NTLDR is Missing

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My computer started to slow down(XP Pro OS) and now it will not even boot up giving me the NTLDR is Missing error. So I put my XP Pro installation disk in, went to Bios setup and told it to boot from the CD and I still get the NTLDR is missing. How can that be if I am booting from the CD?

Anyway, I can not do anything if the computer will not boot, can't even get into failsafe mode. Could it be my CPU or MB is bad? I have a ABIT AWD-9.

Update, I reconnected my other HD and was able to get it to boot but now I am getting this message:

"Unable to read USN Journal $] Data Stream". After that it continues to boot but just shows my desktop with no icons or taskbar and I can not do anything other than
shut it down manually. I also still can not get it to boot from the CD thinking that the cd player is bad now so I'm going to get one from another computer and swap it out.

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OK, I've swapped out 3 other optic drives and still can not boot from the CD and I know the cd is good because I tried it on my other computer so I have no idea what is going on.
What's worse is now the NTLDR is missing has returned!

[jimbouk]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=NTLDR+is+Missing should help...

[virtuo]

I'd honestly be considering a new computer around now - could be as little as your hard drive or CD ROM is on its way out, could be as terminal as your SATA controller/motherboard/RAM.

To remove any doubt, I'd disconnect *everything* but your CD ROM and gfx/monitor, 1 stick of RAM. Pull your CMOS battery for a few minutes and reconnect. Set your BIOS to boot from CD and try again - see if you can test another bootable (linux?) disc to ensure it's not that.

[Dashers]

It sounds like you have a corrupt hard-drive.

Try disconnecting the hard-disk and disabling all other boot devices, if anything it might give you an indication of the problem with the CD drive. It is connected internally via SATA/IDE or is it a USB one? Many older BIOS' have problem with booting USB.

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Thanks for the replies guys. I've been able to get the computer to boot up now but it will do a CHKDSK routine on one of my drives for consistency and the USN journal fails to read on it everytime but then it goes on and boots up into Windows. So it looks like I need to do some unplugging. I have two CD drives, one is IDE and the other is SATA but neither one will work to boot up. What it looks like happening is when I turn the box on you can see the CD drive light come on for about 20 seconds then it goes off, then it goes on to the HD to boot up. I'll work on it later today when I get home.

BTW, I do have a new computer, matter of fact I have 3 boxes and a laptop all with Windows 10. This box is 12yrs old but I have software on it that I use all the time that I can not install on Win 10 because they are incompatible. Not going to spend thousands of dollars to replace those programs.

I really do miss the days when upgrades to the OS was always backwards compatible.

Note: At first I thought it might be a PSU going bad so I checked it with my Antec PC Power Tester and all voltages are good. I was hoping that was the problem and just get a new PSU but alas, it's never that easy!

[Stringent]

How about getting a copy of VMWare workstation and running XP Pro in that for when you need it? Could download the trial and see if it works with the software you need.

[virtuo]

Thanks for the replies guys. I've been able to get the computer to boot up now but it will do a CHKDSK routine on one of my drives for consistency and the USN journal fails to read on it everytime but then it goes on and boots up into Windows. So it looks like I need to do some unplugging. I have two CD drives, one is IDE and the other is SATA but neither one will work to boot up. What it looks like happening is when I turn the box on you can see the CD drive light come on for about 20 seconds then it goes off, then it goes on to the HD to boot up. I'll work on it later today when I get home.

Thanks for the update - if it's IDE have you checked the jumpers are set correctly (Master/slave) and that the cables are all firmly plugged in and not damaged?

From the symptoms it does sound like its *trying* to boot from CD, but failing and falling back to the next boot devuce (HD). What happens if you try to boot from CD with no HD connected at all? Have you tried any other bootable optical media? Can you boot from USB?

I think Stringent's idea of virtualisation is a reasonable approach as well, gets rid of that old hardware if OS compatibility is your only limitation.

[Dashers]

Another supporter of virtualisation here. You can "P2V" with VMWare converter, and it'll convert your entire hard-disk image into a virtual machine. You can do everything for free with VMWare player (a lighter weight version of Workstation for personal use).

You can even pass through the hard-disk to a virtual image. Or even, dual-boot your system if you want to run an old-OS.

[smargh]

... or you just left an unbootable USB drive plugged in throughout all of this ...

Start with the easy stuff. Check HDDs (my easy go-to is SpeedFan at work, or Hard Disk Sentinel at home), check memory. Checking voltages also can point to an obvious PSU problem, but good results could still not rule out issues under load.

Also swap all SATA cables just to rule out those - they can, rarely, be poorly made.

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Thanks guys for those suggestions about the VMWare, if all else fails I could go that route. As far as jumpers go I'm sure they are right because that CD player has been working correctly for years. I do have one HD that seems to have some problems and I will disconnect it and see what happens. I'll also disconnect all HD's and see if that will make the CD boot. I'll let you all know what that brings up.

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OK, I'm having some problems getting this thing to do anything. I did unplug all the HD's and it would boot from the Sata CD but not the IDE so it may be a bad drive, I'll get one that I know is working and substitute it. It will not boot from a CD if any HD's are plugged in though. As far as the HD's go, I unplugged the one that was having issues and when booting back up got the NTLDR error back. So I plugged it back in and unplugged the other HD(not the OS HD) and it would still not boot from the CD but did through the HD. If I have all 3 HD's plugged in then it goes through the CKDisk routine but then will continue on and boot up into Windows. So something is going on that I'll have to do more testing to figure it out. Right now I'm stumped.

Here's something I wasn't expecting, the last time I rebooted it said it was installing 2 updates(windows) and not to shut off the computer. I didn't know MS was still updating XP?

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Finally got this box up and running smoothly again after find multiple problems. Instead of going through everything I found wrong I'll tell you what I did. First thing was to disconnect everything, HD's, CD/DVD, and any other peripheral devices. Once I did that it booted up into Windows with no problems, then I started adding devises one at a time until there was a problem. Unplugged and went on to the next until all were checked. Long story short, here's what I found wrong with the system.

1. Bad IDE Ribbon
2. Bad IDE CD/DVD player
3. One HD with bad sectors causing chkdisk every boot-up
4. 1 loose USB cable to front panel

I want to thank everyone who helped out with trying to figure out this thing.

[peterb]

Bad ide ribbon

Funny old thing but it is occasionally the passive components that cause the problems. Yet because they are 'passive' get overlooked. I've had problems with SATA connectors causing problems.

However, glad you sorted out the problem, and again shows that a methodical approach to fault finding lays dividends in the end.

[Dashers]

Glad you got it sorted, make sure you get yourself a good backup regime in place now you're running again.

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I do have and have had backup for this box for years so I wasn't worried about loosing anything but the computer itself with the software I have on it. I've really been thinking about taking one of my computers and rebuilding it and making it an XP box just in case this one does die which it will someday.

My question is if I built a new box and installed XP on it would I be able to activate it since MS is not supporting XP any more. I don't care about updates or anything, just want to be able to run the software I have for XP.