Tried everything i could think of. keep getting ntldr error. press cntrl alt del to restart. first i couldnt get the operating system installed because of this. it kept coming up with ntldr error once the hd was formated and was where you reboot on install. so i tried an old hd that had an os still on it and it booted fine. now i figure i will just install the os on the new hd using a different computer and just put the hd in after i get the os installed. well still getting the ntldr error. i dont get it. maybe i will try a repair using a different xp pro disk. any help would be greatly apprecieated.
When you format the new hd, do you remove all partitions and create one afresh? That could be the problem as i have seen this happen before
During the XP install, you will be given the chance to set up partitions on the drive. Blow them all out. Completely. Then recreate the partition and let XP install. I expect this will solve the nt loader issue. If, however, it does not, then use the recovery approach below to get the required loader files onto your boot partition.
copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
Can you confirm what the computer is trying to boot off of? Do you know how to get into the BIOS of your computer? Often it will prompt you on reboot with a message like "Press DEL to enter Setup." Do that. When your system reboots, go into the BIOS and see what is the 1st boot device. There should be a BOOT menu in your BIOS. Set the first boot device to the hard drive.
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i will try these out, what i dont get is this hd will boot right up in a different computer. also when i used a old hd with an os already on it it booted fine and its not partitioned.
these did not work, after i tried deleting old partition and creating new on install it still has ntldr missing and can not complete the install of os. then i tried that copying files in repair and still nothing.
I have the same/similar problem. Also running a Z-Pro 6221 w/XP SP3. I've disabled on-board SCSI and am using a WD 200GB IDE. Everything is running fine for a while, then the ntdlr problem crops up. Restoring drive from ghost backup solves it... until it happens again.
Wish I could narrow down a specific cause. Maybe when data exceeds some magic ceiling? I'd even settle for an easier repair option when it does happen, but chasing ntdlr is a red herring. Replacing from backup doesn't help. fixboot from XP repair doesn't help. fixmbr.exe doesn't help. Fdisk /mbr doesn't help. Why ghost restore works I've no idea.
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