Q. My Win XP PC comes up with “Couldn’t find NTLDR” and won’t boot?

Your Windows XP or XP Pro machine cannot find a bootable drive to start from, or the NTLoader (NTLDR) software on your bootable drive is damaged. (for Windows Vista/7 go here)

The first step is to make sure you are booting from the drive you expect.  Unplug any USB drives or peripherals and eject any CDs and floppies. Shut off the machine and try again.  If you’re lucky, it will boot OK. If this keeps coming up, check your BIOS setup to make sure the boot order is set appropriately.  If a restart didn’t help, carry on…

Second step, turn the machine off and open it up if it is accessible. Unplug and replug all of the drive cables and PCI/PCI-e cards, put it back together, and try starting.  Still happening? Following are several methods to fix, starting with the easiest and getting more technical.

General troubleshooting hint: Always use a cabled keyboard and mouse for doing troubleshooting. Wireless devices don’t work until drivers are loaded — and the input you need to give the machine has to be done way before Windows loads the drivers. Similarly, if your machine is not responding to USB keyboard input, and it has round PS2 (green and purple) mouse and keyboard ports, find a PS2 keyboard and plug that in for doing troubleshooting.

Replace NTLDR and Ntdetect.com from CD

To enter the Recovery Console you need to boot from a Windows XP CD.

• Remove any USB flash drives or external hard drives
• Put the Windows CD in, restart the machine,
• Watch the screen for the prompt “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” and
• Press any key to boot from the Windows CD.
• Do not press any function keys while the software loads, you do not want to go into an Install
• When the Setup screen appears, press R to enter the Recovery Console
• Unless you have multiple Windows installs, on the next screen which asks which Windows Install you want to recover, type 1 and then Enter
• Enter your password when it prompts you for an administrator password, and hit Enter.  Unless additional security has been set up, this should be the Windows logon password for the primary user of the machine. (if you are stalled on the password, check out this software to reset).  If it doesn’t challenge you for a password, just hit Enter.
• Enter the commands: At the command prompt of the Recovery Console, you are going to type in two commands, type in the first line, and hit Enter after you have typed it, then type in the second line, and hit Enter. Be careful to spell these correctly, and include only two spaces in each command, once between Copy and D and once just before the c of c:\  These commands assume the defaults, that D: is the drive letter of your optical drive that the Windows CD is in, and that C: is the drive letter of your boot hard drive. If your machine is different, substitute the appropriate letters.
  copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\
  copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
• If it prompts you to overwrite existing files, reply by pressing Y
• Take out the Windows CD from your optical drive, type
  exit
  and hit Enter, and your machine will restart.
• If the missing NTLDR file was the problem, then it should start up as normal now.
  

Repair the boot.ini file

If your machine has a corrupted boot.ini file, it can cause similar symptoms.

• Follow the same instructions as above for booting from CD and entering the Recovery Console.
• At the Command Prompt, where the section above says Entering Commands, substitute this command:
  bootcfg /rebuild
  and hit Enter 
• You will get a prompt: Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All). Respond with Y  and hit Enter.
• You will get another prompt:  Enter Load Identifier
  It is asking for the name of your operating system. Depending on the version you have, type in Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition and hit Enter.
• You will get a third prompt Enter OS Load options
  Type in  /Fastdetect and hit Enter.
• Take out the Windows CD from your optical drive, type
  exit
  and hit Enter, and your machine will restart.
• If a bad boot.ini file was the problem, then it should start up as normal now.

Fix the Partition Boot Sector

If the Partition Boot sector has become corrupted by a virus or a crash, repairing it may solve the problem.

• Follow the same instructions as above for booting from CD and entering the Recovery Console.
• At the Command Prompt, where the section above says Entering Commands, substitute this command:
  fixboot
  and hit Enter 
• Take out the Windows CD from your optical drive, type
  exit
  and hit Enter, and your machine will restart.

Do a Repair Installation of Windows

A Repair Installation of Windows XP will replace all Windows files on your drive without altering your data or programs (although it is prudent to have your data backed up if possible before doing any repairs).  To do the Startup Repair you need to boot from a full Windows XP or XP Pro CD, and you will want your 25 digit authorization key that goes with this installation CD on hand.

Note – If you can’t find the authorization key, and you do have a licensed and authorized version of Windows XP installed, try this procedure before you start repairs.

Note – if all you have are the Restore disks from the computer’s manufacturer, you may not be able to do a Repair Installation depending how the disks are configured. You do NOT want to do a Restore or Factory Reset, Reinstall or Clean install

• Remove any USB flash drives or external hard drives
• Put the Windows CD in, restart the machine,
• Watch the screen for the prompt “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD” and
• Press a key to boot from the Windows CD.
• You may get a prompt Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver…If you are installing from a Service Pack 2 or 3 Windows XP CD (SP2 or SP3) then you don’t have to do anything.
  • However if you have a custom hard drive set up, or are booting from an original version 1 of XP and have a SATA hard drive, then you may have to hit F6 and configure the options. Consult the information from the hard drive manufacturer or RAID manufacturer for XP SP1 instructions,
• After it has booted, you will see the Setup screen. Press Enter to Setup XP Now
• Scroll down and Press F8 to OK the license agreement
• Unless you have multiple systems, it should come up with one Windows installation in the next selection screen, click R to Repair the Selected XP installation
• Wait while the installer deletes Windows files and writes replacement files to the drive. Don’t do anything until you are prompted for Language selection
• Make any changes needed to the language and region, and click Next
• When prompted to choose a workgroup or domain, if this is a home computer and not part of a corporate network, choose No this computer is not on a network or it is on a network without a domain. If it is on a corporate network, choose Domain and enter the domain information particular to your business setup. If you don’t know, then stop at this point and ask your business’s technical resources.
  Click Next
• Wait for the installer to complete installation and reboot your machine and Wait for the start up to load updated files.  
• If you see the registration screen, you can skip the Microsoft Registration by choosing No Not at this time, and pressing Next
• Enter the name of one or more users that will be using this machine. You can enter additional users later through the Control Panel if you wish. Click Next
• Click Finish
• As soon as the machine is booted, you will want to do the Windows Update to download and install all of the patches, Security fixes and Hotfixes that Microsoft has released since the CD was printed. This is essential for security. It can take some time (up to several hours) and several restarts for the Update procedure to finish.

Hardware:

Finally, keep in mind that a software error may be a result of a hardware failure.  What looks like a Windows issue may be a dead or dying hard drive, bad data cables, a motherboard failure or failing RAM.  Testing the hardware should be part of your diagnostic efforts. Intermittent hardware failures are the troubleshooter’s nightmare, if they appear at random or only in certain circumstances. Heat is the culprit sometimes, make sure that the fans and cooling systems of the machine are functional, and that the vents are clean and free from obstructions.

Sometimes, a Windows problem is un-solveable and can consume an inordinate amount of time. At that point, cutting your losses and installing a new hard drive with a fresh install of Windows may be the lowest cost solution.

Resources:

Windows XP NTLDR is missing: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/a/ntldrmissingxp.htm

Restoring NTLDR from CD: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/ntldrntdetect.htm

Repair Boot.INI: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/repairbootini.htm

Windows XP NTDLL.DLL errors: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/a/ntdlldll.htm