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NTLDR not found

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11 replies

by jesper

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Getting the dreaded NTLDR not found, CTRL-ALT-DEL to restart message on a Windows 2000 Professional box. Here is what I have tried so far.

Recovery Console:

chkdsk (no errors reported)
fixboot
fixmbr (reports that the boot record is corrupt or nonstandard, says it fixed it, but still the same problem)

Also tried a boot-disk. This option WORKS. I can boot from the floppy just fine, Windows 2000 Professional starts, and works just fine. I replaced the startup files on the hard drive with the ones from the bootdisk and tried again, still will not boot from the hard drive.

Since the machine was only SP2, I upgraded it, hoping that it would once again replace the boot files. Service Pack installed fine, but computer still gets the NTLDR message when booting from the hard drive.

I also ran the Emergency Repair process, with an ERD, though it was really late at night, and I don't remember exactly what happened, other than it made no difference whatsoever. :P

Anyone have any suggestions? The next thing I'm going to try is to ghost the system partition to another box, and see if it boots then. My guess is that the answer is no. Other than that, my next step would be to manually rebuild the system, which I want to avoid at any cost.

11 replies

by jantoluv

This is a os crash and you need to reinstall win2000 pro. Usually microsft comes with soolutions but this never works out good. Better to reinstall and do not forget to format in ntfs.

by d.walker5

Answer 1 is will solve the problem, but take a look at KB318728. Since you can boot from a floppy, one of these files is damaged. Ntldr, Ntdetect.com, Boot.ini, Ntbootdd.sys. Print the KB article, it will walk you through the steps to recover you machine.

by jesper

I have already read it, and replaced those files with those from the boot floppy. The error persists.

by joseph moore

Did you try upgrading the BIOS for the motherboard in this system to the latest BIOS version? That might help this out.

by pocono

The operating system is toast-answer 1 is correct..you will need to reinstall

by pocono

actually-i just re-read the problem...there wouldn't be a floppy in the a drive would there?

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