HELP - Ntldr Problem

O

OutOfGum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 25, 2003
Messages
182
I have a Dell 600m, which has a backup partition (about 4GB) which had really been bothering me. Basically I wanted the space. So I start up partition magic and delete the partition, that goes fine. Then I merge that partition with my main one and restart and get this message:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

This comes right after the starting screen - so the only options I have are enter bios, and choose start priority/run diagnostics. I made partition magic back up disks, but even after boot to prompt I can't access the hard drive. PM finds errors 1603 and 1520, but can't repair them. I ran dell diagnostics (which is a startup option) and they had no problem scanning the disks. But I can't run fdisk or chkdsk from the command prompt.

I tried a windows repair, but there was no option to repair or reinstall, a format is needed first. I would format, but I have some files on there with no backups. I'm going to get a laptop HD enclosure tomorrow and see if I can pull files off that way.

I've tried everything I can think of including running a sketchy program written by some guy I found on a random website. Nothing.

If anyone has any suggestions please post. Thanks
 
find another computer with xp or whatever os you have, pull you drive out, put it in theirs as secondary, copy ntldr over to the main parition, reinstall in old computer, start up and hope.

*edit*
hmm, wait, have you tried 'fdisk /mbr' ?
 
Or at least repair the hard drive by using Windows XP CD with its Recovery Console. sfc /scannow I bet? Fixboot?

-J.
 
chinoquezada said:
this is one guide i found on google to fix this problem. You only need your xp cd (or any xp cd for that matter home or pro, ntldr is the same file)

http://www.bestpricecomputers.ltd.uk/freehelp/ntldr_missing.htm
Click to expand...
Exactly right.

Here is the important part of that article
1. Start your computer by using the Windows XP Setup floppy disks or by using the Windows XP CD-ROM.

2. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10, or press R to repair.

3. Press C to start the Recovery Console.

4. Copy the Ntldr file from the Windows XP CD-ROM to the root of your
system partition by using the following commands, pressing ENTER after each command:

1. Type cd .. to go to the root of drive C. (Note the space)
2. Type the letter of the CD-ROM drive (ie. D:)
3. Type cd i386 to change into the right directory
4. Type Copy ntldr c:\
5. Type Exit
Click to expand...
 
Ok, this is bizzaro. So I got into recovery console and type the line, and it says that the specified file could not be copied.

So go to the cd root drive. cd\i386 and then copy ntldr c: ...

and I get....






THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH OMG:
BAD_POOL_HEADER

This the problem from hell. I'm gonna try recovery console one more time. And then I'm getting linux.
 
OutOfGum said:
Ok, this is bizzaro. So I got into recovery console and type the line, and it says that the specified file could not be copied.

So go to the cd root drive. cd\i386 and then copy ntldr c: ...

and I get....






THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH OMG:
BAD_POOL_HEADER

This the problem from hell. I'm gonna try recovery console one more time. And then I'm getting linux.
Click to expand...
um... BAD_POOL_HEADER... your hard drive is calling home. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and brighter...

Unless you OC, deleting a partition doesnt corrupt your ntldr.
 
OK, they problem has changed. I managed to run chkdsk, and then was able to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com to the c: drive.

Now when I boot up, it flashes an error message that says something about the boot.ini file and then:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

Now I got the file onto the c drive, but I can't get it to that directory. Everytime I try access is denied. This is really aggravating.
 
fubar, google for instructions of how to do a "soft install" it will solve all of your issues and leave your data intact.
 
OutOfGum said:
OK, they problem has changed. I managed to run chkdsk, and then was able to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com to the c: drive.

Now when I boot up, it flashes an error message that says something about the boot.ini file and then:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

Now I got the file onto the c drive, but I can't get it to that directory. Everytime I try access is denied. This is really aggravating.
Click to expand...

im telling you, this really smells like bad harddrive
 
chinoquezada said:
im telling you, this really smells like bad harddrive
Click to expand...
Something obviously fubar'd the files needed to boot. Quite possibly a bad HDD.

