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NTLDR Missing -- Don't Have An OS


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#1
danaiks17

danaiks17

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Hi,

Apolgies if this topic has already come up. I couldn't find the appropriate thread.

My office was disposing of old computers, so I snapped one up. Before they handed them over, the tech guy "wiped everything clean" (Windows XP was the OS). So now I have a "clean" computer, and I'd like to install Windows 7. Seems that everything I try, I get the "NTLDR Missing - Please press clt+alt+delete to restart" prompt. Booted with/without the install disk and got the same thing. Tried to tweak the boot order in the system setup (CD drive first), but nothing changed.

Any suggestions? Very frustrating stuff.

Thanks,

Dan
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#2
123Runner

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Hi danaiks17 :)

Are you sure that you are attempting to boot from the CD drive?
Have you changed the boot order in the bios to boot from CD? Then chosen "save and exit"?

What type of Windows 7 install CD are you using?
Is it a CD or DVD? I suspect DVD because Vista came on DVD.
Is the install a full install or a upgrade?

123runner
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#3
danaiks17

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Hi danaiks17 :)

Are you sure that you are attempting to boot from the CD drive?
Have you changed the boot order in the bios to boot from CD? Then chosen "save and exit"?

What type of Windows 7 install CD are you using?
Is it a CD or DVD? I suspect DVD because Vista came on DVD.
Is the install a full install or a upgrade?

123runner


Thanks for your reply 123Runner, really appreciate it.

I'm sure that i'm attempting to boot from the CD drive, no doubt there. I'm curious why I'd get the "No NTLDR" message even when there's no disc in the drive?

The install disc is a DVD, full install.
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#4
rshaffer61

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Are you getting a message saying push any key to boot to cd?
If not then your bios is not set to boot to cdrom first.

If you have Windows CD...

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:

Posted Image

3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1").
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:

Posted Image

4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide.
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\boot.ini
ATTRIB -R C:\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild


Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:

Posted Image

5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.



2. If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow instructions from Step #3 above.

Thanks To Broni For The Instructions
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