NTLDR missing

My Hard Drive has been having problems.
I removed it and replaced it by another one.
I have restored an Image of my old Hard Drive on this new disk. (The new disk has replaced the old one - same IDE id).

Now Windows XP is not restarting : "NTLDR is missing".

Following Microsoft's instruction, I have replaced ntldr, ntdetect.com and rebuilt boot.ini (using bootcfg /rebuild). None of this has changed the problem : the new hard drive remains unbootable. (The image transfer seems to have been handled properly as the content of the HD seems to be OK.).

I need to be able to restart this system (without reinstalling it).

Acronis support recommended to try fixmbr. I did it and I still have the same problem.

Acronis support requested the report from "Report Utilities", it is in the attachment.

Support does not respons anymore so I turn the forum members for help ! ... Does anyone out there have any idea on how to boot this machine (without reinstalling Windows ! )

Thanks !

 

Hmm ... I am no expert on this, but your boot.ini looks ..... strange:

Code:

--- boot.ini file content: ---
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="WIN XP SP2"

The rdisk(1) indicates that your boot disk is attached as a Slave device on the Primary IDE controller??

Something else is confusing me:

Code:

--- Partition 2-1 content ---

--- Root dir content: ---
ATI <DIR>
AUTOEXEC.BAT 0
AVG7DB_F.DAT 52884174
Binaries <DIR>
boot.ini 157
Bootfont.bin 4952
Compiere2 <DIR>
CONFIG.SYS 0
Documents and Settings <DIR>
hiberfil.sys 1072472064
IO.SYS 0
MSDOS.SYS 0
MSOCache <DIR>
ntdetect.com 47564
ntldr 251712
OutlookMessageProxy.xml 5318
Program Files <DIR>
RECYCLER <DIR>
System Volume Information <DIR>
WINDOWS <DIR>

Now, I don't know the details about the report format, but I would have expected the listing to show the root-dir of partition no. 1, and not "--- Partition 2-1 content ---". But that could just be me misunderstanding the report format.

Now, if the boot.ini and the root-dir listing (where ntldr is shows) really is from some hidden partition no. 2, then where is the listing from partition no. 1? Is the partition empty? Is that why you get the error "NTLDR missing"??

The MBR and the partition boot loader looks good (as it should since you used fixmbr). I don't know exactly how it should look, but guessing from the embedded error messages, this looks like a perfectly good MBR:

Code:

MBR 1-*:
  Sector 0 (0 0 1)
    000  33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C  3ÀŽÐ¼.|ûP.P.ü¾.|
    010  BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04  ¿..PW¹å.ó¤Ë½¾.±.
    020  38 6E 00 7C 09 75 13 83 C5 10 E2 F4 CD 18 8B F5  8n.|.u.ƒÅ.âôÍ.‹õ
    030  83 C6 10 49 74 19 38 2C 74 F6 A0 B5 07 B4 07 8B  ƒÆ.It.8,tö*µ.´.‹
    040  F0 AC 3C 00 74 FC BB 07 00 B4 0E CD 10 EB F2 88  ð¬<.tü»..´.Í.ëòˆ
    050  4E 10 E8 46 00 73 2A FE 46 10 80 7E 04 0B 74 0B  N.èF.s*þF.€~..t.
    060  80 7E 04 0C 74 05 A0 B6 07 75 D2 80 46 02 06 83  €~..t.*¶.uÒ€F..ƒ
    070  46 08 06 83 56 0A 00 E8 21 00 73 05 A0 B6 07 EB  F..ƒV..è!.s.*¶.ë
    080  BC 81 3E FE 7D 55 AA 74 0B 80 7E 10 00 74 C8 A0  ¼>þ}Uªt.€~..tÈ*
    090  B7 07 EB A9 8B FC 1E 57 8B F5 CB BF 05 00 8A 56  ·.ë©‹ü.W‹õË¿..ŠV
    0A0  00 B4 08 CD 13 72 23 8A C1 24 3F 98 8A DE 8A FC  .´.Í.r#ŠÁ$?˜ŠÞŠü
    0B0  43 F7 E3 8B D1 86 D6 B1 06 D2 EE 42 F7 E2 39 56  C÷ã‹Ñ†Ö±.ÒîB÷â9V
    0C0  0A 77 23 72 05 39 46 08 73 1C B8 01 02 BB 00 7C  .w#r.9F.s.¸..».|
    0D0  8B 4E 02 8B 56 00 CD 13 73 51 4F 74 4E 32 E4 8A  ‹N.‹V.Í.sQOtN2äŠ
    0E0  56 00 CD 13 EB E4 8A 56 00 60 BB AA 55 B4 41 CD  V.Í.ëäŠV.`»ªU´AÍ
    0F0  13 72 36 81 FB 55 AA 75 30 F6 C1 01 74 2B 61 60  .r6ûUªu0öÁ.t+a`
    100  6A 00 6A 00 FF 76 0A FF 76 08 6A 00 68 00 7C 6A  j.j.ÿv.ÿv.j.h.|j
    110  01 6A 10 B4 42 8B F4 CD 13 61 61 73 0E 4F 74 0B  .j.´B‹ôÍ.aas.Ot.
    120  32 E4 8A 56 00 CD 13 EB D6 61 F9 C3 49 6E 76 61  2äŠV.Í.ëÖaùÃInva
    130  6C 69 64 20 70 61 72 74 69 74 69 6F 6E 20 74 61  lid partition ta
    140  62 6C 65 00 45 72 72 6F 72 20 6C 6F 61 64 69 6E  ble.Error loadin
    150  67 20 6F 70 65 72 61 74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74  g operating syst
    160  65 6D 00 4D 69 73 73 69 6E 67 20 6F 70 65 72 61  em.Missing opera
    170  74 69 6E 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6D 00 00 00 00 00  ting system.....
    1B0  00 00 00 00 00 2C 44 63 E4 B3 50 6C 00 00 80 01  .....,Dcä³Pl..€.
    1C0  01 00 07 FE FF FF 3F 00 00 00 82 37 F9 0D 00 00  ...þÿÿ?...‚7ù...
    1F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 AA  ..............Uª

