NTLDR is missing.....

I have just upgraded my sons computer with a new harddrive..... His computer was bought in 2000, is a Compaq and had Windows ME on it. The new harddrive was from an E-machine bought in 2003 and had Windows XP on it. I am recieving an eroor upon turning it on that says "NTLDR is missing" "press Alt Cntr Del to restart" When I restart I get the same error it is never ending and very annoying. I have read a little on the net about it being in the BIOS. That I have to change the BIOS to start from a disk and use a Windows XP start up. Also, they say if I can't find a disk or don't have one to click here.... (link) The link then sends me to a place I can download a boot disk for XP and put it on a floppy. I have a floppy drive on the Compaq, but not on the machine that is working and I can't find a place to download it and be able to burn it to a disk. I'm not even sure if that is what I need to do. If anyone could help me I would sure appreciate it.

BTW, The e-machine we took the harddrive off from-the mother board went on it and they are out of them (sound like a common problem) I would not recommend them. However, this is an emachine I am on now (newer) but I had this one on the net researching what happened to the other and found that out so.....I guess, they are so cheap because they are throw away.

The Compaq has had its probs. however it is 5 years old and was still running. It just started to freeze up and I thought a new harddrive, a new life. Guess it shows what I know about computers.

 

The Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) your OS needs to run is probably massively confused with the new hardware and some tweaking will be needed to get the system running.

Do you have an XP CD?

If not, you have to hope there is a folder on the drive named I386 that contains all the XP system files and can be used to effect the repair but since the machine lacks a floppy drive, you will probably need to install one long enough to boot the box and repair the OS.

Note: I removed the word "help" from the beginning of your title. Not needed and might just confuse things. We pretty much assume that folks who post here need help.

 

Okay... I got Windows XP on by using the system restore, but now when I start the PC it says "We apologize for any inconvenience, but Windows didn't start successfully..." It gives you several options I have tried them all to no avail. What next?

No problem about removing the help---I totally understand and I thank you for any help you can give me.

 

Bj, You will need to have the full XP CD and run a new install. The image that is on that hard drive will not work. it only had the E-machine drivers on it. Some E-machine shipped had a restore CD, others have it on the hard drive. you can still use the E-machine XP software numbers.