DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
If you mean the "NTLDR missing" error, that can happen for a few reasons.
1. Sometimes the install just glitches, and a second try will work.
2. The drive's IDE cable isn't seated properly, or the Master/Slave jumpers on the drive are set incorrectly.
3. Your drive's geometry is incorrectly interpreted by the BIOS.
4. Your boot.ini file is misconfigured. Assuming a single partition on the Primary Master drive, the relevent boot.ini entries should be similar to:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
Note the "multi", "disk", "rdisk", and "partition" values; they should be as given above. If they aren't, you'll have to boot from a floppy or the install CD and edit the file.
5. The NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file is corrupt. You can try to fix this by booting into the rescue console from the CD. Locate the two file on the CD and copy them both to the root directory of your drive and reboot.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
OK, here's more info on the original error:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL%22+NTOSKRNL.EXE&btnG=Search
You might have a hardware or driver problem; check Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List (and search the web) to see if there are any known issues with your particular motherboard and system components.
As for the new drive, you might want to find a way to wipe the thing entirely; it sounds like problems are just getting compounded here. Since the CD-ROM approach doesn't seem to be getting you anywhere, a Win boot disk with the fdisk program on it, or putting the drive in another computer, are a couple of possibilities.
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370
Very cool; you're welcome.
A nightmare perhaps, but if copying the contents of the i386 folder allowed you to fix the problem, then life is good. :)
(Marking this as solved)
DMR
Wombat At Large
7,229 posts since Dec 2003
Reputation Points: 221
Solved Threads: 370