[dsbur]

After downloading Ultimate Office 2007 (thru MS site), the computer restarted, and installation seemed to be successful. The next morning I came to computer for my first use of Excel 2007 and had a black screen that said:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl + Alt + Del to restart

But when I did that, it did not restart, it only returned to black screen message.
Tried restart again, choosing F12, then chose to restart from CD with XP cd in drive.

Followed steps carefully as shown on this site for XP repair so I do not lose personal files and documents. But at the screen where it is supposed to show me my XP installation and give the option to Repair, I do NOT get that option. Instead, the box below shows Partitioned and Unpartitioned space on my computer as follows:

C: Partition1 [NTFS] 152578 MB < 134343 MB free>
Unpartitioned space 8 MB

and these options:
-To set up WinXP on the selected item, press ENTER
-To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C
-To delete the selected partition, press D


PLEASE HELP me to finish the repair process and retain important personal files kept on this computer.

In case it matters, it is a Dell 4700 desktop, purchased around 2005, hard drive crashed approx 2008 and was replaced under warranty by Dell. NO problems since, until downloading Office 2007.

It was such a heartbreaker to lose all personal files and photos a couple yrs ago, I do not want it to happen again (though I am better now about cd backups, there is still important stuff residing on HD).

HELP!!!

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Give this a try and let us know if it resolves your issue.

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:



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:



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:



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.




Thanks To Broni For The Instructions

[rshaffer61]

Give this a try and let us know if it resolves your issue.

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:



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:



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:



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.




Thanks To Broni For The Instructions

[dsbur]

I do not know the Admin password.

Is there any way to find it?

Any other options I can try?

[dsbur]

OK, let me back up a minute. Guess I don't need an Admin password. I hit 'Enter' and it went to C:\Windows>

I typed CD and no change.
I typed CD C:\ and it went to C:\> as shown on your help screen.

I then went to your Step 4 and typed ATTRIB -H C:\boot.ini
Got this message: The system cannot find the file or directory specified.

Is there something else I need to do?
Thanks for your help.

[rshaffer61]

OK first are you using a full version Microsoft XP Installation disk or are you using the Dell recovery disk?

[dsbur]

The disk I have came from Dell, with computer. It says 'Reinstallation CD Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition, Service Pack 2' on it.

Is this part of the problem?

[rshaffer61]

It may be part of the issue. To make sure you would have to purchase or borrow a XP Pro disk and try the steps with it.
Even though it says it is the XP Pro disk it is specifically made for your Dell which may not include some of the commands.
Another option is to do a Repair Installation but honestly this means with a name brand system it usually formats the hard drive and reloads everything just as it was when you bought the system new.
Since the data is important we should get that safely backed up now just in case. You do this by using a Linux Live cd that boots the system outside of windows and allows you access tot he data.

Get Puppy Linux from my signature below...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get Burncdcc from my signature...it is a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all your data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...about half the width of the screen...then drag the window to the right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to
the narrowest you can..about half the width of the screen...drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmouting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Thanks to happyrock

[dsbur]

The only working computer I have to do all this is a netbook. Handy little unit, but no frills, no cd drive. So I am starting by downloading Puppy Linux to 1GB flash drive, it's all I have.

Will get back to you at next step of process.

[dsbur]

"make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device...."


How do I do this when the Dell (problem computer) is not functioning?
And how do I direct it to usb drive to boot?

[dsbur]

OK, I got to boot menu and chose 'usb device'. It came up with a list of 1st Try This, 2nd Try this, etc.

1st was unsuccessful.
2nd brought up blue STOP Error screen, which is where I am now.

It says "if this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer". This IS the first time I have seen this screen, but Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing. How do I restart???

I am completely lost here, but can follow directions.

[rshaffer61]

To enter the bios on a Dell you would tap the

Dell 400 F3, F1
Dell 4400 F12
Dell Dimension® F2 or DEL
Dell Inspiron® F2
Dell Latitude Fn+F1 (while booted)
Dell Latitude F2 (on boot)
Dell Optiplex DEL
Dell Optiplex F2
Dell Precision™ F2
eMachine® DEL , F 2

[dsbur]

I see what you are saying about bios ... I did that right. It was F12, then I was able to choose 'usb device'.

So now I'm at this blue stop screen.

[rshaffer61]

OK what information is it giving?
It should give a stop code and maybe a reason for the error.

[dsbur]

Here is what it says.


If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated.
Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF797C528, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

[dsbur]

Thank you for attempting to help me but this is over my head. I'm in contact with a local tech and I will be taking the unit to him tomorrow to see what they can salvage. It may be too late.