missing NTDLR

Hi

just got this message today, I'm working on fixing it.

I have a question, how does this happen? can it be malware related?
Last time I used my laptop I didn't do anything unusual, I browsed sandboxed and EQS didn't alerted on anything...

BTW, I have an image taken with ATI11, but its over a week old so I'm using it only as last resource

 

Hopefully this advice will help (courtesy markymoo)

And another herel

If exchangeable with your laptop;
backup all your current data, including emails just in case the problem cant be resolved.
That way you can restore ATI,restore your data and you may be up to date.

 

Thanks hairycoo
I was already working with the first link, but i'll check the second one.

I could boot to windows, so I'll be able to backup, but now I'm getting a weird alert
It says:

"The system partition has different symbol from saved one. Please reinstall to fix it issue."

I dont know if that alert is legit or not... I "smell something fishy"... the spelling doesn't seems right... it also uses the returnil icon on the taskbar.
I googled the text of the alert and found no results

 

it seems some app record the system partition symbol, when you recovery the system, the symbol has changed.

BTW, the symbol often like this: \Device\HarddiskVolumeX. the ring0 driver often uses this symbol instead of C:\ to access files.

 

Hurst
Can you get into BIOS and check whether your C drive in fact is booting-otherwise change the boot sequence
Could the Returnil Virtual Partition have something to do with it?.

If you, in fact, can backup all your data why not just restore TI and reinstall any current apps and the data.

 

When I installed Returnil, I didn't install the virtual partition, so I don't think it's that.

I'm trying one last fix and if it doesn't work, I'll restore the image.

Anyways, what are the causes for this problem? I use XP since it came out and never had this before...

 

Normally,the reason is that the boot files are not on the active partition-but you say you can boot into Windows-strange.
Can you do a virus scan?
Have you a disk like GParted to correct-have you been in BIOS?
Check out Disk Management also

 

I wasn't in the BIOS before this happened. When it happened, the first thing I did was check the BIOS. Boot sequence is OK.
I found out that C: wasn't Active, so I made it active with disk management.

I reinstalled returnil and all is OK now. No more errors, booting normally.

But I'll backup the important files and will restore to an image tomorrow. Don't trust the current state of my pc.

 

Great-you should not need a restore
Sounds like it was trying to boot into Returnil,somehow or the other

 

Scanning with cureit, but it's late here, so i'll go to bed and see the results tomorrow.
Thanks for your help hairycoo!

 

I found out what was causing it (because it happened again).

It was MediaDirect (for those not familiar with dell computers, it's a bootable application for playing media without booting into the OS.
It also is a common problem with dell laptops. If you boot into mediadirect, somehow something gets corrupted.

Yesterday, before it happens again, while I thought all was finally OK, I opened partition magic and got a message about a corrupt partition or something like that (can't remember now).

Time to restore the image and if it happens again, a clean install