Similarly, this one looks like a genui Windows NT/2K/XP partition loader (I am guessing here too - the error messages and the "NTFS" signature at the start is giving it all away):

Code:

Partition 1-1:
  Sector 63 (0 1 1)
    000  EB 52 90 4E 54 46 53 20 20 20 20 00 02 08 00 00  ëRNTFS    .....
    010  00 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 3F 00 FF 00 3F 00 00 00  .....ø..?.ÿ.?...
    020  00 00 00 00 80 00 80 00 80 37 F9 0D 00 00 00 00  ....€.€.€7ù.....
    030  BB 63 05 00 00 00 00 00 D8 A8 7B 00 00 00 00 00  »c......ب{.....
    040  F6 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 B4 CD 97 AC E3 97 AC 44  ö.......´Í—¬ã—¬D
    050  00 00 00 00 FA 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB B8 C0 07  ....ú3ÀŽÐ¼.|û¸À.
    060  8E D8 E8 16 00 B8 00 0D 8E C0 33 DB C6 06 0E 00  ŽØè..¸..ŽÀ3ÛÆ...
    070  10 E8 53 00 68 00 0D 68 6A 02 CB 8A 16 24 00 B4  .èS.h..hj.ËŠ.$.´
    080  08 CD 13 73 05 B9 FF FF 8A F1 66 0F B6 C6 40 66  .Í.s.¹ÿÿŠñf.¶Æ@f
    090  0F B6 D1 80 E2 3F F7 E2 86 CD C0 ED 06 41 66 0F  .¶Ñ€â?÷â†ÍÀí.Af.
    0A0  B7 C9 66 F7 E1 66 A3 20 00 C3 B4 41 BB AA 55 8A  ·Éf÷áf£ .ôA»ªUŠ
    0B0  16 24 00 CD 13 72 0F 81 FB 55 AA 75 09 F6 C1 01  .$.Í.r.ûUªu.öÁ.
    0C0  74 04 FE 06 14 00 C3 66 60 1E 06 66 A1 10 00 66  t.þ...Ãf`..f¡..f
    0D0  03 06 1C 00 66 3B 06 20 00 0F 82 3A 00 1E 66 6A  ....f;. ..‚:..fj
    0E0  00 66 50 06 53 66 68 10 00 01 00 80 3E 14 00 00  .fP.Sfh....€>...
    0F0  0F 85 0C 00 E8 B3 FF 80 3E 14 00 00 0F 84 61 00  .…..è³ÿ€>....„a.
    100  B4 42 8A 16 24 00 16 1F 8B F4 CD 13 66 58 5B 07  ´BŠ.$...‹ôÍ.fX[.
    110  66 58 66 58 1F EB 2D 66 33 D2 66 0F B7 0E 18 00  fXfX.ë-f3Òf.·...
    120  66 F7 F1 FE C2 8A CA 66 8B D0 66 C1 EA 10 F7 36  f÷ñþŠÊf‹ÐfÁê.÷6
    130  1A 00 86 D6 8A 16 24 00 8A E8 C0 E4 06 0A CC B8  ..†ÖŠ.$.ŠèÀä..̸
    140  01 02 CD 13 0F 82 19 00 8C C0 05 20 00 8E C0 66  ..Í..‚..ŒÀ. .ŽÀf
    150  FF 06 10 00 FF 0E 0E 00 0F 85 6F FF 07 1F 66 61  ÿ...ÿ....…oÿ..fa
    160  C3 A0 F8 01 E8 09 00 A0 FB 01 E8 03 00 FB EB FE  Ã*ø.è..*û.è..ûëþ
    170  B4 01 8B F0 AC 3C 00 74 09 B4 0E BB 07 00 CD 10  ´.‹ð¬<.t.´.»..Í.
    180  EB F2 C3 0D 0A 41 20 64 69 73 6B 20 72 65 61 64  ëòÃ..A disk read
    190  20 65 72 72 6F 72 20 6F 63 63 75 72 72 65 64 00   error occurred.
    1A0  0D 0A 4E 54 4C 44 52 20 69 73 20 6D 69 73 73 69  ..NTLDR is missi
    1B0  6E 67 00 0D 0A 4E 54 4C 44 52 20 69 73 20 63 6F  ng...NTLDR is co
    1C0  6D 70 72 65 73 73 65 64 00 0D 0A 50 72 65 73 73  mpressed...Press
    1D0  20 43 74 72 6C 2B 41 6C 74 2B 44 65 6C 20 74 6F   Ctrl+Alt+Del to
    1E0  20 72 65 73 74 61 72 74 0D 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00   restart........
    1F0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 83 A0 B3 C9 00 00 55 AA  ........ƒ*³É..Uª

