Member Avatar for pinkbathwater

Hello. When I try to start my computer, the screen goes black and in the corner it says "NTLDR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" when i press Ctrl+Alt+Del it brings up the opening "compac" page and then goes back to the black screen with that message. Does anyone know what i can do to even get my computer on?
thank you!

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NTLDR is the boot loader used by Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003. The message means the PC can start the BIOS, finds a device to boot from, but cannot find or run the NT loader files. Common, simple causes are a non-bootable floppy/USB/CD left in a drive, wrong BIOS boot order, or missing/corrupt loader files; more serious causes are filesystem corruption, a damaged MBR/partition table, or a failing drive.

Quick checks first (fast and safe):

  • As suggested, remove any floppy, CD, USB stick or memory card and try again.
  • Use the BIOS boot-menu (often F12/F9) or BIOS setup to confirm the hard disk is detected and is the first boot device.
  • If the machine recently had another OS installed or an image restored, the active partition or MBR might have changed.

If those checks fail, the Recovery Console on a Windows 2000/XP CD usually fixes this without a full reinstall. Boot from the CD, press R for Recovery Console, choose the Windows installation and enter the admin password, then run these commands (replace D: with the CD-ROM letter if different):

fixboot C:
fixmbr
copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
bootcfg /rebuild
chkdsk /r

fixboot writes a fresh boot sector, fixmbr repairs the master boot record, copy restores the loader files, bootcfg /rebuild recreates boot.ini, and chkdsk /r checks and repairs disk errors.

If there is no CD, use a Windows PE / recovery USB, a bootable rescue CD (GParted/Hiren-type tools), or attach the drive to another PC to copy files and back up data. If the Recovery Console commands fail or the disk shows many errors, the drive may be failing and data recovery should be done before attempting a repair install as and suggested.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for DavidRyan

The simplest method is to repair your Windows installation.

Member Avatar for DMR

The simplest method is to repair your Windows installation.

And instructions for doing so can be found .

Member Avatar for fry

the reasons for "NTLDR is missing" can be several, here you can read more about this, and how to repair it.

Member Avatar for DaveB

Hi

You get this message when you try to boot with a non-bootable floppy disk in the drive. Check that first.

Regards, David

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