NTLDR missing, win 2k, does boot off HDD if W2K CD in drive

[malsin]

Yes, I have searched this site and others. No luck.

Computer is running W2k, SP4. Has been for some time. W2k from the start when I built this 6 months ago.

The other night the computer froze when using Nero and the wife double clicked a song title in Nero and that opened up MusicMatch. Probably not the issue.

On reboot the NTLDR Missing message appeared.

W2k will not start if BIOS is set to boot first from HDD. W2k will start if the BIOS is set to boot from CD first and HDD second but I do NOT hit "any button" to actually boot from CD (W2k CD in drive). The CD spins up but gets accessed for only a short blink. I assume to recognize that a valid CDROM is in the drive.

When booted in this manner the computer seems to run fine.

I have tried:
- What MS suggests: Recovery Console, load new NTLDR (and NTDETECT and BOOT.INI.)
- W2K automatic scan and repair from CD.
- From Recovery Console: FIXMBR (reported to be bad each of the three times I have done this), FIXBOOT.
- chkdsk didn't find any problems.

Other info:
NTFS, HDD1 (boot) is a Western Digital 120 GB, HDD 2 (data) is a Maxtor 120 GB. I do not have a floppy installed, although I could open the box and put one in.

MS has a Knowlegde Base Article (320397) that applies to W2K pre SP4. Seems that "if many files are copied to the root folder of a boot volume that uses NTFS" you may get the NTLDR Missing message. This is due to the Master File Table allocation index getting fragmented. As I have been running SP4 for some time this shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for any help you can offer,
M