[winxp] NTLDR missing every once in a while

[Martin|GFX]

I've read the famous ntldr thread, all 10 pages. I've tried restoring my ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot ini but nothing worked. Here's the full scoop:

I run windows xp pro for a while. I've never had a 'ntldr is missing' error up until I installed a slave 120 gb hd next to my current 40 gb hd which is also the disk I boot from.

Since the new hd is in my machine I get the 'ntldr is missing' every once in a while. It's not a continuous problem and easily to get rid of by doing a full reinstall of windows xp.
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I've used the repair-whatiscalled function and all the important files are there, replacing them doesn't help. Fixmbr and such commands had no effect either. Even disconnecting the slave drive as suggested in the ntldr thread didn't help. I've checked the wireing and everything seems to be fine.

When I boot from a disk with the ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini from my laptop I am able to get past the ntldr error only to stumble upon a corrupt system32/hal.dll. All this sounds to me like something happened to my boot procedure since I've had similar errors when I put together a multiboot.

At this moment I'm reinstalling my machine again but I know the mess will kick in again sooner or later so I'm trying hard to find a way to prevent things of going corrupt again. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

On my todo list is now a bios upgrade and a thorough scan of my drives. But I have a strong feeling this won't be the last ntldr error I'll get.

Another option I'm considering is to get rid of the default loader altogether and maybe move to LILO. Any thoughts on that?

My machine:
AMD Athlon 1400 MHz
MSI's K7T Pro / (MS-6330) RAID (RAID not in use)
1024 MB SDRAM

hd's
40 GB Seagate ST340824A 3.05
120 GB Maxtor 6Y120L0 YAR41VW0

cdroms
AOPEN CD-RW CRW5224
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M1212 1L22

Windows XP Professional Version 2002

[eagle1]

If you get NTLDR errors even when you reinstall, it might be memory problems! Try rearranging your ram or even replacing your RAM modules to see if that solves the problem. Windows is very picky with memory and you can get errors ranging from corrupted NTFS.SYS to corrupeted hal.dll to a bunch of blue screen errors.

[meese]

What is on the 120GB drive? Is it just for data? Does it have an OS installed on it?

[Martin|GFX]

The weird thing is the 'ntldr is missing' error only surfaces once in a while. Usually after software installs or windows updates. Not one in particular, I haven't been able to trace it back to one program or hotfix. It could be the ram, but than I'd expect the error more often, not every few weeks.

As for the slave drive, it has two partitions and only contains data. The master drive has one partition and has only xp installed in the default directory. All software is installed in the program files directory on that drive.

A little update too. I reinstalled xp succesfully and then decided to update my bios. That went quite smooth but now I'm back at start only the error is formatted differently (probably because of the updated bios. The plan is now to copy the ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini yet again to see if I get things working again (a procedure that previously had no effect). It's starting to look like it's something with the bios though since those changes brought back the problem again sooner than expected.

Btw my mobo turned out to be a MSI k7t turbo v3.

[Ritalin Kid]

Have you tried doing a complete low level format and also formatting the mbr??

Could also be the sign of some kinda of data corruption maybe caused by the chipset on the motherboard.. so you might also want to try to flashing the BIOS to the latest version.

[eagle1]

It could be the ram, but than I'd expect the error more often, not every few weeks.

Anyway, try and borrow some ram from a friend or something or if you have 2 modules try running the system with just one. If it gives you the same error, swap the ram, etc.
It COULD be Ram.
Also, try what Ritalin Kid said.

[Ritalin Kid]

One more thing you may want to try is installing Windows on a different Hard Drive..

I have a friend who bought a Maxtor 40gig drive and his Windows install crashed and ever since he has never been able to install Windows XP or 2003 Server on it but it works fine as an extra storage HD. Still can't explain why but switching the hard drive he installed Windows to fix it been fine since.

[meese]

Can you post the contents of your boot.ini file?

[Martin|GFX]

Things seem to have gotten worse. I have upgraded my BIOS and since the update I haven't been able to load an operating system. With my boot order: floppy, cdrom, hd0 it displays a message 'cannot load operating system' after it checked for a cd. I'm unable to finish any installation because it hangs on the error after the first reboot required by xp.

I've scanned and formatted the drive using the XP recovery console, but no luck.

Now I'm not sure if the BIOS update was flawless, although the utility said it did. I have another 30gb drive which I try to swap with the 40 gb, I also have some spare ram I can run on for a while. For now the BIOS update broke more than it fixed so I'll have to look into that some more.

[HeadBand]

get the old version and flash is back then