How to fix: NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart
If you got this on Windows Vista
Windows Vista does not boot like previous versions, you can keep reading my
page to boot into an existing installation of 98/NT/2000/XP, but if you have just a
single Vista install and nothing else, "NeoSmart.net" has a fantastic article on "Recovering
the Windows Vista Bootloader from the DVD" and an awesome program
called EasyBCD. It looks like they are
doing great things over there for getting the problem resolved on Vista.
If you got this on Windows XP (or Windows 2000, or NT4, or Windows 98)
Keep Reading.
What happened? (How NTLDR works and why your PC can't find it)
When your computer starts, the BIOS attempts to find the primary hard drive's active partition to read the first sector for the MBR (Master Boot Record), it uses that info to load the rest of the OS. For Windows NT4/2k/XP the MBR is pointed to the
NTLDR (New Technology
Loader) and it takes it from there. If you get the "NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart" what's most likely going on is the BIOS either didn't look for the right drive, didn't find the right partition, it wasn't active, didn't find the MBR, or the MBR didn't list NTLDR in the right place, the location of NTLDR changed, or you are looking at a hardware failure situation (memory/cables/drive/motherboard/etc).
The first thing to do is try to change back whatever hardware or software change you just made (this could be as simple as leaving a floppy disk in the
drive or you need to reseat the cables). If the contents of the drive are especially important and you have no backups, I would recommend removing the hard drive, placing in an enclosure, and backing up the data first, in fact, backup all of your computers. (What if I made new changes that I want to keep?).
Make a NTLDR boot disk to get back into Windows.
The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to
create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check if you can just boot
back up into your system, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation.
Here are the instructions to do this:
1. Get a blank floppy/cd-r/usb (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it
into a working computer.
2. If you have a working Windows machine download my fix: Floppy
fixntldr.exe |
CD-R fixntldriso.zip | USB
ntldrusb.zip onto a working computer
(Backup copies of these files available at http://ntldrismissing.com
)
(What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?).
(64 bit WinXP Floppy 64ntflop.exe
| CD-R 64ntiso.zip | Files
64ntfile.zip)
Do you remember if the broken computers had the Windows installation in
"Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .
(If your backup system is NT4 or Windows 2000: What if my backup system is
Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).
3. Make the new boot disk:
*Floppy: Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk. (If you don't like running an exe from me, you can run
fixntldr_RawRite.zip and just replace the RawRite.exe file inside with one you trust) (now go to step 4)
*CD-R: This is not a normal file you burn to a CD, it is an "ISO" file,
you must first extract the fixntldriso.zip file by right clicking it and choosing
"Extract All" then Next>Next>Finish then download a program called "ISO Recorder" from here
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm (Windows 2000 users use Active ISO Burner IsoBurner-Setup.exe) and install it. Once it's installed, right click the fixntldr.iso file and choose to "Copy image to CD" or "Burn ISO file" and let it burn the cd (now go to step 4)
*USB: Right click the ntldrusb.zip file and choose "Extract All" Next>Next>Finish
Then Insert your USB Stick into the working computer (remove any other USB sticks, and be sure there isn't anything on the USB stick that you want since we are about to erase it);
Double-click HPUSBFW.EXE in the ntldrusb folder;
Check "Create a DOS startup disk" and "using DOS system files located at" then press the grey button with the "...";
A box will come up asking you which folder to select, point it to the "dos
system files" folder;
Press OK; Press Start; Press Yes; Let it run for just a few minutes till a new
box comes up; Press OK; Press Close;
Open the "putonusb" folder, copy all the files, paste them onto the usb stick (just in the root of the drive, like E:\);
Eject the USB Stick; Remove it from your computer;
Place it into the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" issue, reboot it.
You will see the Windows 98 screen pop up for a second, then you will see a black screen with white letters prompting you to "replace boot sector of the
drive C: (y/n)", press the y key;
It will go to a C:\ prompt, reboot the computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del; (now go to step 4)
4. Put the new floppy/cd-r/usb you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.
Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.
