[matofthemint]

Dell Inspiron E1505
Windows XP sp2, Media edition

I do not have MediaDirect installed. My grandson pushed the MediaDirect button and
NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart
comes up. Pressing any key brings up the same thing. I can't start in Safe Mode - no matter what I do I get the same thing.
Any suggestions to get the machine back to normal?

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Hello,
Do you have your windows XP CD? If you do, I want you to put it in and turn on your computer. When you are given the message press any key to boot from cd..., press a key and Windows Setup will start. At the first screen where you have to enter input, hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then you will have to hit 1 to log into your windows installation and then just hit Enter for the Administrator password because it is normally blank unless you changed it. Once you are at the command prompt C:\WINDOWS I want you to type each of the following, hitting enter after each line:

• attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini
• del c:\boot.ini
• bootcfg /rebuild
• fixboot

Now type Exit and take your XP CD out. Your computer will reboot itself. Post back how things are going.

[hfcg]

Hello,
Do you have your windows XP CD? If you do, I want you to put it in and turn on your computer. When you are given the message press any key to boot from cd..., press a key and Windows Setup will start. At the first screen where you have to enter input, hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then you will have to hit 1 to log into your windows installation and then just hit Enter for the Administrator password because it is normally blank unless you changed it. Once you are at the command prompt C:\WINDOWS I want you to type each of the following, hitting enter after each line:

• attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini
• del c:\boot.ini
• bootcfg /rebuild
• fixboot

Now type Exit and take your XP CD out. Your computer will reboot itself. Post back how things are going.

[hfcg]

If you do not have a valid XP disc then follow these instructions to make a recovery console disc.
Here is a link that you can download the recovery console to your desktop.
And here is a link that tells you how to make the disc.
This is used to repair your computer, using the proper utilitys.

[matofthemint]

I only have a restore disk that came with the computer. I take it there is no way to use it except to do a restore which I don't want to do?

Will Memtest86+ do what is required, or is it just an example? If just an example, how do I get the .iso I need? And can I do the burning on another computer? Remember the only thing I can get on the machine in question is

NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart

Thanks for your interest and help.

[BryanW]

Most restore disks do just that.

Memtest86 is a utility to test your memory. NTLDR is most likely not a bad memory issue.

Have you tried what hfcg has recommended? You can download the rc.iso and burn it with another computer.

[hfcg]

This issue has nothing to do with your RAM.
Please follow the steps to create a recovery console disc so that you can follow the directions in my first post.
This is a needed part of the boot process, with out it the computer can not load Windows.

[matofthemint]

I can't try hfcg's recommendation - unless I can use the restore disk.

Once I have the rc.iso on a disk, what then? I've never done any of this type thing so I'm not sure of what to do.

[hfcg]

After you make the recovery console disc, I want you to put it in and turn on your computer. When you are given the message press any key to boot from cd..., press a key and Windows Setup will start. At the first screen where you have to enter input, hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then you will have to hit 1 to log into your windows installation and then just hit Enter for the Administrator password because it is normally blank unless you changed it. Once you are at the command prompt C:\WINDOWS I want you to type each of the following, hitting enter after each line:

• attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini
• del c:\boot.ini
• bootcfg /rebuild
• fixboot

Now type Exit and take your XP CD out. Your computer will reboot itself. Post back how things are going.

[matofthemint]

Thanks. I probably won't be able to do any thing till tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

[matofthemint]

I thought I wouldn't be able to get to it till tomorrow, but I was able to work on it this afternoon.
I tried 5 disks and they all came out blank. I used BurnCDCC, and Roxio which I have and use - results the same for both. They both go through the process of writing, but nothing.

[hfcg]

Did you slide the bar to the left to slow down the burn process?
Did you check the BIOS for the boot order to be set to CD/DVD?
Do you know how to enter the BIOS set up?

[matofthemint]

Following your suggestion to change the boot order, the machine went to Windows instead of the BIOS. So I went to a restore point to before the problem happened and now it is all working as it should.
I thank you for your help and interest. It didn't work the way you planned, but it worked.

[yalesface]

Hello,
I have been having the same problem as this guy's been having. i took your advice and used the windows XP installation disk that came with my computer. I pressed F12, booted from the CD, entered Recovery mode and then it never gave me a time to press 1. It gave me something that looks like this, "C:\>". I typed in FIXBOOT and it told me that the target partition is C:. Are you sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C:? I didn't follow your directions exactly, so I don't want to continue fumbling through the dark. Are all of my files going to be saved after I do what you recommend or will this cause my hard drive to be wiped?