But notice the heading: "Partition 1-1". And the root-listing was from "Partition 2-1"?? Shouldn't the loader, ntldr, and boot.ini belong to the same partition

And finally, this looks like the first bytes of ntldr:

Code:

Sector 64 (0 1 2)
    000  05 00 4E 00 54 00 4C 00 44 00 52 00 04 00 24 00  ..N.T.L.D.R...$.
    010  49 00 33 00 30 00 00 E0 00 00 00 30 00 00 00 00  I.3.0..à...0....
    050  00 00 00 00 00 00 EB 12 90 90 00 00 00 00 00 00  ......ë.......
    060  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 8C C8 8E D8 C1 E0  ..........ŒÈŽØÁà
    070  04 FA 8B E0 FB E8 03 FE 66 0F B7 06 0B 00 66 0F  .ú‹àûè.þf.·...f.
    080  B6 1E 0D 00 66 F7 E3 66 A3 4E 02 66 8B 0E 40 00  ¶...f÷ãf£N.f‹.@.
    090  80 F9 00 0F 8F 0E 00 F6 D9 66 B8 01 00 00 00 66  €ù....öÙf¸....f
    0A0  D3 E0 EB 08 90 66 A1 4E 02 66 F7 E1 66 A3 52 02  Óàë.f¡N.f÷áf£R.
    0B0  66 0F B7 1E 0B 00 66 33 D2 66 F7 F3 66 A3 56 02  f.·...f3Òf÷óf£V.
    0C0  E8 71 04 66 8B 0E 4A 02 66 89 0E 22 02 66 03 0E  èq.f‹.J.f‰.".f..

Same partition as the NT/2K/XP partition loader, and physically in the sectors right after the partition loader => The first file to written to the disk.

Edit: Look at the bottom of page 2 and all of page 3 of this article.
http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/315/13/3.html?Ad=1&

 

Hello MiniMax,

I'd love to be as much of a "non-expert" as you are ! Thanks for your reply.

Regarding the items that confuse you, my disk was indeed set up as slave (I corrected this and booted again with the disk as master, but I still get the same message... ).

see report2.txt now that the disk boots as master.

Thanks for your help.