Start back up the broken computer with the floppy/cd-r/usb inside it/plugged
into it. Once your computer gets past the BIOS screen your computer should try to access the boot disk and you should see a black screen with white letters (What if I don't see this screen?).
that says:
1ST TRY THIS seleccione esto primero
2ND TRY THIS essayez ceci en deuzieme
3RD TRY THIS wahlen Sie diesen Third
4TH TRY THIS selezioni questo fourth
5TH TRY THIS selecione este fifth
6TH TRY THIS seleccione este sexto
7TH TRY THIS essayez ceci en septieme
8TH TRY THIS wahlen Sie dieses achte
9TH TRY THIS selezioni questo nono
10TH TRY THIS selecione este decimo
(I threw in some Spanish / French / German / Italian / Portuguese for
international flavor.)
This file is set up to automatically select the "1ST TRY THIS" choice after 30 seconds. Try it first, if it was the wrong selection, you will likely
get one of these four errors:
1. Windows could not start because file
"<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll was missing or corrupt
2. Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.
3. I/O Error accessing boot sector file multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\BOOTSECT.DOS
4. Immediate reboot
If you get the immediate reboot or some other weird error, try pressing F8 at the "1st Try This" selection screen, it will give you a prompt where you can select Safe Mode, and then try the "1st
Try This" option again. Safe Mode is a special "minimal" version of Windows that doesn't load certain parts of the operating system that might have caused the problem.
One of the choices should eventually boot you back into Windows. (What if none of the options worked?) .
Use windows to fix the boot files on the hard drive.
If you got back into Windows, stop whatever you are doing and backup your
most important information from this computer.
Now that you are done backing up the most important info, try to change back whatever you were last doing and boot normally, it that doesn't work, put the floppy back into the broken computer and double click the fixntldr.bat file on the floppy drive, if it asks you to overwrite a file, just type in y for yes (the file
copies boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com from the floppy to the C:\ drive and
removes the read only attributes). That process take a few minutes, then remove
the floppy and reboot.
If you are using the cd or usb solution, copy the boot.ini, ntldr, and
ntdetect.com files to My Computer > Local Disk C:\ > and overwite whatever files might be there, then right click each file, choose properties, uncheck the Read
Only attribute, and click OK.
If you get back into Windows again, you can change that "1st Try This" menu by going into Start > Control Panel > PerformanceAndMaintenance/System > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section, Settings button > System Startup; then change the "Default Operating System:" to the selection that worked for you, and change the box that says
"Time to display list of operating systems" to however many seconds
you want (usually 1 second). Click OK twice. (screenshots)
If you copy the file over and boot up and get a "NTLDR is compressed" error message, be sure to uncheck "compress contents to save space" on the hard drive.
(What if the bootdisk worked, but I can't get into Windows without it?) .
(What if I want to do further research?) .
(Can I read other peoples questions and your answers? Sure:
http://m-ntldrismissing.blogspot.com/ )
Anyone Can Improve His or Her Life: The Principles of Quality. Read about it at |
|
The original "Basic Glossary of Grammar" is still available at |
It worked! Please help me back. - Keeping website in "maintenance mode"
For $25 you can get a banner ad on this page for 1 month, new advertising
opportunities available now.
Ad revenues help, but it's your donations that
are the force that keeps this site up and able to make improvements. Before it was much more difficult to
create the boot floppy, but with WinImage Pro (for $80!) it's much simpler. I
then had a bounty out of $50 for a USB solution which was paid, then I donated
$50 to Gilles Vollant Software for the BootPart program that's on the inside of
it. At some point I'll make the "rename boot.ini" instructions to just "double click this .bat file". Luckily, Windows Vista does not give this error, thought it may still have the problem, I'm not 100% sure. However with Windows 98 still used by millions 7 years later, I'm sure Windows XP won't disappear anytime soon and thus this page must stay. If you have tried my solution (or find a better one) for Windows Vista, please let me know :)
Special thanks to "Nightowl" for his awesome guide of how to make a bootable cd without a floppy when roxio refused to read my floppy drive to make a 64 bit XP bootable cd.
http://nightowl.radified.com/bootcd/bootcdintro.html ($30 to their donate
button)
A free way to help me would be to link back to my webpage. Either from your
own web page, or if you belong to any discussion forum that has to do with
computers, or has a lounge section, why not let everyone know I helped you out
by making a post and in that post, link back to my webpage? Use this address in
case I change something in the future:
http://ntldrismissing.com/
HighStyleDoggy.com is my best sponsor
to date, they have provided me with loads of support over the years, and really
make everything in my life possible. Please visit them for all your
pampered pooch's needs :)
What if I made new changes that I want to keep?
