Completely confused....

TeetersOnHeels

OK..Please bear in mind I know little about computers (and now am totally puzzled lol!)
Came home at lunchtime, switched the PC on to get the message
'NTLDR is missing press any key to re-start'
any key I pressed just gave me the same message.
Rightly or wrongly I bought the PC from PC World in Nov last year. Rang their support no., they said as it was less than 12mths old I should ring DELL.
Phoned them tonight when I got home, spent ages doing diagnostic tests to check the hard drive..to be told they thought it was a software issue and I could speak to the 'paid software dept' (asked what this meant, and my warranty only covers the hard drive apparently) When I finally got pu through, the software dept had closed :mad:
As it says in the small print on the PC World stuff, they can help with software, so have phoned them back - the 'level2' help people were all on the phone, so am waiting for a callback - the chap I spoke to said something about a recovery patch(?)
Has anyone come accross this problem before?
Should I have to pay for the software from DELL as it's only 6mths old?
Any help/advice gratefully received!!

closed

Do you have any data to backup, if not, restore to factory settings, instructions in the manual.

TeetersOnHeels

Hi,
Thanks for the quick reply - every key I press just repeats the 'NTLDR is missing' message- can't get anyfurther than that no matter what I press.

closed

It means it can't find the operating system, make sure there are no CD/DVD's in the drive, what you do next depends on whether you have data to recover or not.

TeetersOnHeels

I've checked, there are no discs in the drives and no data to recover.

closed

You are happy to wipe everything, no photos, music, programs you have installed since delivery? If so, try holding down F8 when it boots, it still might not work, if so, you may need the vista? recovery CD.

JasX

its probably a USB stick/drive still connected or something left in the CD drive while you're trying to boot up.... do a forum search on this site for "NTLDR" its come up a few times before and i'm to tired to type all the advice out again

TeetersOnHeels

Got my callback from PC world...We tried the F8, then the F12 to no avail, so used the recovery disc that came with the PC to reinstall windows. It was all going swimmingly until it said 'installation complete, computer needs to restart' It shut itself down, came back on with the same NTLDR message! :mad:
PC World are coming to collect it on Saturday to see what they can do -
Thanks for your tips!

JasX

TeetersOnHeels wrote: »

Got my callback from PC world...We tried the F8, then the F12 to no avail, so used the recovery disc that came with the PC to reinstall windows. It was all going swimmingly until it said 'installation complete, computer needs to restart' It shut itself down, came back on with the same NTLDR message! :mad:
PC World are coming to collect it on Saturday to see what they can do -
Thanks for your tips!

Dear god please tell me that was a joke you are not letting PC world anywhere near the thing :eek:

did you follow any of the advice about checking for and disconnecting any USB drives, ensuring the CD drive is empty etc etc? did you read any of the other threads where this same issue has been resolved quite easily on here in the past? does your machine have more than one hard disk?

I supppse at least having had PC world get you to wipe your machine first there now won't be much for them to nose through by way of personal files etc etc when they get hold of it....


...we'll wait for the usuaal 'I got it back from PC world and now even less works' thread in a couple of months :rotfl:

pcombo

You dont need to wipe anything.

follow this guide: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

then you wont have to wipe everything.

JasX

pcombo wrote: »

then you wont have to wipe everything.

from the sounds of it she already did...... PC world called and told her to......