Search
Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in

NTLDR is missing

Last response: in Systems
Share

Ugh!
Okay, I have tried everything I can think of to try and fix the problem. Here is the scenario.

New Box with SATA HD and IDE DVD-RW. I also have a floppy drive hooked up to the FDC connection.
HD = Samsung 160GB SATA
Mobo = Abit AB9 Pro P965 775
CPU = Core 2 2.13 775R
GPU = Leadtek PX7900GT
DVD = Liteon DVD+/-RW
RAM = GSKill 2 x 1GB Dual Channel

System was working and set BIOS to DVD 1st priority to run WinXP setup. I got into the setup and Pressed F6 to load the Mobo Drivers. After those were loaded it went into the formatting and partitioning of the HD. I partitioned a very large section and a very small section. The formatting then proceeded to run for the next 45 mins.

Once the formatting was completed, the setup was asking for me to insert an odd disk into the A: Drive. After trying a couple of things I rebooted.

When I rebooted, I got the error:
NTLDR is Missing
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot

Now I am stuck. I cannot re-run Windows setup. I have set the Bios to boot from DVD first but it won't work. I thought perhaps the drive was bad, so I connected my old CD-RW drive instead. Still no go. I have even gone so far as to add my old HD that already has WinXP on it to try and get into Windows to run the setup for the new drive from in there. My new drive is SATA my old drive is IDE, and I linked it as slave to the DVD-RW. I also ensure the Bios is again showing CD/DVD drive first in the boot priority.

I am stuck! The light is on on the DVD Drive and it is receiving power. I don't think my jumpers are messed up as it started the install the first time.

If you are in need of more info to assist me, please ask and thank you for taking the time to help me out!

More about : ntldr missing

Register or log in to remove

NTLDR missing is usually the sign that your Windows installation is corrupt (someone else will be able to tell you exactly what it does). However because you haven't even installed Windows yet this is a little confusing.

Take all hard disks out and try booting from the Windows CD and see what happens. Also, you could try burning another copy either by copying the CD you have or burning another from the ISO you downloaded from the internet.

Hello,

Don't panic - the problem is that WinXP doesn't support SATA and it cannot load NTLDR ( call it "NT-loader", as WinXP has some Win NT roots:)  at the first reboot during install.
The XP installer was giving you the message " insert (an odd) disk into the Drive A:" because it searches for SATA drivers there, in theory you should load them from a floppy during the installation rpocess, before the first reboot.
As I have not done this myself, I prefer to give you a link that might help you:

http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_install_windows_xp_on_a.htm

Good luck!
Related ressources
Ask the community

I had the same problem when I was testing booting from a restored server image onto a redundant server - the only difference between the two servers was one booting from a RAID1 array, and the redundant server was booting from an IDE HDD.
I got around it by putting NTLDR (a file with no extension, from the Windows SBS2003 CD) in the root directory, re-imaging, then when I restored the image to the redundant server, it worked fine...

Hope that helps dude, 'cos it doesn't neccessarily mean anything is broken...

Cheers,

D

I got that same message on my laptop too. Still have it, as a matter of fact. Don't know what did it, but I don't care much as the laptop hasn't booted Windows more than once or twice a year before the bootloader got hosed. A repair of the installation didn't do much, and I don't care enough to reformat ad reinstall because I don't want to have to reinstall GRUB.

I appreciate the info from those who read my initial post and not just the subject line. For those that didn't read the post, I did not get Windows installed and I was in no way able to get to a position to reformat the HD. Had that been the case I would have done that.

For those that did read. I finally got it last night. While none of the posts directly helped, much of the info helped me to finally pin-point what it was that caused it, so thank you very much!

I went to Microsoft.com downloads and found the WinXP file to create boot floppies. I created the 6 floppies. Set the boot priority in the Bios for A: Drive first. It started the install and I was able to F6 reinstall the driver. I installed the driver and continued with the process. Put WinXP disk into DVD and was able to proceed with the install. The partition and format had worked and the install did start as there was an existing install.

It then again asked for the drivers via A: drive. I put the same driver disk in again and it proceeded. I installed over the previous install and 30 mintues later I was installing my other drivers via window.

Thanks again!

Quote:
the setup was asking for me to insert an odd disk into the A: Drive. After trying a couple of things I rebooted.

When I rebooted, I got the error:
NTLDR is Missing
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot


Is that disk still in the A:

While it is a sign that windows is corrupt it is more than likely what 2 peeps have said already. leaving a floppy in the drive has an odd habbit of displaying that with NTFS than the usual take the floppy out msg. :) 

you must install windows first,then your motherboard drivers.not the other way around.go into bios and reset to default values.then create a primary partition for your os.format and install.once you have done the primary install then you can install secondary software like mb drivers anti-virus etc...goodluck.oh ya,and remove any f;oppy you have in its drive.

Dahak

EVGA NF4 SLI MB
X2 4400+@2.4 S-939
2 7800GT'S IN SLI MODE
2X1GIG DDR400 MEMORY IN DC MODE
WD300GIG HD
520WATT PSU
EXTREME 19IN.MONITOR
3DMARK05 11,582

Quote:
NTLDR missing is usually the sign that your Windows installation is corrupt (someone else will be able to tell you exactly what it does).


For those who may still have that error, it is usually related to the boot.ini hidden file not being able to find this file. It points to what drive/partition has the NTLDR file on it. If you recently made a hard disk change, modifying the boot.ini file to properly point to where this file is will fix the error. If it already pointing to the file on the correct partition, then your system files are corrupt.
Register or log in to remove
 
Ask the community
Read discussions in other Systems categories
!