Adding a new hard drive or a new drive array often causes your computer to
miss the NTLDR, to fix it
you'll want to specify in the BIOS which device to boot from first, and you'll
want it on your IDE0 channel and as the master (first on the chain) with jumpers
set to Master, and then use fdisk to make sure that the first partition is a
primary partition (and set as active), and that none of the other drives or
partitions are set to active. Try setting the BIOS to it's defaults or
clearing the CMOS memory. If you made changes as drastic as a new
motherboard you may want to run a repair install as described here:
Repair Install
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html
Come back if you still get the error after that. Go back
What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?
If you want to make a floppy yourself, format it using a Windows NT/2000/XP
computer (it can't be Windows 95/98/ME) and then get a copy of 3 files from a
working Windows NT/2000/XP computer: NTLDR, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini come off
the root of the C:\ drive. Either put those on the floppy and boot up with
it, or somehow copy those to the C:\ drive of the broken computer.
If you can't get access to those files, but still don't want to run an
executable from a website off the internet, download and expand onto the floppy
this zip file: fixntldr.zip.
What's in fixntldr.zip?
Two program files copied from a Windows XP installation named "ntldr" and "ntdetect.com"
these assist in booting your existing installation.
And a text file named "boot.ini" that is what you use to make the selection of which partition and disk you are trying to boot from. The contents of boot.ini are as follows:
[Boot Loader]
timeout=30
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="1ST TRY THIS seleccione esto
primero" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows="2ND TRY THIS essayez ceci en
deuzieme" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\Windows="3RD TRY THIS wahlen Sie diesen
Third" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\Windows="4TH TRY THIS selezioni questo
fourth" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\Windows="5TH TRY THIS selecione este fifth"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\Windows="6TH TRY THIS seleccione este sexto"
/fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\Windows="7TH TRY THIS essayez ceci en
septieme" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(4)\Windows="8TH TRY THIS wahlen Sie dieses
achte" /fastdetect
C:\="9TH TRY THIS selezioni questo nono"
D:\="10TH TRY THIS selecione este decimo"
winxp.ini has "Winxp" instead of Windows, and Winnt.ini has "Winnt"
instead of Windows.
I threw in some Spanish / French / German / Italian / Portuguese for
international flavor.
The contents of fixntldr.bat file is:
%systemdrive%
cd\
rename boot.ini boot.ini.bak
rename ntldr ntldr.bak
rename ntdetect.com ntdetect.com.bak
copy a:\boot.ini boot.ini /-Y
copy a:\ntldr ntldr /-Y
copy a:\ntdetect.com ntdetect.com /-Y
attrib boot.ini -h -r -s -a
attrib ntldr -h -r -s -a
attrib ntdetect.com -h -r -s -a
(It is renaming the files on C:, copying the files from A:, then removing the
hidden, read only, system, and archive attributes. My sincere thanks to
Jorge Toscano for providing the code
for the bat file and the Portuguese translation) Go Back
What if my backup system is Linux or another alt OS?
Floppy: (fixntldr-winnt if you are using Windows 2000 or Windows NT4) FIXNTLDR ISO image for Windows NT4 and Windows 2000 (ntldrusb-winnt
for Windows NT4 or 2000 or upgrades from)
I made the disk an executable to make it easier to make a floppy.
Of course that only works for Microsoft OS's. If you back up system is Linux or any other alternative operating system, then use
xpnt4lix.zip /
xpnt4lix.rar for Windows XP installs or
2knt4lix.zip /
2knt4lix.rar for Windows 2000 or NT4
installs, you will need to uncompress those files). (These are previous
versions in case those img files don't work for you:
fixntldrimg.zip or
fixntldrimg.rar). You'll
need a program like rawrite.exe (which works
in DOS if you can get there from a Win98 boot disk) but for your OS.