 

I really am no expert, but I am pretty good at guessing

Okay, something is rotten on that disk:

Code:

Disk 1  Partition 1 of type 07 NTFS, HPFS and size 112G
  First physical sector:          63 (0 1 1)
  Last physical sector:    234436544 (14592 254 63)
  Total physical sectors:  234436482
Disk 1  Partition 1
  FS:                NTFS
  File system error: 3 (Read error)

Perhaps it is related to this which also looks strange:

Code:

Disk 1  MBR
  First physical sector:           0 (0 0 1)
  Table extended structure
    Extended boot sector:       0
    Extended hidden partitions: 00 Unused
                                00 Unused
                                00 Unused
                                00 Unused
    Extended boot disk:         0x00
    Extended patch flags:       FAT16(-) MS-DOS7+(-) FAT32(-) OS/2(-)
    Extended OS/2 patch:        0x00
    Extended checksum (0x59):   0x2C
    Extended size (14):         25412
    NT signature:               0x6C50B3E4
    Extended serial number:     0x0000
  i f    Start C   H  S      End C   H  S      Start       Size Type
  - - ---------- --- -- ---------- --- -- ---------- ---------- ----
  0 A          0   1  1       1023 254 63         63  234436482 07 NTFS, HPFS
    A          0   1  1       1023 254 63         63  234436482 07 NTFS, HPFS
    -          0   1  1      14592 254 63         63  234436482 

Time for more guesswork.

i = 0. Is this interface 0, the first disk?

f = A. This must be the Active flag. But why 2 active partitions? As they say in "The Highlander": There can be only One!

Start CHS = 0,1,1. Partition starts on Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1.

End CHS = 1023,254,63. That's like 1024 x 254 x 63 sectors á 512 bytes = 8 GB in that partition.

3rd entry (0,1,1) -> (14592,254,63) = 116 GB, but it starts at the same position as the 8 GB, overlapping/overwriting it

I will have a look at a report.txt from my system, and see if my guesswork is correct.

Update: Okay, I am not sure what is going on with those duplicated A-entries, but it appears to be normal, since I have 2 x A's too:

Code:

  i f    Start C   H  S      End C   H  S      Start       Size Type
  - - ---------- --- -- ---------- --- -- ---------- ---------- ----
  0 -          0   1  1         51 254 63         63     835317 1B Hidden FAT32
    -          0   1  1         51 254 63         63     835317 0B FAT32
    H          0   1  1         51 254 63         63     835317 
  - - ---------- --- -- ---------- --- -- ---------- ---------- ----
  1 A         52   0  1        101 254 63     835380     803250 0B FAT32
    A         52   0  1        101 254 63     835380     803250 0B FAT32
    -         52   0  1        101 254 63     835380     803250 
  - - ---------- --- -- ---------- --- -- ---------- ---------- ----
  2 -        102   0  1       1023 254 63    1638630  219608550 05 Extended
    -        102   0  1       1023 254 63    1638630  219608550 05 Extended
    -        102   0  1        102   0  1    1638630          1 
  - - ---------- --- -- ---------- --- -- ---------- ---------- ----
  3 -          0   0  0          0   0  0          0          0 00 Unused
    -          0   0  0          0   0  0          0          0 00 Unused

But what I don't have are overlapping partitions!

Going back to your report, I noticed this:

Code:

                     Speed IFace Hs-Bs-Tg Model                     
Num  NT    L9NO  Size FSsize Free FS     Type            Label       ABCHSV
---- ----- ---- ----- ----- ----- ------ --------------- ----------- ------
1-   d(?)        31G   16M                ST3120026A 3.06           
  -1  p(1) --C-  112G  112G    0b NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   ........... AEE--v

Compare this with the info for my 200 GB Maxtor:

Code:

                     Speed IFace Hs-Bs-Tg Model                     
Num  NT    L9N  Size  Free FS     Type            Label       ABCHSV
---- ----- --- ----- ----- ------ --------------- ----------- ------
1-   d(0)       190G   11M ATA   0-0-0    Maxtor 6Y200P0 YAR4       
  -1  p(1) C--  408M  407M FAT32  0B FAT32        FAT32       --CH-V
  -2  p(2) DCC  392M   50M FAT32  0B FAT32        PW95        A-C--V
  -3                       table  05 Extended                 ------
  -5  p(3) EDD    2G  1.1G FAT32  0B FAT32        DATA_FAT32  -WC--V
  -6  p(4) FEE  408M  407M FAT32  0B FAT32        WIN95_T     -WC--V
  -7  p(5) GFF  400M  399M FAT32  0B FAT32        WIN98_T     -WC--V
  -8  p(6) --G    2G  497M NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   SWAP_NTFS.. --C--V
  -9  p(7) --H   10G  3.2G NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   WINXP_P.... --C--V
 -10  p(8) --I   15G  849M NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   DATA_NTFS.. --C--V
 -11  p(9) ---   10G   10G Ext3   83 Linux native RH8_T...... --C--V
 -12 p(10) ---   20G   20G Reiser 83 Linux native ........... --C--V
 -13 p(11) H--  157M  5.7M FAT32  0B FAT32        PW95_030726 --CH-V
 -14 p(12) I--  400M  177M FAT32  0B FAT32        PW98_YYMMDD --CH-V
 -15 p(13) ---   10G  8.5G NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   cwxp_030726 --CH-V
 -16 p(14) --K    4G    4G NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   WINXP_T.... --C--V
 -17 p(15) --M   30G  7.4G NTFS   07 NTFS, HPFS   SPOOL...... --C--V
                 84G       free                               ------

