ntldr not found

c:\dos\run · 06-13-2003, 02:58 PM

I recently formatted my laptop (100 mhz, win95, 800 mb HD) thinking that i could easily boot from cd as i do usually when i wipe a computer clean and reinstall the OS. Wrong. since i have an external cd rom drive, i lost the drivers for it in the format. I got the win95 installation on floppy from a friend, but when i try to boot to this i get "BOOT: couldn't find NTLDR, insert another disk" and i have to restart the computer. I tried installing the drivers for the cd rom to no avail and i have no boot disk, tho i tried some ultimate boot disk thing online that didnt work. there's gotta be a way!!

MDS · 06-13-2003, 03:03 PM

first off if you are installing from floppy you will need to make sure you have bios set to boot from floppy first. bootdisk.com has a range of boot disk or if you have another computer with win95 or win98 you can make your own.

c:\dos\run · 06-13-2003, 04:39 PM

it is set to boot from floppy first, and i have a XP machine and a windows 3.1 (486), but nothing with win95. Is there somewhere i can get the file? i dont even know what NTLDR does. I've never heard of it before a few hours ago when i got that error

choc101 · 06-13-2003, 07:07 PM

Here try this advice I gave to see if it helps you at all.
This is and easy error (usually

) to fix so I wouldn't panic too much.
Try this first ->
Click Here

c:\dos\run · 06-13-2003, 11:10 PM

it works on other computers, but i dont have a cdrom drive (that the laptop recognizes) and the win95 disk wont boot

cbuddha42 · 06-14-2003, 10:14 AM

yea recovery consol doesn't exist in 95 - you can probably get a 95 boot disk off bootdisk.com or some other site

EndobioticChaos · 06-14-2003, 10:19 AM

NTLDR is the main file for the NT BootLoader. Why on earth your machine is looking for it when you've never had an NT version of Windows installed is beyond me.

If you pop a Windows 2000 or Windows XP CD in when you're trying to boot, it'll find the NTLDR on there, even if you don't boot from the CD.

the jester · 06-14-2003, 10:29 AM

I think the win98 bootfloppy is the one you need to make the bios recognize the cd-rom

I jumped thru similar hoops a couple of years ago on a decrepit old sharp mebius

that was win2kpro and still running the original install

cbuddha42 · 06-14-2003, 10:42 AM

thats a good point - NTDLR should only exist in NT..........missed that

AnotherGuy · 06-14-2003, 06:21 PM

You should be able to use a win 98 boot disk to boot that system, even tho it's looking for ntldr.

If all you want to do is format the thing and re-install then the 98 boot to dos should work great, then use the 98 boot disk after the format and it should detect your cd-rom.

of course I am FAR from an expert and this could just destroy your comptuer...so hopefully someone will comment on my suggestion