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NTDETECT failed.

By hadege ·
When I try to boot my laptop, the COMPAQ logo comes on, with the options to start up in different ways (f2,f12,etc). The logo disappears, black screen, then NTDETECT failed, and then it loops over and over again.
When I press f8 at startup, it gives the safe mode options, I click on one of those, then it goes to the next screen, with the system highlighted. I click ENTER, then next to the highlighted system, NTDETECT failed shows up again, and reboots over and over. When I hit F12 to start from windows XP CD it still displays NTDETECT failed and it starts to loop time and again again. Can someone help me with what to do to resolve this problem?

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One of two things

by robo_dev In reply to NTDETECT failed.

In general, this means that the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files are either missing from your hard drive or corrupt.

Also, the reason they are missing or corrupt could be that your hard drive is failing.

I would do a 'repair install' of XP, which should retain all your programs and data. This will replace any missing/damaged files, such as the NTLDR stuff.

How to do repair install:
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

You obviously want to make sure you backup all your data. It's possible that your hard drive is not long for this world, and nobody likes to lose all their data.

You could copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT files from a good system or from the XP install CD, but it's simpler to just do a repair.

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First

by Kenone In reply to NTDETECT failed.

remove all disks from all drives, CD,DVD,Floppy,Etc.
Go into the BIOS and set the first boot device to be the CD drive.
Put your XP CD in the drive and boot the machine, you'll have to hit the spacebar to boot from CD I believe.
Then follow the advice above. I think it's easier to just copy NTLDR and NTdetect.com to the root of C: but do whatever is easiest for you. This could also be caused by an incorrect Boot.ini file. I have seen it caused by a bad sector on the HDD too sometimes can be fixed by running chkdsk.

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Personally I would be testing the HDD first before proceeding any further

by OH Smeg In reply to NTDETECT failed.

You can get a copy of the Ultimate Boot here free

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

Just make sure to click on the ISO File not the add. Then burn that ISO image to a CD and set the BIOS as mentioned above to set the First Boot Device to Optical Drive and then using one of the provided HDD Testing Utilities on the Ultimate Boot CD test the HDD. Ideally you should use the Makers Testing Utility but if you have no idea who made the HDD use Seatools.

If the drive fails the test remove it fit it to another computer either as a slave or on a USB Adapter and retest. if it still fails the test the HDD is on it's way out so if you can access the Data on it Copy it off Now.

If it passes the second test the M'Board, HDD Adapter maybe if fitted in your Compaq has failed and you need to replace it as required.

It's just easier to first rule out Hardware failures before attempting to fix a corrupt software install.

Also if the HDD passes all tests test the RAM it could be faulty or there could be timing issues between different modules which has lead to corruption of Files on the HDD.

Col

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