS folder, you left the necessary bootloader files behind on the root of the source drive. You'll need to get those and place them as outlined in my earlier post.

Did you set the drive as active when/if asked during the cloning operation?

Then did you remove the existing primary drive and then install the cloned drive as a master, changing the jumper if need be?

Then did you install the second new physical drive as a blank slave to the newly cloned master?

If you did it in that manner, what error message did you get when attempting to boot?

Have you looked on the root of the first partition of the primary drive to see if the files I mentioned are there?

Answer those as best you can and let's see if we can get you going.

Barry · 9th February 2005

OK, let's see if I can follow this. I'm no expert, but am good at following directions. I started with a new 80GB HD, partitioned, formatted, then installed Windows XP and all the numerous updates. Not wanting to go through that significant period of time, I used Ghost to clone a copy of my first FAT32 partition and 2nd NTFS operating system partition to the new partitioned and formatted 120GB HD. I cloned the entire partitions, not just parts. I don't recall anywhere in the transfer process where it asked if I wanted to set the drive as active. I am able to access the 120GB HD from the 80GB HD, so the cable is probably OK. When I disconnect the 80GB HD and try to run the 120GB HD as master, after the CMOS check and before booting up, I am told:
NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart
Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk
I don't know where to look for this root. I'm not looking at my son's computer now, as he is sleeping, but my computer, set up the same (except without the Ghost copy), has nothing on the FAT32 partition. The NTFS partition has the following 4 files:
documents and settings
program files
windows
null
I won't be able to work on this till Thursday morning, so walk me through the steps and I'll give you the results then. Thanks for the help,
Barry

surferdude2 · 9th February 2005

Ok Barry, it sounds like you have XP installed on the second partition and it doesn't have the bootloader files in the correct location to enable booting.

At this point, it would be easier for me to just supply you with a file that will create a boot floppy for you to use for diagnostic purposes. You will create this floppy on your computer and use it to boot the ailing computer. I'll assume for the moment that both computers have floppy drives. If not, let me know and we'll take other steps.

Bootloader

Download that file and unzip it. Open the folder it created and look for the file named GO. Place a blank floppy in your drive bay and double click GO. Answer YES when asked if you want to proceed. After it finishes writing and checking the floppy, place that floppy in the other computer and boot it up. When you get the boot option screen, select "Boot Partition 2" from the menu and press enter. If all goes well, you will boot to a Windows session. If instead, you get an error message, shut down and retry the process, this time selecting "Boot Partition 1."

If this boot floppy enables booting to Windows, that will give us enough information to instruct you as to how to make a permanent repair of your system so post back your results whenever you get back to work on the beast.

Best regards.

**Zander** · 9th February 2005

If you can access the 120GB drive using the 80GB drive you should be able to have a look (and edit if necessary) at the boot.ini for the problem drive using windows. Connect the 80GB drive, and boot to windows and then have a look at the boot.ini on the 120GB drive. Also, you should be able to check to see if the necessary files are there. If they are you can either move them to the partition the boot.ini points to or edit the boot.ini so that it points to the partition they're located on. Then disconnect the 80GB drive and reconnect the 120 as a master on the primary controller and see if it boots.

Edit:
Also, if for some reason the boot files are missing on 120 GB drive, you should be able to just copy them from the 80 drive to the proper partition on the 120.

Barry · 9th February 2005

surferdude2 -- The bootloader zip file comes out saying "The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid or corrupted." I downloaded it twice, with the same results.
Zander -- I haven't the faintest idea how to locate the boot.ini or what to do if I found it. It doesn't come up when I do a search.

surferdude2 · 10th February 2005

That's odd, it works fine for me.

Anyway, you probably need to set your system so that you are viewing "Hidden" files in order to see the bootloader files.

Open Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options > View >

Check "Show hidden files and folders"

Uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types and Hide protected operation system files"

OK out of there.

Then double click the C: drive and see if you can find:

NTLDR
NTDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI

If not, copy them from your other drive that boots correctly.

If however, they are there already, double click the boot.ini file and determine what partition it is pointing to. Change it as needed so as to point to the OS partition, which we think may be 2.