Bah Humbug...Bad Nortons.....Clean Install.....No NTLDR

could use some help to fix

Published on July 24, 2005 By starkers In Personal Computing

Bit the bullet and rid myself of NIS/NAV problems with a clean install...all else failed in resolving those issues. Done clean installs before without issue, but....

Problem now is no NTLDR and no bootup...must leave in motherboard disc to start system and unsure how to restore NTLDR, with or without another rewrite.

Not long ago I put in new SAT 160 gig HD to serve as primary boot and replace IDE 40 gig, but being newbie had problems changing boot sequence. Eventually took it to techie to change IDE and install XP on new drive. All worked ok until Norton issues. Obviously techie didn't do as asked....physically change boot sequence in IDE...but instead in MBR with XP install as NTLDR gone with format. Hence, I was unaware of need to install additional drivers, etc during XP install....didn't know how anyway.

Question is, can I restore NTLDR without another format/XP install, and if so, how do I extract drivers etc from MB disc to boot record? Can't afford techie and is above my understanding, so any help to resolve is appreciated.

Comments

thomassen

on Jul 24, 2005

hm... I had NTLDR missing once... but I can't remember how I restored it. I wonder if I copied it from a friend... isn't the file on the XP disc?

starkers

on Jul 24, 2005

Not on XP disc...as far as I understand it, I need separate drivers that are apparently on the Motherboard install disc...just don't know how to extract and install to relevant files.

Be nice to know answers before loading my proggies and etc.

Could yet be another trip to a techie..just not the one who failed to install correctly last time.

Deathjam

on Jul 24, 2005

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555304

thats fixed it for me in the past hope this helps you

yrag

on Jul 24, 2005

You need the Sata drivers. They should have come on a floppy with your drive. If not, make one from their site (MB or HD). Open the Bios and make sure the SATA is the boot drive and you must enable SATA option in the bios (usually under Onboard devices). During the XP install it gave you a prompt (F10 usually) to install 3rd party drivers. If XP actually installed to the SATA and not the IDE, you can try to boot from the floppy, install the drivers and try to boot up from the drive.

yrag

on Jul 24, 2005

The site keeps going in and out (and so am I), so here's two options if it won't boot:

Boot to the XP CD
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
Change 'e' to whatever your CD rom is.

Copy files from another system running the same version of Windows to your root drive.
ntldr
ntdetect.com
They're hidden, so un-hide them to copy.

There is, of course, a 3rd option....it's the 'nuke' option. Re-do the install with the SATA set up correctly. I think you'll find XP installed to the IDE (it didn't even see the SATA), so this is where you'll end up if you want the SATA to be your system drive.

thomassen

on Jul 24, 2005

I think I did the first option of yrag, that worked for me.

starkers

on Jul 25, 2005

Thanks, yrag....will try your suggestions...just gotta wrap my newbie mind around the methods and processes

According to the bios...the new sata drive now shows as a master and the old one a slave...but in admin tools>disc management, the old ide shows as system drive C: and the sata as non-system E: That would suggest I need to install sata drivers, I think.

I yesterday downloaded sata controllers, etc from the manufacturers site and will attempt to install when I'm a little more alert....only had 5 hours sleep after putting in a 39 hour day. Puters!

Thanks again, yrag, bobtehfish and thomassen

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