In your report, we have d(?). I have d(0). That 0 must be the drive no.
An my report shows a nice 190 GB for d(0), while yours show 31 GB for d(?), yet it manages to squeeze in a 112 GB partititon in those 31 GB? (can I get a copy of that compression algorithm, pretty please?).

I would say, you need to 1) Reformat that 120 GB disk, 2) Restore the image, 3) Run a new report, 4) verify that it looks good.

Update 2:
Okay, maybe that d(?) is not a bad sign. Seems like the Reporter is not able to get that information from an external drive. Here is the entry for my external FireWire-attached hard disk:

Code:

2-   d(?)       234G   10M 1394  0-0-0    Maxtor OneTouch II 023g

 

Boot Windows XP install CD, at the start choose to boot into "Recovery Console"

Recovery console should see your XP install, you need to give the administrator password.

When at the WINNT prompt, use BOOTCFG. The disk will be searched for XP installations, and the boot.ini will be repaired.

Reboot, and enjoy using XP

 

Thanks Tony, but I had tried bootcfg with no luck...

MiniMax, I think I know where this 31GB 'partition' comes from : it is the size of the image I restored on the new disk.

In any case, your recommendation looks good : I'll reformat and re-install the image. (the verification process of Acronis should have noticed that something was so wrong... instead I got a nice message saying that everything was fine... )

One more question, would you recommend to restore the partition (31GB) or the whole disk ?

Thanks a lot for your help. I especially appreciate the precision of your answers, this makes the whole process almost enjoyable (my PC's dead, but at least I'm learning something !).

Alain

 

Worst case,

You could delete all existing partitions on your target disk, restore once again.

Then Run Windows XP setup, don't choose repair, but continue install (past F8...) - XP will hopefully see your Xp installation and offer to repair it.

There are several guides to this on the 'net, just google "Windows XP Repair install"

Repair installs keep all existing programs & data intact!

I've done this many times when porting installations from one type of HW to another (the only way to add mass storage drivers with F6 is at install) - Even Win2000 servers (with domains, AD, ...) came back to life.

 

If you want to be able to boot from the (restored) disk, you should restore the whole disk, not just the partition in question. Otherwise you are not gauranteed that the MBR (and all the little bits and pieces required for a Windows boot) will be on the destination disk. There are ways around this (fixmbr, fixboot, bootcfg, temporary Windows install, ...) but just restore the whole disk - it is much easier.

You are welcome

 

Hi Alainp,

Out of interest, when you restored you old disk to the new disk, did you have the new disk partitioned or was it all unallocated space?

 

The new disk was blank and reformatted completely. This might be the problem : I am trying to reformat now and my 120GB appears to Acronis TI "add new disk utility" as a 31GB drive (the size of my image...) .

Next step for me : low level format and restore image...

I'll let you know...

 

The mystery is partialy solved : the 32GB limit on my 120GB is due to the jumper settings, not to Acronis TI image: I just found out that I had to read Seagate's instructions backwards to get the proper jumper setting (!) - one jumper on the left is not "master" as I thought, but "limit disk to 32GB" !!!

Now I can reformat this disk properly... I hope that everything will work as it is supposed to from now on...

Alain

 

I'm probably telling you things you know. With Norton Ghost you must copy the old drive into unallocated space on the new HD. No partitions with drive letters should be present. I don't know whether it's the same with TI. Make sure you remove the old HD from your computer immediately after the copy process and before you boot the new HD.

 

Sorry, I'm talking about copying partitions from one HD to another. You are restoring an image to a new HD. My comments don't apply except for the removal of the old HD before booting.

 

Back to nothing !

