This time the problem is with my Aunty's laptop. We can't get into Windows despite trying the following options through the Recovery Console:
chkdsk /r
chkdsk /p
fixboot
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
And still we get the ntldr is missing message.
Here are her specs - anything not listed that you require, please request it.
Acer Aspire 1640Z
Windows XP Home Edition
She's had the laptop for 4 months & bought it new but it was the display model. I have noticed also that it's partitioned & I have no idea how to work around that.
Info from the PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility:
CPU Type: Intel ® Pentium ® M processor 1.70GHz
CPU Speed: 1700 MHz
Back when the problems first started, Windows would freeze & she couldn't do anything at all except physically turn the laptop off to reboot it (& just then, when we were in the BIOS settings, it froze that way again). Initially, she would get a blue screen for about 1 second with a message UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME then it would go to a black screen spouting off about technical problems & offering a menu with safe mode, etc. But now we are only getting the ntldr is missing message unless we use the windows xp cd to boot from.
Any help would be much appreciated as she has a lot of files she doesn't want to lose on her laptop but if worst comes to worst, she can deal with losing them as long as she can use the computer again.