Read RedHat talk about making a floppy from an image (and I have it on good word that the command in linux is "dd if=filename.img
of=/dev/fd0" or do a
search
on Google. You may also be able to do that linux command line in a Mac. But if you have an easy way to make a boot floppy on a Mac I
don't know about, please let me know milescomer@gmail.com , or just
send it along using one of the forms. If you give me a solution.
I'll give you $10 from the pay pal account on this site.
If none of these options work for you, check out the What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?
section to try and find a way you can create the disk yourself with your current
configuration, then drop me a line to let me know how you did it. Go
Back.
What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?
For a floppy: Instead of just the fixntldr.exe, use the
fixntldr-winnt.exe file if your system is NT4, or 2000, or was upgraded from a previous installation of NT4 or 2000.
For a CD-RW: fixntldriso4w2k.zip
For a USB drive: ntldrusb-winnt.zip
If you named your windows directory something like "shinyhappypeople"
then open the boot.ini file and change any mention of "windows" to "shinyhappypeople"
like so:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\shinyhappypeople="1ST TRY THIS"
Save changes, and put the disk back in and continue on trying the 10 choices.
Go Back
What if I don't see this screen?
If you do not see the screen come up with the different selections and
immediately goes back to the "NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart" error, then you will need to change the "boot order" in your systems BIOS to first select the Floppy Drive (sometimes called "Removable Media Drive") before it tries to boot to the Hard Disk (sometimes called "Fixed Disk" drive).
If you are using the cd or usb solutions, move those before hard drive.
To get to the BIOS, when the computer first starts try pressing the CTRL or
ESC or END or DELETE or F1-12 keys to get it to stop trying to load windows and
instead go to a screen that allows you to make configuration changes to your
machine. Once there, try looking for a "Boot Order" screen that will list your floppy, cd-rom, and hard drives with a number, (typically 1-3), look for
instructions on the screen on how to make changes, and move your floppy to 1 and
CD-ROM to 2, find a way to exit and be sure to save your changes. Go Back
What if none of the options worked?
If using the boot disk to create a new MBR and NTLDR did not help, or copying the files to the root of the C:\
drive and you remove the disk and still get the message when you boot up, your
options for a solution diverge into different areas.
Then we know that the programs are fine, and the 3 startup files are fine, but
perhaps the MBR is incorrect. Correcting the MBR takes a few different directions, choose any of the following sections:
Installation CD Option
Performing a "Repair" installation of windows. Get an installation CD: (the full version of the Windows XP CD, the upgrade version is non-bootable). Start your computer with your XP (or 2000) CD (in your BIOS "Boot Sequence" the CD-Rom will need to be
accessed before the hard drive, and a dialog will appear that says "Press any
key to boot from CD..." and you need to press a key on the keyboard to have it
begin booting from the CD)
See screenshot of the repair install in action:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html
Recovery Console Option
You can choose to repair a windows installation from
the recovery console. Once you are logged in to your recovery console, select the number that represent your C: drive more than likely it will be 1. It will ask for your admin password, enter it you have one or just hit enter if you don't know it. Follow the recovery console instructions from here:
http://www.5starsupport.com/faq/booting.htm#7-9
Also the bootcfg command can be used from the recovery console as a possible
solution. The extent of the command is to lengthy to go into here, but feel free
to google it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=bootcfg
Then try using the floppy again. Go Back.
Hardware Problems
If neither of those options worked, try checking your hardware, replace cables, try different power cable, ensure jumpers are on properly, ensure that the drive you
want to boot from is on the Primary IDE connection (IDE 0) and is set as the
first device on the IDE cable (Master). At best your data
is still intact, so you can put the drive in another computer and back it up. You can most likely save your data,
but if your okay with losing it, fdisk to erase all your partitions, recreate
one as primary, set it to active, and format it, run sys c: and see if you can't
reboot to at least a C:\ prompt.