- reformatted hard drive
- restored disk from TI image (full disk / not partition)
- restarted => NTLDR missing
- fixmbr + bootcfg /rebuild
=> NTLDR still missing ....
- Also I launched windows XP install CD, went to install and repair existing windows instance (as Tonio suggested)
=> NTLDR still missing ....

Attached is the Report. It does not show anymore the inconsistencies that MiniMax noticed (I think). But my problem is still there...

Any clues ?

8 days without PC, and still no feedback from Acronis Support
I thought I was buying myself some peace of mind when purchasing TI, it seems I only wasted time & money...

Alain

 

Your boot.ini is different again from the earlier one.

Here is my boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


I assume you only have one OS and it's on the first partition. If so you have nothing to lose by changing your boot.ini to match mine.

I assume you have read this

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

Edit the boot.ini as the first step.

 

I am with BrianK here - boot.ini is wrong.

Change default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
to default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

Edit: No, wait! Scratch that!

The second entry in the new boot.ini (added by bootcfg /rebuild, I assume) points to the correct partition:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Is that the boot entry you choose? Or more likely, the boot menu never shows, right?

Please try the fixboot command from the Windows Repair Console (link).

If that does not fix the problem, please try the instructions listed in that ComputerHope article about how to copy/expand a working ntldr from your Windows CD to the disk.

 

Run bootcfg /rebuild again. It looks like you ran it with the old disk still connected and later disconnected the disk. It appears that if you run it again, you'll be good to go.

 

That's what I don't understand : my old disk is long gone. The only disk attached is the new one (as master on primary ide). I ran bootcfg /rebuild before doing the report and it came out with

This seems weird as I would expect rdisk(0).

I have done the manipulation to copy NTLDR / NTDETECT.COM from windows disk earlier without success, but I will try it again now.

Thanks for your help !

Alain

 

Here's what I did.

- Boot with XP cd, go to Windows Repair
- Copy NTLDR & NTDETECT.COM from Windows cd
- fixboot
- rename boot.ini boot.ini.old
- bootcfg /rebuild
updated boot.ini :

- restarted =>

NTLDR missing.

I checked IDE connections again : Primary Master : 120GB hard drive , Secondary : 2 DVD Rom drives

I'm lost. My next test : delete boot.ini alltogether and see if I get another error message (I'm getting bored of the current one ;-) ...

Any ideas ?

 

This is a side question, am I blind or there is really no "edit" command in the Windows Repair Mode ?
How is one supposed to repair something without the ability to change it ! I'm managing now with copies from floppy disks but I can't believe this is the only way...

 

So much for this idea. As you guys would have probably guessed, deleting boot.ini did not even change my error message.

As you can guess from my previous post, I'm not so familiar with windows boot process, so please bear with me :

what's the difference between fixmbr, fixboot and bootcfg /rebuild ?
Does bootcfg /rebuild do anything besides updating the boot.ini file ?

Can someone point me to an explanation of the boot logic in Windows ?

My resolve to avoid a reinstallation of Windows is weakening... You guys think I have some chance of booting this stuff ? (The hard drive is OK, the image is OK, I even tested new IDE cables to be on the safe side...)

Alain

 

Did you by any chance run the Seagate tools disk when you were installing this drive?

Many people have (had) problems with the file hal.dll when installing on a fresh new harddisk. The proposed solutions do not
work in this case because there is a dynamic drive overlay (ddo) installed. The solution is quite simple: remove first the ddo (for
example with Seagate's DiscWizard: http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html) and re-image.

 

Hello beenthereb4,

unfortunately, before my second install, I did a full zero write with Seagate's Disc Wizard... Then a full disk format.

So I assume that I really started from a clean disk...

Alain

 

The only other thing (which MiniMax pointed out) is that your drive seems to be recognized as a slave. Are you sure that the jumpers are right now and it's connected to the end of the cable?

 

At your service: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=455974.

I used the information provided by Dan Goodell (thanks to Menorcaman for the link) here when I wrote that.

fixmbr : See item 4.
fixboot : See item 5.
bootcfg : See item 8.

No.

Yes - it *is* possible. As beenthereb4 points out, something strange is going on with that rdisk(1) stuff....

You could to 2 things:

1. Re-format the disk and install a clean WinXP. Don't bother with registration/activation, configuration, etc. A clean WinXP.
   
   Install the Acronis Report Tool, and make a report of the disk. That way we/you have a known, good listing of how a working disk should look like.
2. With a working disk, restore your system partition ( C: ). Just the partition, not the whole disk. That should keep the good MBR, and most of the partition table intact, perhaps even the partition loader(?). Try booting.