W2000 - Missing NTLDR

[Walt]

HI, hope you guys can help. My home pc, running W2000 won't boot up and states that NTLDR is missing. I have copied the NTLDR files to a floppy and tried using it to boot but is just states that it is not the boot up disk. My machine is currently set to boot up from CD, then Floppy and then Harddrive. I have the W2000 installation disk but no boot up floppy's. Can you guys offer any help?

I wouldn't mind reinstalling w2000 but i do not want to loose the data i have stored on the harddrive.

Any suggestions would be great, thankyou.

[eagle]

Hello. Welcome. Take a look here (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320397) to see if there is any info that may help with your problem. hth :blush:

[Walt]

Hi thanks for the responce but still no solution in sight. I have read a lot of information regarding this problem. I do not think it is a hardware problem and i have had no luck with floppy boot up disks. I have tried loading the missing NTLDR etc files unto a floppy and booting from the A drive but it just states that it is not a boot up disk. I have tried NTLDR fixit disks with no luck i have tried getting boot up disks from another W2000 machine but still no luck. Any one else have any insight into this particular problem.

[tetonbob]

IIRC, ntldr by itself won't boot. You need a boot.ini and a ntdetect.com on the floppy, also. Don't know if you have looked at this, but here's another link:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=119467

Also, when you're trying to use a boot floppy, you'll need to go to your BIOS and change the boot order to floppy first. You may know this already, but it is not clear from your posts whether or not you made this change when attempting to boot from a floppy disk.

Also take a look through : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=318728

[tetonbob]

This page says much the same in a somewhat more clear manner:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

HTH,

Bob

[Walt]

Hehe, sorry I posted i reply but it must have gotten lost. I have followed those steps as described in those pages but still no solution. I have tried an NTLFR fixit disk. I have tried an MSDOS bootup disk. I have tried copying the files to a floppy but it just states that the floppy is not a start up disk.

[tetonbob]

Each attempt at using a startup floppy results in the same error? What exactly is the message received, please? Did you go into your BIOS setup and change the boot order to floppy first?

From where did you copy the NTLDR?

Do you have the Windows 2000 CD ROM? The Windows 2000 setup floppies?
An Emergency Repair Disk for that system?

Have you used a freshly formatted floppy for your startup disk? Run a thorough format on one and try again. Have you tried a floppy from another box? Sometimes the disks themselves become impaired for booting but will hold data.

What are the contents of your boot.ini file?

Please answer all questions.

Can you boot your system with a Win98 startup floppy?

[Walt]

Okay not sure about the exact message but will post it when i get home after work.

My Bios setup is cd first, then floppy etc so it reads the floppy ok, the floppy is formatted okay using another win2000 computer.

I copied the NTLDR and other files from another win2000 computer in work but when i use this disk the message is something like ''non bootup disk''.

I don't have any bootup/emergency startup disks for any operating system so I haven't tried win98 etc.

I dont know the contents of my boot.ini file, how do i access the file?

[xmiinc]

Hi, I'm having a similar problem...with one extra detail: because I'm trying to format a new C: drive (on a Dell laptop) it seems I can *only* start by using a boot floppy--but get the same "missing NTLDR" error. My boot floppy is being created by win2k pro on my old (small) drive, but I haven't yet figgered out how to get past this problem. I shutdown, pop the old drive out, pop the new drive in, and expect to power up from boot floppy. It no workee... Even the 4 ERD's I made from my old drive, while they boot the system (man, does that take a long time!) to the choice between "Windows 2000 Professional..." and "Emergency Recovery console...", still acts like it expects to see an existing partition.

How do I get out of this diabolically vicious circle? Its as if there's no chance you can format a solo bare drive w/out a carefully prepared installer-cd specific to that cpu. (There must be a great number of fastidiously careful people out there in PC-world!) Will try fiddling with the BIOS boot-order as suggested here...

As to *my* installer-cd...the one that came with my system (bought used on ebay) that worked fine for the past 3 years, was a dub burned on poor media, it can no longer boot because of corroded foil. I waited too long to make a copy of that. I've burned copies of Win2k Pro installers from work, but none boot my system w/out an existing partition, for whatever reason. They seem to expect to see a prior system install somewhere...and thats where the boot-floppy comes in.

thx,
tom<--a visitor from the much more "installer-cooperative" Mac universe...

[xmiinc]

after 4 solid days of trying to get around the problem of not being able to boot a laptop and install Win2k on a bare drive w/out my original installer, I found this site--its brilliant, it works, and it solved my dilemma:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/

I can create as many bootable CD's as I want *and* I can slipstream the latest service packs along with the older installer files. Everybody having boot problems should know about this site!!!