NTLDR is missing

[General Brock]

Um. Yeah. A little on-topic advice humbly requested. I searched the DB here, but didn't come up with much on the topic.

It seems this software I accidentally bought called Windows Cleaner Pro cleaned out my desktop and start menu, leaving me with a little data recovery job. It worked fine the first day, then the next, it seemed to hang, then declared it was freeing 2 Gigs of space.

I do not reccommend the use, let alone purchase of, Windows Cleaner Pro. It is not idiot proof, and I am the idiot with the proof.

Anyway, I stopped it even as items began disappearing from the desktop, and everything else seemed OK. I had to attend to something else, and shut the computer off. Mistake number 1. Apart from making sure there is no next time, next time do a System Restore.

When I turn the computer on, it won't boot me into windows but instead tells me NTLDR (and who knows what else) is missing.

The last month has been an experience of therapeutic incommunicado, grabbing internet and gaming time wherever it can be mooched. Actually, I am doing a lot more reading, meditating, and a lot more real work, too.

Ignorance is indeed bliss, and it's not even boring yet. Net withdrawl was bad the first week, but faded fast.

Still, according to this link, I can access a console and recover my i386 cab without using my recovery disks.

No-CD XP Recovery?

miC
Guest

Posted: Wed Apr 30th, 2003 2:55 pm Post subject:
Hi, i know, this discussion is really old but just in case sbdy is watching it now:

There is another way how to restore your XPs -without cd
You need to get into console and here extract the backup from i386.cab (use "help" command if you don't know those strange commands console uses). This should restore backup and everything should work (i haven't tried, just heard about it, I repaired it by reinstalling )

First, the rig I'm trying to resuccitate is a Compaq Presario 2100 laptop running on Windows XP SP2. F2 and F12 pull up some nifty menus, but I have no idea what console miC is referring too. Certainly, no apparent way to access any backup files.

Second, I do have an alternate recovery plan. It just means jumping through more hoops, slipstreaming my XP CD to SP2 etc.

Being able to directly recover vital files seems too good to be true, and it probably is.

I was wondering, is miC's remedy even possible on my rig, or is this not a solution at all? If it is, how do I go about it?

[phongn]

There is a recovery console in Windows but it is fairly limited. In your case your bootsector appears to be hosed so you can't even get into that. You may wish to try getting a bootdisk/boot-cd with FDISK and run

Code: Select all

fdisk /mbr

[General Brock]

There is a recovery console in Windows but it is fairly limited. In your case your bootsector appears to be hosed so you can't even get into that. You may wish to try getting a bootdisk/boot-cd with FDISK and run

Code: Select all

fdisk /mbr

Thanks, but no, the fdisk/mbr is not meant for use on XP. I might just fix it worse. I think the cutoff for that command was Windows 98, before Windows began definitively hobbling away from MS-DOS. fdisk/mbr is a dangerous command to use, even with a DOS-capable system.

Lots of people have used it successfully, but more than a few have not because their mbr setup was a little off-spec from what fdisk was expecting. The only way for me to find out would be the hard way.

[BloodAngel]

Thanks, but no, the fdisk/mbr is not meant for use on XP. I might just fix it worse. I think the cutoff for that command was Windows 98, before Windows began definitively hobbling away from MS-DOS. fdisk/mbr is a dangerous command to use, even with a DOS-capable system.

Lots of people have used it successfully, but more than a few have not because their mbr setup was a little off-spec from what fdisk was expecting. The only way for me to find out would be the hard way.

fdisk /mbr has worked for me countless times when my master boot record screwed up, mostly due to a failed operating system installation. However, it won't do for Windows XP.

If you can get your way into the recovery console, type "fixmbr" and it should work. Information from: Repairing Damaged MBRs[/url]

[Exonerate]

If you have your Windows CD, you go to the steps of installing Windows - if your boot record isn't too corrupted, it should still detect the existing installation.

If not, you might need to go into the recovery console using the CD, then use fixboot and perhaps copy the ntldr files to your HD.

[Vendetta]

This article has a list of possible steps you can take to restore a dead or corrupt NTLDR file.

[General Brock]

fdisk /mbr has worked for me countless times when my master boot record screwed up, mostly due to a failed operating system installation. However, it won't do for Windows XP.

If you can get your way into the recovery console, type "fixmbr" and it should work. Information from: Repairing Damaged MBRs[/url]

Thanks for the link. My present difficulty is finding the recovery console from the F2 or F12 menus. I may be cut off from it, or Compaq has no way for me to get there. I should check again, though, just to be sure I'm not overlooking a place to enter commands.

[General Brock]

If you have your Windows CD, you go to the steps of installing Windows - if your boot record isn't too corrupted, it should still detect the existing installation.

If not, you might need to go into the recovery console using the CD, then use fixboot and perhaps copy the ntldr files to your HD.

Thanks. So it seems the recovery console can only be accessed via disk.

Well, I have one Compaq XP SP1 disk, from which maybe I can execute the repair command, after I slipstream it to SP2. I was hoping there was a no-CD way of accessing the recovery console and tapping the backups.

I also have half a dozen quick recovery disks, which will return the computer to the as-bought state. Although just about everything is backed up in one form or another, reformatting seems excessive just to break back into the OS.

[General Brock]

This article has a list of possible steps you can take to restore a dead or corrupt NTLDR file.

Thanks. It links to a few interesting articles, including one on the recovery console itself.

Well, it seems I'll have to do it the long way, since everything confirms that a no-CD recovery method probably dosen't exist. I suppose I should have an updated XP SP2 disk anyway.

So near yet so far. It's like locking oneself out of the apartment, and looking at the housekeys on the table through a closed window.

[Vertigo1]

Its been a while since I've actually had to break into an 2000/XP install, but the procedure is reduclously simple. Boot off of the CD. DO NOT run Compaq's repair utility, as this will format the entire partition and put it back to "factory" conditions. If its just a normal windows CD (which would be very unusual for Compaq), then just boot off of it and let it do its thing. When you come to the menu, select the option to repair an install and then press the key it mentions to enter the repair console. (should either be R or C IIRC) If you want a list of available commands, type HELP. However, the command you're interested in is "FIXMBR". Just type that in, and hit the enter key. Once you've done that, restart your computer. Don't forget to remove the CD while the computer is rebooting, or you'll just boot off of the CD again.

[Vendetta]

If its just a normal windows CD (which would be very unusual for Compaq)

Actually, Compaq laptops over here in the UK do come with a rebranded Windows CD (labelled Compaq Operating System CD, usually red). I think that was what came with the 2100 range.