How to replace missing NTLDR from scratch

[melopll]

Hello, when installed Windows XP i partitioned the hardrive into 3 partitions:
1) SWAP 2GB
2) WINDOWS 32GB
3) DATA 60GB

I've partitioned the hardrive with Disk Managment under Windows environment without assign any letter to partitions, however during installtion Win assignied letter C: to SWAP, letter D: to WINDOWS and letter E: to DATA.
It seems that the required files to make the hardrive bootable were place under C: (SWAP) and because i deleted them during a test now i have the error:
NTLDR missing.
Boot.ini is missing as well and all the others files required for the installation to boot.

I have tried to repair the installation after F8 but the option is not available for this case
I have tried to repair with FIXMBR by loading the repair console and FIXBOOT as well without look.

I have Windows installed into partion D: and don't want to loose all the programs and files.

What do i need to do to recreate the NTLDR and rest of files under partion D: WINDOWS?

Thank you.

[Support4Free]

How to fix: NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart
http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

What happened?
When your computer starts, the BIOS attempts to find the primary hard drive's active partition to read the first sector for the MBR (Master Boot Record), it uses that info to load the rest of the OS. For Windows NT4/2k/XP the NTLDR (New Technology Loader) takes it from there. If you get the "NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart" what's most likely going on is the BIOS either didn't look for the right drive, didn't find the right partition, it wasn't active, didn't find the MBR, or the MBR didn't list NTLDR in the right place, the location of NTLDR changed, or you are looking at a hardware failure situation (memory/cables/drive/motherboard/etc). Windows Vista does not boot this way, you can still use my floppy to boot into an existing installation of 98/nt/xp, but I've not had a chance to test Windows Vista.

If possible, try to change back whatever hardware or software change you just made (this could be as simple as leaving a floppy disk in the drive or you need to recheck the cables). (What if I made new changes that I want to keep?).

Make a NTLDR boot disk to get back into Windows.
The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check your partitions, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation. Here are the instructions to do this:

1. Get a blank floppy/cd-r/usb (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer.

2. If you have a working Windows machine download my fix: Floppy fixntldr.exe | CD-R fixntldriso.zip | USB ntldrusb.zip onto a working computer
(What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?). (Experimental 64 bit WinXP Floppy 64ntflop.exe | CD-R 64ntiso.zip)
Do you remember if the broken computers had the Windows installation in "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .
(If your backup system is NT4 or Windows 2000: What if my backup system is Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).

3. Make the new boot disk:
*Floppy: Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk. (now go to step 4)
*CD-R: extract the fixntldriso.zip file by right clicking it and choosing "Extract All" then Next>Next>Finish and then burn the ISO image onto a CD, if your computer does not allow burning of ISO image files, you can download ISO Recorder from http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm and then you can just right click the ISO file to burn it to the CD-R (now go to step 4)
*USB: Right click the ntldrusb.zip file and choose "Extract All" Next>Next>Finish
Then Insert your USB Stick into the working computer;
Double-click HPUSBFW.EXE in the ntldrusb folder;
Check "Create a DOS startup disk" and "using DOS system files located at" then press the grey button with the "...";
A box will come up asking you which folder to select, point it to the "dos system files" folder;
Press OK; Press Start; Press Yes; Let it run for just a few minutes till a new box comes up; Press OK; Press Close;
Open the "putonusb" folder, copy all the files, paste them onto the usb stick (just in the root of the drive, like E:\);
Eject the USB Stick; Remove it from your computer;
Place it into the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" issue, reboot it.
You will see the Windows 98 screen pop up for a second, then you will see a black screen with white letters prompting you to "replace boot sector of the drive C: (y/n)", press the y key;
It will go to a C:\ prompt, reboot the computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del; (now go to step 4)

4. Put the new floppy/cd-r/usb you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.

Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.




Fix "NTLDR missing" in XP (works for 2000 as well)
http://www.techimo.com/forum/t136282.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This assumes that you have already checked your floppy for a non system disk.

1. Start your computer with a Windows XP CD-ROM.

2. At the Setup screen, press R for repair.

3. Opt to use the Recovery Console (press c).

4. Type 1, and then press Enter (if you have more than one windows install then choose the number of the install you want to repair).


5. Type your Administrator password, (the one that you setup when you were installing the OS) and then press ENTER. If you do not know what it is try leaving it blank. If that does not work, find out what it is from the person that did the install.

6. Type map, and press Enter. This should tell you the drive letters assigned to the drives and what type of drives they are. this is very useful if you have multiple drives. This is for reference only.

7. Type: copy "drive":\i386\ntldr c:\ ("drive" will be the drive letter that corresponds to the CD-Rom Drive your XP CD is in. Refer to step 6.) Press Enter.

Type: copy "drive":\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
Type y If you are prompted to overwrite this file, then press Enter.

8.You can do this to check your new boot ini file if you wish but this step can be skipped if you are confident that all is good.

Type: type c:\Boot.ini
You should see something like this:

[boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect.

[melopll]

Hi Support4free,

Thank you for your post.

I have tried with the Windows CD to copy NTLDR as from your post but i was not able to copy NTDETECT. It seems that the file was not under i386 folder as i got an error. Maybe is under another folder?

I have also runned FIXMBR but i still got the NTLDR error at boot.

Any suggestion?

Thanks

[Support4Free]

Make a NTLDR boot disk to get back into Windows.
The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check your partitions, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation. Here are the instructions to do this:

1. Get a blank floppy/cd-r/usb (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer.

2. If you have a working Windows machine download my fix: Floppy fixntldr.exe | CD-R fixntldriso.zip | USB ntldrusb.zip onto a working computer
(What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?). (Experimental 64 bit WinXP Floppy 64ntflop.exe | CD-R 64ntiso.zip)
Do you remember if the broken computers had the Windows installation in "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .
(If your backup system is NT4 or Windows 2000: What if my backup system is Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

Download this file...fixntldr.exe

[melopll]

Hi,

followed the procedure with floppy. Everything went well but the system does not boot from its own hardrive.

The drive letter for WINDOWS is D:, could this be the cause?
Also, if i go under System Property > Advanced > Start up and REcovery and click under property there is no OS listed.
Also I have tried to load Win CD and run FIXMBR but still got the NTLDR error.
Tried repair after F8 but the CD install did not see any installation.

Did i do something wrong?

System boot perfectly fine from floppy.

What next?

Thanks

[Support4Free]

This is not tested !

But you can try to go in to [BIOS], push [Delete] or one combination for your PC to go in to [BIOS].

Change in the Boot order:

1. CD-ROM
2. Harddrive-1 (normal you use: Harddrive-0)
3. Save & Exit

Restart your PC...

Hope you got lucky this time !

If not, maybe some hardware problem with the harddrive...

[melopll]

Hi Supportfreem,

Forgot to mention on my previous post that i still got the NTLDR error when the system tries to boot from the hardrive. So, the issue is not related to the BIOS settings.

What would be useful to post so that you can see what is wrong?

Thanks