You also may be having hard drive failure problems, here's a handy thread to
check for those problems:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7602
Still nothing?
If your still looking for help, of all the other online write ups, I found this the most helpful (be sure to first select what you were doing that got you into the NTLDR situation):
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm
and
http://www.short-media.com
It's possible the hard drive itself has failed, and if that's the
case, I heard one of the people on the MaximumPC podcast recommend this
company for data recovery:
http://www.quetek.com/ If reading stuff online feels like you are going in circles and you need some serious help, you can email me (milescomer@gmail.com) and I'll post your question and answer to my blog (anonymously of course).
. Go Back
What if the bootdisk worked, but I can't get into Windows without it?
Stop - Backup your important files - Then proceed
Try setting BIOS to default, reseating IDE cables, double checking all of
your settings basically.
Inside Windows Option
Once back into Windows, right click on the My Computer option, choose the Manage option. The Computer Management window will open, click on "Disk Management" on the left pane. One of the disks it lists, and one of the drives on it, will need to be marked as active. It will be which drive letter you have placed the 3 boot files into (this will likely be the C: drive on Disk 0). Right click on that drive letter and select "Mark Partition as Active", you may first have to convert the partition to a Primary partition before you can mark it as active. Close and reboot.
Mark Partition as Active with
diskpart from Jim the Bean
If that doesn't work, go into "My Computer", right-click each hard drive,
select "Properties", switch to the "Tools" tab, click the "Check Now" button, check both options then click "Start"; if you selected the system partition it will require it to be rebooted and done outside of Windows. When you reboot you will see a message about "Disk checking will begin in 7 seconds", let it do this and don't skip it. It may take awhile and will boot back into Windows when it's done.
If that doesn't immediately work, and you have more hard drives than just C:,
try placing the 3 boot files into other drives like D:, E:, F:, etc. Reboot each
time to check if that was the one that fixed it, and when you find the correct
one, mark it as active. (step-by-step).
Win9x Boot Disk Option
Get a Win9x floppy and boot with it and when you get your A:\ prompt type:
fdisk
and make sure that the correct partition and hard drive are labeled
"active" (usually the first hard drive with the first partition).
If you had a Win 9x install on this machine you may need to also run the
command: sys c: (or d, e, or f for the installation).
Recovery Console Option
Go into the recovery console by booting up with a Windows XP cd and go
through the options till you get to the recovery console, you will need the
admin password for this option (if you do not know it, just hit enter, that will
work if it is blank). Then issue the command: fixboot
Boot Drive Only
One of the visitors commented on the blog that if the hard drive is not
marked as active, disconnect every hard drive but the boot drive, and get it to
boot, then add the additional drive. His post is here
http://m-ntldrismissing.blogspot.com/2008/02/got-back-in-ran-bat-file-but-now-in.html?showComment=1222949520000#c1047342531695498573
.
New Hard Drive Option
Purchase a new hard drive, remove the old one, install the new one as
master, install your OS, install the old one as slave (remember to
change
jumpers), copy all the data off the old hard drive, burn CD's or
DVD's of the most important stuff, perform a low-level format of the old
drive, make a partition on it and use it as backup storage drive or just
another place to store your stuff. Go Back
What if I want to do further research?
If you want to do your own research on this topic, here are links to
relevant Microsoft KB articles:
Windows XP Resource Kits: Initial Startup Phasee
NTLDR is missing when you install or upgrade Windows XP over 95/98/ME
You receive an "NTLDR is missing" error message when you start your
computer
How
to Troubleshoot NTLDR is missing in W2k
How
To Create a Boot Disk for an NTFS or FAT Partition in Windows
The computer does not
start after you change the active partition by using the Disk Management tool
Error message when you start your computer with a non-system disk
Windows 2000 Disk Concepts and Troubleshooting
Windows XP Resource Kits: Replacing the Boot Sector
Windows XP Resource Kits: Using Recovery Console to recover from startup
problems
How to create a bootable disk for an NTFS or FAT partition
How to recover from a
corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
How
to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
Cloning OS
partition using Ghost 2003
NTLDR is Compressed - HP Support Solution
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий