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ntldr is missing (Read 46078 times)
MikeyStrikey
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ntldr is missing
Aug 9th, 2012 at 7:04pm
 
Hi all.

I a Dell inspiron 1150 Laptop and use ghost 2003 in Windows XP Home on a 30gh hdd. It was partitioned 9755mb for OS and the rest for storage and ghost images. Yesterday while the machine was booting I picked it up to reposition it on a different desk and when I looked at the monitor it said something like cannot boot because...lahtdah. I then rebooted and again got this message... ntldr is missing. I then check it out with the hirens boot disk to find that somehow the drive letters had swapped over, i.e my "C" drive (OS) was now the "D" drive and visversa. I tried many things to fix but to no avail, so I  first used Hirens to copy all my images to and ext drive and then reformatted.... installed windows .... repatitioned again... copied my images back to the storage partition... and then finallay used ghost to restore. Ghost did the job well, but unfortunately I still get the "ntldr is missing" error on reboot. I been using ghost now for 9 years with very little problem, but this has me stumped. Anyone have any clues?

Thanks... mike
 

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NightOwl
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #1 - Aug 10th, 2012 at 2:12am
 
@
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Quote:
I tried many things to fix but to no avail, so I  first used Hirens to copy all my images to and ext drive and then reformatted.... installed windows .... repatitioned again...

So, you reformatted using what utility? 

*Installed windows*--I'm assuming you were able to boot to Windows--yes?

*Repartitioned* using WinXP Disk Manager? (Again, still booting to the newly installed Windows successfully without the error?)

Quote:
and then finallay used ghost to restore. Ghost did the job well, but unfortunately I still get the "ntldr is missing" error on reboot.

And, after restoring the OS from an image file which was made at some point before the above problem began, the error is back?

Quote:
got this message... ntldr is missing

Almost always that message shows up if the OS partition has somehow been changed from the *active* partition--or *boot.ini* has somehow been corrupted to point to the wrong partition.

Do you know the *active* status of the OS partition?

Do you know the status of the *boot.ini* file?
 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #2 - Aug 10th, 2012 at 3:33pm
 
Have you tried any of the solutions from any of the links at http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=1&gs_mss=Winxp%20drive%20letter...
 
 
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NightOwl
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #3 - Aug 16th, 2012 at 11:33pm
 
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I'm hearing crickets....any luck with your problem? 

We like to hear back if our advice helped at all.
 

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MikeyStrikey
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #4 - Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:38pm
 
Thanks NightOwl. Sorry for the long wait.

I formated and partitioned using the new Hirens boot disk, and was then able to install windows using the CD. I then was able to loose the ntldr error. Then I istalled ghost and created a new image of the newly installed windows Home. Then I tried to restore a recent image on my ext drive and succeded, but still the ntldr error returned. I thought it would, but hoped it wouldnt. I then gave up on restoring past images and took half a day off to install all drivers and programs, and then copied what data I needed from the old image using Ghost Explorer (Wow what a life saver that is).

I know it was the drive changes that caused it, but just dont know how that could happen. I do remember sometime before all this happened, seeing that my disks were displayed as "Disk 1 and Disk 2" instead of "Disk 0 and Disk 1" like it should have been. But now all is showing correct.

Anyway, thanks guys for the help.  guess I will just have to add that one to experience and forget trying to figure it out.

BTW... I have checked the option to be notified of replies.... but I got no notification of any reply...am I missing something?

Regardfs...mike

 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #5 - Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:57pm
 
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MikeyStrikey

MikeyStrikey wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:38pm:
I do remember sometime before all this happened, seeing that my disks were displayed as "Disk 1 and Disk 2" 


Where did you see that?
 
 
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #6 - Aug 19th, 2012 at 11:46pm
 
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MikeyStrikey

MikeyStrikey wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:38pm:
BTW... I have checked the option to be notified of replies.... but I got no notification of any reply...am I missing something?

I've seen others mention problems with the *notification* part of the forum software--have never figured out what exactly goes wrong.

It would have been interesting to run a couple diagnostic programs to see what the status of the active partition was and what the boot.ini file was pointing to.

Have you tested to see if you restore an image of the new setup--does it restore and boot okay?

You could possible attempt to restore your *old* image file to see if the problem re-occurs.  We could then see what those diagnostic tests reveal.

(I'm crossing my fingers that restoring the *new* image of the new setup would return you to where you are now!)

You might not want to take any chances--but if you had a spare HDD that you could put in temporarily, and keep you current *production* HDD safely set aside while testing--you could possibly trouble shoot and find out what was going wrong.  But not everyone has a spare HDD for their laptop handy.


 

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MikeyStrikey
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #7 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 8:33pm
 
Brian wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:57pm:
@
MikeyStrikey

MikeyStrikey wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 6:38pm:
I do remember sometime before all this happened, seeing that my disks were displayed as "Disk 1 and Disk 2" 


Where did you see that?

