NTLDR missing in win2k

[raja72]

HI

I am running Windows 2000 Professional in my computer. Yesterday itwas working fine, this morning when i trun on my computer it is showing up NTLDR missing.

i restarted the computer with Windows 2000 CD-ROM tried to repair my OS. But i couldn't. So I reinstalled another copy of OS for time being by creating a temp folder called "Tempwin".

other damaged copy of operating system is in "Winnt" folderBut all my files and applications are in this side. I can see them but i am unable to access them.

Is there any way that i can fix my problem.

Any help would be a great help

Thanks in advance

Raja

 

[Elvandil]

You may have jumped the gun by installing another OS. The boot is messed up royally now.

Can you post your boot.ini (old one, too, if you can find it). It may be that that was the only problem.

Why can't you access the "other side"?

 

[raja72]

this is my boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\TEMPWIN
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\TEMPWIN="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

 

[Elvandil]

What happens if you choose the second one on boot? Where was that boot.ini located?

 

[raja72]

giving NTLDR missing error

 

[Elvandil]

Do you see copies of ntldr in the root directories of both the Tempwin and C:\? Where do you see copies?

Try creating a floppy with this program. Put the floppy in and try booting to your second choice.

http://www.svrops.com/svrops/downloads/zipfiles/xpprobt.exe

 

[jiml8]

something not right here.

ntldr has to be in the root of the boot volume. Installing a second copy of the OS would have reinstalled ntldr. The Boot.ini shows the same partition for both copies of the OS; only the OS home directory is changed.

Hence, if the first option boots, the second option cannot show a missing ntldr error, though it could certainly fail to start for other reasons.

 

[Elvandil]

something not right here.

ntldr has to be in the root of the boot volume. Installing a second copy of the OS would have reinstalled ntldr. The Boot.ini shows the same partition for both copies of the OS; only the OS home directory is changed.

Hence, if the first option boots, the second option cannot show a missing ntldr error, though it could certainly fail to start for other reasons.

Exactly. Obviously the boot files that would produce that error message can't be missing or corrupt. So that leaves us with the next step (if the floppy doesn't work, and I don't think it will).

Possibly a repair of the original OS may help if there is a registry problem leading to the error.
-------------------------------------------
raja72:
If you still can't boot to your second choice, you may want to rename that boot.ini to boot.ini.old and use a new one reading like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Then try checking system files or perform a repair installation. If that succeeds, you can simply delete the TEMPWIN folder. If not, you can use your old boot.ini to boot to your second installation again to at least recover files.

Look at this article, especially Method 3:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;318728

 

[rmlh]

something not right here.

ntldr has to be in the root of the boot volume. Installing a second copy of the OS would have reinstalled ntldr. The Boot.ini shows the same partition for both copies of the OS; only the OS home directory is changed.

Hence, if the first option boots, the second option cannot show a missing ntldr error, though it could certainly fail to start for other reasons.

This is not entirely correct. The NTLDR file could have simply been deleted by mistake etc.

All should just be able to obtain another copy of a NTLDR and this should work ok. I'm not a W2K expert, but if you re-install over the top, this should reload it. If you like, reply back and I'll find the MS source on how to reload it. I know from experience in WXP that you do a repair option in setup then this willl load it.

Kind Regards,
Richard Moore

 

[jiml8]

Exactly. Obviously the boot files that would produce that error message can't be missing or corrupt. So that leaves us with the next step (if the floppy doesn't work, and I don't think it will).

Floppy can't work.

Beyond that, OP gave an incorrect response when saying the ntldr not found error persists after loading the second OS.

There could certainly be a corrupted registry, or possibly a problem with ntoskrnl, or heavens only knows what else.

But not a missing ntldr. Lacking correct information on the specific error, diagnosis/recovery is problematic.

 

[Elvandil]

This is not entirely correct. The NTLDR file could have simply been deleted by mistake etc.

All should just be able to obtain another copy of a NTLDR and this should work ok. I'm not a W2K expert, but if you re-install over the top, this should reload it. If you like, reply back and I'll find the MS source on how to reload it. I know from experience in WXP that you do a repair option in setup then this willl load it.

Kind Regards,
Richard Moore

His point, a good one, is that ntldr must be present or there would be no boot to the second installation, either.

Generally, the error that ntldr is missing indicates other problems, and only rarely that it is really missing.

 

[Elvandil]

Floppy can't work.

Beyond that, OP gave an incorrect response when saying the ntldr not found error persists after loading the second OS.

That error may still be popping up. As you say, other files missing besides ntdetect.com can also give the error. I agree that ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini are not missing. That leaves only the folders that belong to the 2 separate installations.

raja72:
Just for fun, copy ntoskrnl.exe from the System32 directory in TEMPWIN to the System32 directory of WINNT and see what that does when trying to boot.

 

[jiml8]

Generally, the error that ntldr is missing indicates other problems, and only rarely that it is really missing.

Ummmm....

ntldr is the bootstrap loader that is invoked by the code in the master boot record. The error message "ntldr not found" is in fact stored in the MBR and can be viewed there.

It is ntldr that reads boot.ini and puts up the boot menu. ntldr then invokes ntdetect which detects hardware, then ntldr loads the registry from the appropriate directory and finally loads ntoskrnl and passes control to it.

The ntldr not found message will only come out of the MBR boot code, and then only when that code fails to locate ntldr.

 

[Elvandil]

Unfortunately, it has been my experience that the ntldr missing message is rarely correct and the file is rarely missing. Ntdetect.com missing produces the same message, as I'm sure other things do.

I still think that the OP is actually receiving that message and that it is not missing.

 

[jiml8]

Yes, I do believe a missing Ntdetect.com will produce that message as well. I have only ever seen it when the boot volume was incorrectly set, or when ntldr was genuinely missing.

I would bet on corrupted registry, hal.dll, lsass.exe, or ntoskrnl.exe. Given that the system gets to the boot menu, any situation involving any of the basic boot functions being missing or corrupted is not possible. Failures beyond the boot menu often result in hangs or halts, but I've never seen a ntldr not found message at that point; we are beyond the point where that could possibly be, or be relevant.