[Rhewtani]

Using an HP d530 which is a 2.8 ghz machine, got it loaded with 1.25 GB RAM at the moment.

Booted fine with HD1.

Replaced HD with HD2. Received NTLDR not found error, tried all the standard fixes.

Used a drive copier to move all of HD2's data onto HD1.

HD1 gained the NTLDR error.

Re-tried all the standard fixes.

Found a NTLDR boot disk which allows me into windows. It also allows me to boot into the windows repair install.

Re-tried a lot of the fixes, now have blinking cursor error.

I can still boot with the boot disk. I simply cannot ween the machine off the boot disk, however.

I did update the bios from 1.01 to 2.44.

Any ideas?

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Just to throw it out there, I wouldn't be against booting from the D drive (a storage drive) as long as everything else ran off of C.

[Rhewtani]

Just to throw it out there, I wouldn't be against booting from the D drive (a storage drive) as long as everything else ran off of C.

[The Skeptic]

You didn't specify what fixes you tried. Try this, if possible. Take out the hard disk and rig it as slave to a working computer. In the working computer click My Computer > Tools > folder options > view. Uncheck Hide protected operating system files (recommended) and allow the change. Go to My Computer > C:, copy NTLDR and paste it to root directory of the affected hard disk. Check the unchecked box to hide system files.

Click Start > My Computer > right-click the rigged drive > properties > tools > Error Checking > Check Now. Check the two boxes, click Start and reboot the computer to allow the process to run.

[Rhewtani]

I replaced the NTLDR, NDETECT, and the boot.ini files using the ones on the boot disk. Currently, I get the flashing cursor of not booting.

[The Skeptic]

Then try error checking on a working computer or chkdsk/r from recovery console on the affected computer.

[The Skeptic]

Or have a look at this.

[Rhewtani]

Ran chkdsk /r from recovery console. Still flashing cursor. Reading the other steps now.

[Rhewtani]

When I ran chkdsk through windows (which required a reboot), it went through fine. When I run it through recovery console, it says that there are some unrecoverable errors (which reduces my HD space from 76,000 to 69,000.

The other instructions did not fix it.

[Rhewtani]

Ok, luckily I had another identical machine to try. However, I still get the flashing cursor.

[Rhewtani]

Ran the maxtor drive diagnostic and the drive checks out.

[The Skeptic]

Did you run all the instructions given in my previous post (no.6)?

I hope your data is saved because fixmbr can be quite dangerous.

Please forgive my misunderstanding: did the disk pass the test or did it fail?

[Rhewtani]

Since this is a cloned version of the drive, the data is safe. I did everything in #6, to no avail. The drive test DID pass. Do you want to IM me at my username on aim?

[Rhewtani]

This is weird to me, 'cause I'm eliminated almost any hardware problem. I cloned the 32 gb drive that had the issue to a 80 gb drive and the error persists. I've used the drive in another machine, so that eliminated most peripherals, RAM, motherboard.

Is there something about a HAL.DLL that might be involved?

[The Skeptic]

The only other step that I can see is windows repair as described in the link in my signature. Frankly, this is a procedure that I do very reluctantly because very often it fail and you end up worse off then you started. In your case it looks as if you have nothing to lose.If windows repair doesn't work then the only solution that I can think off is clean format.

This will be my last post for today. I hope other people will join with fresh ideas.