You fixed my computer -- almost

I read this letter this morning:

Hi, Miles:

I used your method for the "NTLDR is missing" problem. It worked great. But to boot up normally now I always need to have the USB key and select the second option -- every time. That's not really fixing the problem, is it?

First of all, thanks for the feedback, I always enjoy getting to hear that another person was helped, and that the USB key thing works (since I get so many emails and calls when people can't get it to work).

Secondly, feel free to thank me, or donate: http://milescomer.com

Jumpers set incorrectly

A Portuguese reader contributed this:

Acho q resolvi o problema do ntldr, experimenta por o hdd como master e o dvd em slave (tinha ao contrário) depois o winxp instalou normalmente..

Which http://translate.google.com/ said means:

Guess I solved the problem of ntldr, try a hdd as master and slave on dvd (it had the opposite) after winxp installed normally ..

I'm glad he got it working. If you are building a computer and are using "Parallel" hard drives, you will need to read up on how to properly set your "jumpers".

These links should help you get started:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_ATA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumper_(computing)

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=building+your+first+computer

I want help - But I cannot email you

If you can't email me and need an answer that you can't find in this blog. Please leave a comment to this post.

Create the bootable CD on someone elses computer

*I got the email from someone whose computer could not burn the CD on their computer, but the floppy and usb solution wouldn't work for them, so my solution was to just find someone else's computer.
*I want to draw attention to this since this come up in technical support circles sometimes. If a certain "thing" works on someone else's computer, but not your computer, there are 3 basic possiblities:
1. Your software configuration is different: Backup, format, reinstall -or- backup, format, install like they have.
2. Your hardware configuration -or- hardware failure: Replace the hardware.
3. A special mix of how your hardware differs from their hardware, extending from network cards to where your computer is in relation to interference, to where you live in the country, to certain hardware not supporting certain specifications.
*The answer to #3? Voodoo. Or at least that's what it will seem like the first 100 things you try randomly that seem to have no effect, and then 101 magically fixes everything. If you run into this situation, your best bet is to try a 3rd party, see if it works for them, then try and eliminate as many variables as possible.
*Anyway, I'm digressing, I got this email on February 20th:
PLEASE help me…I’ve tried the downloads, I’ve looked inside to make sure everything is connected, I don’t have a disc to boot up with and I am utterly desperate…. I just need to get this thing up long enough to back up some files.

Basically – I think I was able burn the ISO image on to a disk but I’m not sure….are there any other options besides that image? I’m working from my work laptop and so therefore cannot download the ISO recorder. But everytime I load the cd into my laptop and look at the properties of the file it does list it as an MS ISO Image.

My computer is ancient so I think that it doesn’t recognize the USB when I put it in or I can’t figure out what the name of it is to change the booting up sequence.

Finally – If I have the Windows XP CD – its none of the ones I put into the CD-ROM because that did not have any effect.

Please…..I’m desperate….do you have any solutions that aren’t going to cost me $300????

*I responded with this later that day:
You best and cheapest bet is to find a computer that can burn the ISO
image onto the disc uncompressed. (IE: find a computer that you can
install iso recorder to). Its possible you can ask your company IT to
do it for you in exchange for a soda (at least that's what I do).

After burning the ISO image onto a cd, it should actually display as
several files, and the properties should not say ISO.

I sympathise with this being difficult, unfortunately it must be an
ISO so that it can make the CD bootable.

You don't have to respond: but what lead up to this?

*I got this reply later that day:
Thank you sooo much for getting back to me. I actually thought of seeing if the IT folks will help.

I didn't really do anything new. The last real update was when I had it updated to Windows XP but that was over 4 months ago so I don't know.

Thanks again....I'll let you know if it gets fixed.

Using USB device but still getting NTLDR is missing

*I've decided from now on that I'm going to have the emails I get be in "Emphasis" or "Italics" and my responses will be normal.
*I got this email 9 hours ago from a person that the USB boot device wasn't working for them:
Hi Miles,

I recently got directed to your site from LockerGnomes site in relation to NTLDR is Missing error that I get on boot up of my Acer Aspire laptop(thhis is due to me being an idiot and installing a registry cleaner and using it, altough I haven't deleted the files entirely, they are still in the recycle bin!)
I have tried using your advice to creat a copy from the link onto a usb disc(AS MY CD DRIVE IS NOT WORKING!), however I don't get to see a Windows 98 logo as suggested and it still reverts to the NTLDR is Missing message.
Do you have any other advice for me, it seems that my LAN connection is active when I plug it into my main computers wireless-g broadband router, if this may offer an option??

Many thanks

*I just sent this response:
Tell the gnome I said hi.

