"NTLDR is Missing"

Hello all-

We are working on cleaning up a XP OS based laptop using Disk Cleanup, Eraser and Disk Defrag. Somewhere along the line we rebooted and now are getting "NTLDR is Missing" We have tried:

1. Tried creating a bootdisk
2. Tried bringing over another NTLDR from another same type OS and hardware machine
3. Tried everything in the MS Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=320397 - except contacting MS at this point - as it would cost more bling

Any other ideas before we try and contact our support or MS?

Specs:
IBM T41
Windows XP

Thanks!

what age is the PC ?
was it used heavily ?

possibility of HDD failing
have you tried to run any HDD check tools ?
try these links ..............

ntldr tips

repair ntldr

I Think foxy pinned it...

I have seen this with harddrives failing...

Have you tried a repair of XP??

MLF

Have you tried defragmenting the drive?
Don't punch me, I'm serious.
Also, look at this :
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.c...1157288&page=1

Get this bootdisk from www.bootdisk.com : http://www.mbhs.edu/~jaosborn/boot98se.exe
Make it into a bootable floppy and boot from that floppy.

Once you see the prompt, go to your OS-drive (assumed C:\ ) and type this at the C:\>

Code:

---

fdisk /mbr

---

Mostly this error comes from a corrupted master boot record. With this error you remake the MBR,
mostly also fixing this error.

Hope this helps.

Apologies - we got wrapped up here with some work and trying to troubleshoot. I will reply to your questions/suggestions:

----------------------------------------
foxey

Quote:

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what age is the PC ?
was it used heavily ?

possibility of HDD failing
have you tried to run any HDD check tools ?
try these links ..............

---

1. PC Age: 2 years
2. Yes - one of our pen testing machines
3. We will be trying the links you provided - thanks! My colleague is on the horn right now with MS trying to get the bc2update thang.

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morganlefay

Quote:

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Have you tried a repair of XP??

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1. We were trying everything MS recommended - including now calling them for an update. My colleague wants to keep troubleshooting - I am voting to shoot the thing in the head, figuratively, with a new image... but we would have to reload all of our "evil" tools we use.

-------------------------------------
trevoke

Quote:

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Have you tried defragmenting the drive?

---

Yep. We did 1) Disk clean 2) Defrag - 2x then tried 3) Eraser to free up "unused diskspace" - we found out that Eraser created a plethora of files in a tmp directory of about 13GB for some reason.

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Raiden

Bootdisk - yep we were going to try that, however the IBM T41 does not come with a floppy... so we created a boot CD to get us by. Since my original post, we have found the NTLDR file, but the system won't recognize it from the harddrive - it will off of our boot CD - weird. Also - we tried an fdisk - and it failed - but I forgot to write down the error - my brain fell outta me noggin.

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Ok - we are going to try out the links you all supplied, where applicable against the work we have already done and try and get that update file from MS. I will update when I have something.

Thanks much to everyone for the advice! We appreciate the help!

I have supplied this site before, but it's good fun and stress break after using your brains throughout the day: http://www.lardlad.com

UPDATE: We just got and loaded bcupdate2 from what looks to be a good utilities site:

http://www.protostorm.com/utils.html

Looks like we are up and running - although the fdisk thing is a bit concerning - or is it? Did they make XP work like that?

Also - the call to MS did not cost anything... but we were on hold a lot, and that pissed us off, so we found the site mentioned above and (hopefully) got it fixed - looks like it.

Thanks again all!

13 GB of file 'fragments' ??
sounds like the HDD is fritzed, or at least it is failing.
do you have a spare HDD to fit, to load up XP to try out the box ?
or swap out a HDD from another unit to prove the BIOS is OK .......

if there is a suspect of hdd corruption.. give this a try
HDD Regenerator current version is above 1.41..

have used it to get machines working.. seen an unexplainable number of machines with a single bad sector in the first 5MB of the HDD.. interesting 99% of the machines with this issue had a crap load of malware.. ..

cheers

Hey Hey,

I haven't seen this posted yet so here's a few more of the basics..

Boot the XP CD

--> Recovery Console
--> fixboot
--> fixmbr

or

Boot the XP CD

--> Repair Install

Both of those should stand to fix it for ya.

Peace,
HT