error at startup - NTLDR is missing

ZENYO · 01-10-2002, 12:16 PM

What's this? When I start my machine I get a message NTLDR is missing. I haven't changed anything on my puter. It's a Dual boot 2k & w98.

storm2k · 01-10-2002, 12:18 PM

did you install 98 over 2k? if you did, 98 might have swallowed it up...

just a first guess...

ZENYO · 01-10-2002, 12:22 PM

No, this just happened out of the blue. My dual boot has been installed and working fine for about 4 months now. I didn't touch anything. I was in the distributecomputing irc hanging out, then I had to re-boot. when I did I got this message.

Weird

hirschY · 01-10-2002, 12:26 PM

find a working 2K machine.
format a floppy on that 2k machine
copy the following files to the floppy.

boot.ini
ntldr
ntdetect.com
and from teh WINNT/SYSTEM32 folder, the ntoskrnl.exe file

If you have partitions setup for the 98/2k OS's, then make a change to the boot.ini file ON THE FLOPPY (notice the importance here, please)
first, right click on it, and remove the read only check
there will be something like this:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microso ft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

there should be other options, for the dos or win98 boot.
check the last part, where it says partition(1)
this indicates what partition it will boot to.
What I do is copy this line, and past it right below the one I copied, and change the partition infor to list 1,2,3,4
Maybe if you are using two HD's, then make one that has rdisk(1) instead of 0 also
then change the name in "quotes" to indicate, boot from part 1, boot from part 2, and such.

This is basically a 2K boot disk.
Al it does is get thigs started.
If this doesnt work, just re-install win2K again, and select repair.

Hope I didnt confuse anyone here

Later

ZENYO · 01-10-2002, 12:29 PM

have you ever had one of those days where there is so much to do that sometimes you forget the simple things???

I'm such a moron. I left a floppy in the floppy drive (now I know it doesn't give the same error as 98).

Sorry guys, thanks for your replies though.

storm2k · 01-10-2002, 12:31 PM

hehe, that's cool...

i just put 2k on my machine last month...

good to know that error though if it ever happens to me...

hirschY · 01-10-2002, 01:04 PM

uh, yeah, check the floppy drive FIRST, hehe

KISS

Keep
It
Simple
Stupid

bdj · 01-10-2002, 01:17 PM

ZENYO,

If i understand you, you left a floppy in the drive and when you rebooted it came up with the "NTLDR" error. If that is the case, then the error, it seems, was generated by the system BIOS not find a valid boot sector on the floppy. Does this mean the the system BIOS is looking for "NTLDR"?

bdj

ZENYO · 01-10-2002, 01:25 PM

I guess so.
the floppy was a 98 start up disk. but because it's a dual boot it looks for ntldr (Does that stand for NT Loader?) to boot but couldn't find it.

cracked · 01-10-2002, 08:45 PM

this is really weird but i have had the same problem on a 98se machine and a winxp pro machine but never on 2k. and both times there was no floppy in the drive. it happened on the 98 machine after i installed norton utilities. on xp it just randomly happened. after a few reboots though it kinda just fixed itself.

???????

Cr/-\c|<e|)