First check the section about "what if i don't see this screen": http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm#What_if_I_don't_see_this_screen?

While you are in the BIOS boot order menu, look for anything like "removable device" or "usb floppy" and put that before the hard drive in the boot order. If you don't see any reference to usb, it's possible your BIOS may not support usb booting. If we can't boot off usb, we'll either have to repair the cd-rom drive, or pull the hard drive out of the computer, and copy the files it needs to it, and put it back into the computer. (while it's out, do a backup).

It's also possible the USB boot device isn't working propertly. Try booting a different computer (for sake of simplicity, try to find a Windows XP computer with a single hard drive).

No OS and getting error

*From a jaxtr text message:
hey yo, i just fiinshed trying your ntldr missing solutions, no luck. but the thing is that i dont have any os installed what im trying to do is install an os on my HD(2partisions)

*I responded 13 hours ago with:
Yeah I get people saying that occasionally. I almost think it's a
hardware failure of like the hard drive.

I'd suggest backing up the data, and using Windows XP's setup to
delete all the partitions and then recreate them from there.

*And then again just now with:
That or a misconfiguration in your BIOS. I wonder if you couldn't try
and double check the settings for what is boot priority and which hard
drives it's set to boot from.

Cannot get cd-rom/usb to boot, what next?

*Got an email 2 days ago, went back and forth with the person, but never able to get it booting, so I eventually had to recommend "major surgery", removing the drive to backup the data since we couldn't get into the computer, even with other boot discs:

Hello Miles,

I have found your information very useful if I can only get to that stage.
I'm hoping your expertise can help me if you would be so kind.

This is the senerio:

error message, "NTLDR is missing"
press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

go to set up utiliy, boot utility then:

(pick one)

hard drive
removable devices - this is the one I want!
cd-rom drive
realtek boot agent

I pick removable devices, cd-rom drive or realtek boot agent and the machine DEFAULTS to the hard drive each and everytime no matter what I do!

Note: yes I went to set-up scrolled down to removable devices, cd-rom drive, realtek boot agent then F10 to save and it defaults back to hard drive - it is NOT reading for the above locations

Now I have my sons laptop so I took his recovery disk and tried it again (I know it will not work as a recovery source) just to see if the recovery disk I have on order will work.....well guess what...it DEFAULTS back to hard drive - again, each and everytime no matter what I do.

How can this be overcome?

Thanks Miles,

*I then responded:
In your BIOS, I think you will want to have that "removable devices" appear above the hard disk. This is not always obvious how to do so you'll have to check around the screen that surrounds the hard drive/removable device/cd-rom.

Look for "Press U/D to move up/down" or "Press +/- to change the order" or something similar.

*They wrote back:
Hey Miles,

Thanks a million for getting back to me!
I did what you instructed and placed removable devices on TOP.
However, it make no difference in the boot.
Still boots hard drive but removable devices are highlighted.
What the heck could it be?

Thanks again,

*I responded:
I'd say try moving the cd-rom to top, and making that and booting.
http://ntldrismissing.com

*He responded:
Even with CD-ROM on top still booting from the hard drive.
It continues to default to hard drive no matter what I do.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

*I then had him chase down this rabbit hole of "was the disc made correctly" since that so often is the problem:
Well the next thing to look at usually is to make sure that the boot
"disk" is created successfully.

With the CD in the drive of a working computer, when you open it under
"My Computer" do you see files like 'ntldr', 'boot.ini',
'ntdetect.com'?

If you just see the one file named "fixntldr.iso" then we need to have
the CD remade.

The easiest way to remake that CD is to download the "ISO recorder"
program I mention. Once done you can just right click the ISO file
and choose an option like "Write contents to CD".

ISO Recorder:
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

My ntldr website:
http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

*He responded:

Sorry to keep bothering you but both my (your diskette and CD-ROM) are correct.
Both are working but NOT booting. Neither is the Toshiba Recovery/Driver CD which should.
Not sure what the problem is.

*So I had to now recommend major surgery:
Is it possible to just "turn off" booting from the hard drive? And
thus "force" it to boot from the cd-rom/removalbe drive?

If you have a CD that's a "known good" bootable CD, and it's not booting either.
And if the BIOS is correctly set to boot from the CD first.
There must be something wrong with the CD-Rom drive. It's possible
it's just failed and not reading the CD's anymore.

Of course I guess we'd have to then say the same thing about the
removable drive. But it's not nearly as bulletproof as the floppy and
cd-rom are.

If we can't use something from outside the computer to boot it, and it
won't boot by itself, the next step will likely be to remove the hard
drive, and backup the data. You could then either just get a
replacement drive and keep the old one for backup/storage, or backup
the data, then reformat /reinstall.