NTLRD missing Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart

[randypants]

Some of you pc gurus out there might be able to help me? When i restarted my pc sunday night i got a message saying "NTLRD missing Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart". I have googled it but found only inconclusive information. Plz help! 

[jägermonsta]

eRrOr! 

Sounds to me like your boot file is missing or 'fucked up'. Windows needs this file to load. (NTLRD = NT Loader).

Load up your Windows XP CD.
Go through menus till you can get to the recovery console.
Once in the recovery console (looks like dos and uses similar commands) you will need to copy the boot.ini file off the XP cd to your C:\


That should fix the problem.

[randypants]

There is the problem, I dont have a windows CD Well i do, but i loaned it out and havent gotten it back yet. I guess i will have to go get that cd back

[jägermonsta]

Ugh, no CD could be a problem...

Well if you could get to a computer with a burner and burning software you could download Recovery Console on it's own. On the net some where there is a Recovery Console ISO you will burn to a CD. Once your computer boots up and the CD spins, Recovery Console will load. Now you will need somebody else's boot.ini (granted they the same version of windows as you and nothing custom in their boot.ini) burn that to a separate CD or if you have this funky thing called a disk drive, put the file on a diskette. Copy the file to your c:\ from the disk/cd.

Might be easier to grab your CD back from your friend though hah. But there's another option for you.

[console]

I've been through this a few times and it's never fun.

Other possibly helpful Recovery Console commands are 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr'.

I'm not sure it will turn out to be as simple as the 'ntldr' and 'boot.ini' files are missing.  But you will be able to check whether or not they're there from the Recovery Console, 'cause it will let you list the contents of your boot drive root directory.

Hopefully, either you can copy the missing files, OR hopefully fixboot or fixmbr will help.

Unfortunately, Windows even involves the damn Registry during boot.  There are some registry keys that map the hard drive signature to a drive letter.  If these registry keys get hosed, this can also cause a boot failure like you're seeing.  I've never figured out how to fix the registry keys from the Recovery Console, either.   


Good luck . . . . . !


Regards,

quadz

[jägermonsta]

Ahh yes those commands can help you. I used them on my girlfriends laptop and got her Windows up and running. If the problem turns out to be more then just the boot.ini/master boot record then you may be fubar.

Borrow or purchase a drive. Install Windows to it. Plug in both drives and pull your old data to the new or borrowed drive... rebuild your old drive with a new Windows installation. Then simply place your backed up data to your old drive from the new one and return the new drive to the store or previous owner.

[reaper]

  I've never figured out how to fix the registry keys from the Recovery Console, either.   raincloud

i think the scanreg /fix dos utility could possibly help. i've fixed the windows registry with this, and it actually worked the one time i used it, but it was 98, not sure how it applies

i think you can put in a boot disk with the four boot files, ntdlr, boot.ini and something else.  so if it that, you can use a floppy.  you can put the recovery console on cd and boot to that, but it takes some steps.  so use the recovery console.  i've tried to download the recovery console and put it on a cd, i had some trouble, but i think you can do it like jager said.  i'm pretty sure these are your best bets, and only bets

if you can't recover anyway, you can always throw in knoppix cd (linux on a cd), and save your files (once it boots, ftp them).  i've had to do this a few times : /

[R1CH]

One thing to quickly check, make sure you don't have any USB devices with a HD plugged in (eg ipod). Sometimes the BIOS will try to boot off those first.

[Remedy]

I can send u a winxp cd if u dont get it worked out

lemme know

[reaper]

fix it?

[randypants]

yeah