HELP!! PC broke

bossymommy

Hi there, hope some techie people can help me out here.

Turned on pc earlier and i get an error message at start up saying NTLDTR is missing and cannot get any further. Have googled the problem but i am being told that i may have to repair windows with the disk, and so to get into bios settings. I cant even get into the bios, whatever F button i press. I think yhis may be because my original hard drive is broken and so have an external one now and its not recognising this at start up. What can i do? Any ideas?

Ooops sorry meant my disk drive is broken...not hard drive

davb

Let's try the old faithful first - do you have a floppy disk or CD inserted. If you do, remove them and try again. It may be worth unplugging your external drive as well.

bossymommy

Sorry, i meant my disk drive not hard drive lol. And no disks are in

JasX

yup my OHs machine often does this if you leave a USB drive or stick in when booting up, def worth disconnecting everything 'non-essential' and/or USB and trying again.

usually indicates the machine is looking in completly the wrong place for your windows operating system rather than your OS spontaneously 'vanishing' or corrupting

Also not being able to access BIOS can sometimes be down to the keyboard (esp if its USB and/or has fancy non-standard stuff on it). if you need to get into BIOS might be worth trying with a different keyboard if you have access to one (ideally a nice simple PS2 type... but a different USB one might work)

GSXRCarlos

unplug everything that isn't necessary, including any internet connections etc

start pc and press and hold F8, this should allow you to start in safe mode etc

after that you're gonna need someone who knows a whole lot more than me, i just play at it and figure it out as i go along

good luck

bossymommy

Unplugged everything. Was using a wireless keyboard but now plugged in old style one. Still nothing. Cant even get into safe mode. Its my own fault, i was deleting stuff on pc yesterday and obviously deleted the NTLDR file. I must learn to stop messing with things....grrrr

gonzo127

just a quick question i am understanding you problem correctly as this - windows will not boot up at all, and will not even let you get into the BIOS, and on top of this your cd/dvd drive is broken and your external (usb one i expect) is not being recognised so you cant use a disk to repair it - does that sum up the problem? if so do you know that a new internal dvd drive should only cost between £15 and £20 delivered?

if this isn’t the problem exactly and having seen your other thread and the problems with money and the fact you only need your system for basic things may i suggest if you cant get a windows disk to reinstall/fix windows that you try ubuntu on this system?

you can get it to install from a usb memory stick or CD (can actually be run from them as well) and since it is free you will have lost very little other than a bit of time and effort, i fully expect people to come and slate this suggestion however going on the description of your problem this might be a good temporary solution,

just remember that with ubuntu you will have open office instead of microsoft office and you can not use iTunes (although there are plenty of alternatives) also to be able to play media you will need to install the ubuntu restricted extras package however this is really easy using the synaptic package manager but anyways there are instructions on how to do all these on the ubuntu forums

bossymommy

gonzo127 wrote: »

just a quick question i am understanding you problem correctly as this - windows will not boot up at all, and will not even let you get into the BIOS, and on top of this your cd/dvd drive is broken and your external (usb one i expect) is not being recognised so you cant use a disk to repair it - does that sum up the problem? if so do you know that a new internal dvd drive should only cost between £15 and £20 delivered?

if this isn’t the problem exactly and having seen your other thread and the problems with money and the fact you only need your system for basic things may i suggest if you cant get a windows disk to reinstall/fix windows that you try ubuntu on this system?

you can get it to install from a usb memory stick or CD (can actually be run from them as well) and since it is free you will have lost very little other than a bit of time and effort, i fully expect people to come and slate this suggestion however going on the description of your problem this might be a good temporary solution,

just remember that with ubuntu you will have open office instead of microsoft office and you can not use iTunes (although there are plenty of alternatives) also to be able to play media you will need to install the ubuntu restricted extras package however this is really easy using the synaptic package manager but anyways there are instructions on how to do all these on the ubuntu forums

Yes thats the problem exactly. You got it right lol. So looks like a new hard drive then. I dont suppose these come pre-loaded with windows nowadays? Really dont think i could be bothered to through all the hassle of setting up another new hard drive. Also last time i replaced (about 2 years ago) it cost me £50.00, so they have come down in price. My pc is very old now, was custom built about 8 years ago and so maybe im lucky that the hard drive and disk drive is the only thing ive ever had to replace. Maybe its time for a whole new set up?

gonzo127

wow wires crossed?

cd/dvd drive broken? - ~£20 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/170014
or
hard drive broken? >£25 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131311

quick edit, those are a quick check of the cheapest ones and the hard drive is very small but hey its cheap

bossymommy

lol my internal cd drive broke so have replaced with an external one 12 months ago, and is working fine. I think with the probs im having its the hard drive that needs replacing

gonzo127

basically depending on whats broken will depend on the hassle you have to go through, a broken cd/dvd drive is really easy couple of screws and a cable hard dirve is more hassle as you have to install your operating system, however as i said above if it is only used for basic tasks a Linux operating system might be a good choice as they are free