Not sure Brian. It mighjt even have been during the problem....but before the new format job. I think it was when I was messin with Boot disks and trying to delete patitions or such things concerning this problem. It might have been with PartMagic (on a boot disk) that showed these partions as 1 + 2. If you google "disk number changed" you will see I am not the only one this has happened.

Sorry if I messed up this post as I dont know how to quote or reply to individual posts.
 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #8 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 9:02pm
 
NightOwl wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 11:46pm:
Have you tested to see if you restore an image of the new setup--does it restore and boot okay?

No... I am a bit scared at this point as it may get the same error, and that would mean a new windows install again. I will do a bit more research on "repairing windows" to see if that might work. When I am fairly confident of sucess...i will do a ghost retore.NightOwl wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 11:46pm:
You could possible attempt to restore your *old* image file to see if the problem re-occurs.We could then see what those diagnostic tests reveal.(I'm crossing my fingers that restoring the *new* image of the new setup would return you to where you are now!)

Again...yes that would be a good test...but not confident just yet. I will bite the bullit in a week or two and ghost back to the new image, and if that works ok...then ghost back to the old image. Maybe the ntldr error is history now and because the disks are numbered correctly now, there wont be anymore problems. Maybe after a few more beers I might even try it today? Undecided

NightOwl wrote on Aug 19th, 2012 at 11:46pm:
You might not want to take any chances--but if you had a spare HDD that you could put in temporarily, and keep you current *production* HDD safely set aside while testing--you could possibly trouble shoot and find out what was going wrong.But not everyone has a spare HDD for their laptop handy.

As a matter of fact, I am just now considering a new SSD for this old laptop now that prices are way down now. Can get a 64gb ssd for only $58 now. Although that would work ok, I prefer to find a way to piggyback a storage drive as well. This could be a month or so away...then I will have some more options as you say NightOwl.

Looks like I am getting the hang of this quoting now. I also might try using a different email address on my profile and see if that helps notify me of your posts. For the time being tho...I am just popping in here ewvery coupla days.
 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #9 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 9:12pm
 
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MikeyStrikey

MikeyStrikey wrote on Aug 20th, 2012 at 9:02pm:
I am just now considering a new SSD for this old laptop now that prices are way down now


I bought one a month ago and I'm most impressed. Boot time is halved. Computer feels snappier. Apps load faster. Restores are faster. Imaging time seems much the same which is surprising.

The prices dropped just after I bought mine.

Edit... Do you leave your external HD plugged in all the time?
 
 
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #10 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 10:05pm
 
Brian wrote on Aug 20th, 2012 at 9:12pm:
Edit... Do you leave your external HD plugged in all the time? 


Brian... no mate. I only plug in EHDD when performing tasks. I use Free File Sync to sycronise my internal storage drive to my EHDD.

BTW ... if it is not edicate to use this forum, could you please email me with your SSD details and if you are satified?

Thanks... Mike
 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #11 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 10:27pm
 
Mike,

I used Shopbot to compare prices but I wanted an Intel 520 Series 120 GB SSD. My second choice would have been a Samsung 830. I was told to avoid OCZ as they have a reputation for developing problems.

I expect you have the original HD and you will notice a huge speed increase with a SSD. Get a SATA III SSD as even though your motherboard is SATA II you may as well get the latest technology and you may use the SSD later in another computer. I'm advised there is negligible subjective difference in speed between SATA II and SATA III motherboards. I have a SATA II motherboard.
 
 
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #12 - Aug 20th, 2012 at 11:10pm
 
Mike,

Does your Dell Inspiron 1150 Laptop have MediaDirect? If it does then there are things to do if you upgrade to a drive larger than 30 GB.
 
 
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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #13 - Aug 21st, 2012 at 1:52am
 
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MikeyStrikey

MikeyStrikey wrote on Aug 20th, 2012 at 8:33pm:
Not sure Brian. It mighjt even have been during the problem....but before the new format job. I think it was when I was messin with Boot disks and trying to delete patitions or such things concerning this problem. It might have been with PartMagic (on a boot disk) that showed these partions as 1 + 2. If you google "disk number changed" you will see I am not the only one this has happened.

Well, for the record, this *disk number changed* may be a red herring!  You need to make sure it's not just the program you are using--if you used more than one program.  Some are programmed to start disk numbering at *zero* and others at *one*.  So can not compare apples to oranges.

Now, if the numbering changed, and you were using only one program and saw that change in that program--then maybe it's significant.


 

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Re: ntldr is missing
Reply #14 - Aug 21st, 2012 at 3:12am
 
And you can only have 2 "Disks" if you have two HDs.

Is it possible you had the external HD connected when you saw the "ntldr is missing" message? Is so the BIOS tried to boot the external HD and found no ntldr.

My Dells don't boot into Windows at all if a non bootable USB device is plugged in.
 
 
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