[If you have any critical data back it up first by putting it in another box as the slave drive and copy it off!]

Do this in the recovery console.

1. chkdsk /r WIll run a check disk and move files off bad sectors
2. fixboot - This will write a new partition boot sector.
Try to boot normally, if you can't, go to step 3.
3. fixmbr - This will fix the master boot record

If it doesn't work after this, put your HDD in another computer and grab off any important files. If you have something on there you can't live without, do this first!!! Then download your HDD manufacturer's diagnostic utilities and scan your HDD. If the above fixes don't work, you'll most likely find a bad hard drive.
 
The plot thickens...

So I put the HD into an external enclosure and plugged it in. Weird result. It shows about 2/3 of my files (not the 2/3 I need) which turns out to be exactly 20GB. Among the sections missing are the windows directory and my documents (which is what I wanted).

Any ideas?

Is there a program I can use to see all files on a HD? Cause in HD properties it says 25 free out of ~55 so I think the stuff is still there.
 
OutOfGum said:
The plot thickens...

So I put the HD into an external enclosure and plugged it in. Weird result. It shows about 2/3 of my files (not the 2/3 I need) which turns out to be exactly 20GB. Among the sections missing are the windows directory and my documents (which is what I wanted).

Any ideas?

Is there a program I can use to see all files on a HD? Cause in HD properties it says 25 free out of ~55 so I think the stuff is still there.
Click to expand...

im sorry, your problem has gone beyond my ability...

bottom line, your drive is going to completly die soon... get what you can now. Other than that, i dont know...
 
you could always try it from some sort of bootable knoppix distro.

google: "easy recovery pro" and it can scan hdd's for data that is usually impossible to recover.

also while you are at it: download "IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test" to see if that badboy relly is failing.
 
OutOfGum said:
The plot thickens...

So I put the HD into an external enclosure and plugged it in. Weird result. It shows about 2/3 of my files (not the 2/3 I need) which turns out to be exactly 20GB. Among the sections missing are the windows directory and my documents (which is what I wanted).

Any ideas?

Is there a program I can use to see all files on a HD? Cause in HD properties it says 25 free out of ~55 so I think the stuff is still there.
Click to expand...

Did you even try my suggestions?
 
S1nF1xx said:
Did you even try my suggestions?
Click to expand...
Yep, I did, and got BAD_POOL_HEADER after restarting.

I used easy recovery pro, pulled off what I wanted, and am reformatting the drive right now.
 
I had the same problem a few weeks ago...I fixed it by copying the two files mentioned above from a friends computer and that solved the problem. However just now, I tried to restart my computer and BAM....it won't. So I put in my super duper NTLDR disk and it loads like it did last time, this time it says it can't boot from the boot.ini on the floppy and instead is going from to use C: Windows.....but the it gets worse. Now it won't actualy boot into windows. It just restarts and does it again. Any ideas?
 
Python14 said:
I had the same problem a few weeks ago...I fixed it by copying the two files mentioned above from a friends computer and that solved the problem. However just now, I tried to restart my computer and BAM....it won't. So I put in my super duper NTLDR disk and it loads like it did last time, this time it says it can't boot from the boot.ini on the floppy and instead is going from to use C: Windows.....but the it gets worse. Now it won't actualy boot into windows. It just restarts and does it again. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
as i said to the OP.

the fact that your systems files got corrupted is either:

1) you OCed to far.
2) your hdd is dying
3) some other unforseable thing that i really dont know of. (most unlikely)
 
he deleted a partition, this sounds like arc naming convention. the boot.ini contains the information on where to find the system folder using the arc path. at the point where ntdlr reads the boot.ini file, it isnt aware of drive-letter mappings. this means the system partitions cant be located by their drive mappings. windows might be installed in c:\windows (or c:\winnt), but until the file system drivers load, ntdlr has no idea where c: is located.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;102873

