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Ntldr

What does "NTLDR is missing" mean and how easy & cheap is it to fix?

Comments

  • closed
    closed Posts: 10,886 Forumite
    it means your hard disk is corrupt, or faulty, the former cost nothing (reinstall windows - unless you need to recover some data), the latter £35 or so
    !!
    > . !!!! ----> .
  • santer_2
    santer_2 Posts: 4,406 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    If you have XP, another option is

    Windows XP users
    1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
    2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
    3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
    4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
    5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password. (Leave blank unless you set one).
    6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter, which in this case is "e." This letter may be different on your computer.

      copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
      copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
    7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.
    http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm#b

    It may be fine after this, though hunting for a replacement drive would be a good move

    Check for other prices, and you could post back for opinions on a particular drive

    http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-hardware/all/hard-drives-int/sata-ii-sata-iii-400gb-1tb
  • Mista_C
    Mista_C Posts: 2,202 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Before you do any of the above make sure you've not got any USB drives or SD flash cards or other external drives plugged in. If you have pop them out and restart.
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,612 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    out of interest , ANY xp cd will do for Santers fix ;)
    Ex forum ambassador

    Long term forum member
  • JasX
    JasX Posts: 3,996 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Mista_C wrote: »
    Before you do any of the above make sure you've not got any USB drives or SD flash cards or other external drives plugged in. If you have pop them out and restart.


    yup, more often than not its this, check everything is unplugged and reboot :)
This discussion has been closed.
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