XP install from TI-8 image leaves "grub" then "ntldr" turns up missing

I used (v)8 TI image of an "old" laptop 6gb drive to re-install XP. The install works fine on a drive that has a couple of bad sectors. I dug into my parts box and got another 6gb laptop drive that had RH9 Linux and I knew it was good. I installed the XP image, but Grub came up when I booted it. OK, I ran fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0 and fixboot c:\ that was from booting a Dell XP Sp1 CD (this is a thinkpad, not a dell laptop). The "grub" no longer shows up but now I see "ntldr is missing". It aint missing. I even did a reinstall and all I see is "ntldr is missing". I put the drive into a 2.5" firewire adapter box for all the image restores. I can poke around, do a file compare, ntldr is there, it is byte for byte exact to d:\i386\ntldr same for ntdetect and boot.ini looks fine. Something from linux is left over Could linux have done something to the boot sector that the dell xp cd cannot undo? I have a couple of thinkpads all same P3 type, never had a problem like this before but then I never tried to replace linux with xp. something is going wrong. More detailed explaination of problem at microsoft forum

edited to remove tinyurl and use normal link tags - Detox

 

Hello BeemerBiker,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Please be aware that the GRUB boot loader persisting in the MBR of the destination hard drive should not affect the restored Windows installation functionality in any way. You need to fix the destination hard drive's MBR either by booting the computer from Windows installation CD and issuing the 'fixmbr' command in Recovery Console or using one of the methods described in Acronis Help Post in order to remove GRUB from the MBR completely. What concerns the "old" data located on the destination hard drive, it will be overwritten with the data contained in the restored image archive anyway.

As for the "NTLDR is missing" error message you receive upon the restored Windows installation startup, we recommend that you make sure that you restore the image of the entire hard drive rather than the image of a single system partition. If you have created the image of a single system partition then we recommend that you re-create the same partition layout on the destination disk as it was on the original hard drive (the sizes of partitions can in fact be different but the quantity should be the same). We also recommend that you restore your system to the partition of the same number it was originally residing on. Otherwise, you will need to make the appropriate changes to your boot.ini file. Please also take a look at the respective Microsoft Knowledge Base Article describing the reasons and possible resolutions for this problem.

If nothing of the above helps then please provide us with the following information:

- What exact version and build number of Acronis True Image do you use?

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window;

- Can you confirm that you restored the image to the exact same computer it was originally taken from?

- Does this computer's hardware configuration changed since this particular image was created?

- Can you confirm that this particular Windows installation worked fine when you restored it to a testing hard drive having some bas sectors?

- Did you try to restore the entire hard drive or a single system partition?

- Where do you store this image?

Please also create Acronis Report in the way described below:

- Download and run Acronis Report Utility;

- Select the "Create Bootable Floppy" option;

- Insert a blank floppy disk in the A: drive and proceed with creation of the bootable floppy;

- Boot the computer having the issue from this beforehand created diskette and wait for the report creation process to finish;

- Collect the report file from the floppy.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the report.txt file and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov