NTLDR is missing

[curley]

I have a very clean machine...kept up to date, swept of viruses, spyware...last night I log off, then this morning, I have this error.

Keeps looping saying hit Ctl Alt Delete to continue...

Can someone help me get through this?

XP Professional - SP2

[curley]

I have through the most recent posts here too, and haven't found similar circumstance.

I haven't downloaded anything, nothing...everything was working perfectly. Then I turn on my machine this morning, and I get this error. I really need some help.

I am on my laptop now but need to get the desktop up and running.

Thanks for any help.

[rock]

Do you have an NTFS boot disk? Have you tried booting from a Windows CD and trying the fix that way?

[curley]

i have the recovery console up and it asks for my administrator password, and i didnt set one...but then i tried one that would be it, and that didnt work.

i have my dell resource disk which got me booted to the recovery console...then i have my upgrade disks for xp pro...it is an xp pro system...

this is weird since i have done nothing before this happened.

[curley]

i hit blank into the Type the Administrator password: and it brought me to a C:\WINDOWS> prompt...

[rock]

Getting to the recover console is a step in the right direction. You can try "fixboot" to see if that helps. If it doesn't, the next step is to replace the NTLDR file from the CD's i386 directory to the root of the C: drive.

[Z3R0C00L]

I got that error, but by the next reboot, it worked again. Weird stuff.

[curley]

can you inform me of how to do both? i would be most appreciative.

j

i am at the C:\WINDOWS prompt...and dont have access to a burner to pull files from net to from my laptop here to the ailing desktop...fyi.

[rock]

Since the CDROM is in the drive, you should be able to see it as D:. So just do a "copy D:\i386\ntldr c:\" from the prompt.

Reboot to the disk (not CD). If it worked, yipee. If not, get back to that console and type "fixboot" at the prompt.

[curley]

thanks rock...

be right back with one or both...hope it works too...brb

[curley]

i did it...it copied...then i rebooted after taking cd rom out...and i get

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hall.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

This is so strange...my pc is in excellent condition...

I hope you can assist.

[rock]

Unfortunately, this is all too indicative of a hard disk failure.

For piece of mind, the first thing to do is check all the cables inside the box. Make sure the drive cable hasn't worked itself loose.

The next thing I could recommend is replacing the corrupted files one by one from the CD as they're reported. This is very arduous, however.

Another option is to put in an old harddrive (disconnecting any there now) and install Windows. Put the failed drive back in as a slave and see if you can get anything off of it. Recover what you need, buy a new harddrive, do a fresh install on that, plug the old drive back in and copy over your archived stuff. And throw away the failed drive.

[curley]

its a new dell, from june or so of 2004....so you think its more a hard drive...i havent heard any persistent humming and such...

i may need to call dell...should i still do the second? fixboot?

[rock]

Yes, try fixboot if you haven't already. If it's that new, definitely call Dell.

[curley]

i am going to call dell...thanks for your assistance.