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...0/server/reskit/en-us/prork/prbd_std_ccef.asp

if this was arc naming, which i am sure it was, all the previous steps that have been posted should have never been done and possibly made things worse! it is a simple fix. just a little editing of the numbers that point to the partition.

it was one drive with multiple partitions, correct? for you said 4GB parition was deleted and then later on you mention full size 20GB. if so it was arc and that was all.
 
shaihulud said:
he deleted a partition, this sounds like arc naming convention. the boot.ini contains the information on where to find the system folder using the arc path. at the point where ntdlr reads the boot.ini file, it isnt aware of drive-letter mappings. this means the system partitions cant be located by their drive mappings. windows might be installed in c:\windows (or c:\winnt), but until the file system drivers load, ntdlr has no idea where c: is located.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;102873

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/prork/prbd_std_ccef.asp

if this was arc naming, which i am sure it was, all the previous steps that have been posted should have never been done and possibly made things worse! it is a simple fix. just a little editing of the numbers that point to the partition.

it was one drive with multiple partitions, correct? for you said 4GB parition was deleted and then later on you mention full size 20GB. if so it was arc and that was all.
Click to expand...
damn... you are right. I thought this was already posted here.

I was thinking of another thread...
 
Okay, I got the issue atleast temporarily resolved. The the boot disk with the NTLDR and NTdetect on it was corrupted so I had to make another one. I also backed the OC down a little bit because my geuss is that the HDD is not liking the faster speed.

On a side note, would upgrading to say a SATA drive prevent the problem in the future.
 
Hi all.
I'm having a similar prob but with a Sata drive.
I had 2 partitions on a 120Gb Pata drive n i copied with Partition Magic one partition to a new Sata drive. (P. M. has an option to copy MBR to the new drive which i checked)
Now i have 2 probs,
1 - i used Multi Boot from XP to boot to those partitions, now i don´t know exactly how to configure boot.ini to boot to the Sata drive.
2 - The first prob won´t be solved unless i fix this prob, i went to Bios n configured it to boot from the Sata drive n when it boots an error occurs: 'NTDLR is missing, press ctr-alt-del'
I have the same prob as Python. Based on what i read in this thread i did the following.
1- Booted from Windows XP cd
2- Because my drive is Sata i had to install the drivers for it, pressed F6 when it asked if i wanted to install a SCSI device. (actually i did this the 2nd time because in the 1st one my drive didn't appear in the Recovery Console)
3- Went to Recovery Console, selected the drive, run Fixboot n didn't give any errors.

When i booted from the Sata drive same error occured. (NTDLR...)

As you can see upgrading to a Sata drive doesn't prevent anything :D .

Anyone as any ideas?

TIA
 
same problem for me only that it will say NTLDR is missing only when my second hard drive is in. if i take it out it works fine. do i need to copy NTLDR to my 2nd drive?
 
On the Dell CD, somewhere is a file called cleandisk.exe. or something of the sort. It' s usually in a tools folder.

That partition is a Dell "restore" partition that helps re-install their version of the OS.

If you run the cleandisk.exe program, it will effectively wipe both partitions and give you a clean drive to work from.

This drove me batshit at work while trying to set up a default ghost image for our machines. I was finally able to track down this info from Dell. I can try and find a copy of the file to send you if you want it.

EDIT: It's in a fold called HDDUTIL, subfolder called CLEAN then run clean1k.exe

Not all Dell utility CD's have it, but it should be available from Dell.

Another Edit: Don't do this until you've gotten all the salvegable data you can off the drive, this will delete both partitions and give you a completely empty, unpartitioned drive.
 
same problem for me only that it will say NTLDR is missing only when my second hard drive is in. if i take it out it works fine. do i need to copy NTLDR to my 2nd drive?
Click to expand...
no, but i would check the boot order (bios) and make sure that the added fixed drive is not trying to boot before the drive that has the ntldr.
 
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