Hi to my great family at Daniweb !
I bought a cheap laptop to add to a network in my home. It is a Thinkpad 600. When I bought it, it had Windows 98 on it and it ran fine. But, me being a little experimental is the real problem ! I took a Windows XP install disc, which belonged to a desktop, and began to put XP on the laptop. I deleted the Windows 98 partition and then proceeded to install XP. There started popping up warnings that certain files couldn't be loaded and after the second warning, I stopped the install.....oooooops !
Now I have a big problem! When I turn the laptop on, all I get is " NTLDR is missing" " Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". When I restart, it does the same thing .
I made a boot disc, onto a cd, because this laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. The boot disc doesn't do anything either. I went into BIOS and made the cd drive boot first, then the hard drive. That doesn't help either. The drive is spinning like it is trying to read the disc but no results.
Any and all help to get this laptop working again will be vefry much appreciated !
It has 160mb of RAM, if that helps any.
Thanks !
Recommended Answers
Jump to PostMain reasons for "NTLDR is missing" are:
> Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
> Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
> Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
> Corrupted version of Windows XP.
> Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.You say you have …
Jump to Post"I don't have a Windows 98 CD, I was using a Windows XP CD"
Sorry I should have said XP!!! My Bad!
When you say "When I'm prompted to " PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD" , nothing happends" does it try to boot from the CD …
Jump to PostIt's still stuck on ..." Setup is loading files ( Kernel Debugger DLL)...
I'm gonna leave it like that till I get home from work. I don't know what to do with it now ! HelpOK - frustrating I bet!!
The usual culprit of the above, is an …
All 10 Replies
Main reasons for "NTLDR is missing" are:
> Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
> Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
> Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
> Corrupted version of Windows XP.
> Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.
You say you have a boot disk, but do you have a restore CD from the manufacture?
If the hard drive is ok, etc, you should be able to boot from a Win98 cd? In this case you would most likely have to repartition and then format :sad:
If your BIOS is set to boot from CD you should see "Press any key to boot from the CD"
Main reasons for "NTLDR is missing" are:
> Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
> Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
> Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
> Corrupted version of Windows XP.
> Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.You say you have a boot disk, but do you have a restore CD from the manufacture?
If the hard drive is ok, etc, you should be able to boot from a Win98 cd? In this case you would most likely have to repartition and then format :sad:
If your BIOS is set to boot from CD you should see "Press any key to boot from the CD"
I don't have a Windows 98 CD, I was using a Windows XP CD. When I'm prompted to " PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD" , nothing happends. I'm thinking on just buying a replacement hard drive off of Ebay, like $ 20.00. DO you think that would just be the easiest rout to take ?
"I don't have a Windows 98 CD, I was using a Windows XP CD"
Sorry I should have said XP!!! My Bad!
When you say "When I'm prompted to " PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD" , nothing happends" does it try to boot from the CD and then displays NTLDR is missing?
You could buy yourself a new drive, however you may experience the same issue.
Make sure the XP disk is clean and try another bootable CD if you can - This way you can eliminate the CD.
"I don't have a Windows 98 CD, I was using a Windows XP CD"
Sorry I should have said XP!!! My Bad!
When you say "When I'm prompted to " PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD" , nothing happends" does it try to boot from the CD and then displays NTLDR is missing?
You could buy yourself a new drive, however you may experience the same issue.
Make sure the XP disk is clean and try another bootable CD if you can - This way you can eliminate the CD.
Yes, when I tried booting from a recovery cd, it would say "NTLDR is missing".
I went to this website... http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm ,
and I did some of the things on it. I put the Windows recovery disc back in the laptop and it STARTED to load but, it run for a minute and is stuck on ..." Setup is loading files ( Kernel Debugger DLL)...
I'm gonna leave it on there till something happends, unless you have another suggestion.
It's still stuck on ..." Setup is loading files ( Kernel Debugger DLL)...
I'm gonna leave it like that till I get home from work. I don't know what to do with it now ! Help
It's still stuck on ..." Setup is loading files ( Kernel Debugger DLL)...
I'm gonna leave it like that till I get home from work. I don't know what to do with it now ! Help
OK - frustrating I bet!!
The usual culprit of the above, is an issue with physical memory e.g. the OR one memory stick is bad. However it can also be caused by a malfunctioning HD, an improperly configured disk controller.
If you have a third party driver disk, you might want to use this while installing XP.
What’s your system spec?
Oh, and make sure your BIOS is reset to default values and also remove any devices connected to the system such as USB/PS2, etc.
It might also worth obtaining a bootable cd online which checks hardware OR possibly reinstalling WIN98 as a temp measure which you could then use its built in features to check for hardware issues.
I did the things listed on the link above. I tried another install disk of Windows XP and it is loading in the computer fine and is almost done. I have nothing attached to the laptop.
I will update ya tomorrow. I just put in 12 hrs and I'm tired and going to bed. Thanks a bunch for working with me so far !!!!!!!
I did the things listed on the link above. I tried another install disk of Windows XP and it is loading in the computer fine and is almost done. I have nothing attached to the laptop.
I will update ya tomorrow. I just put in 12 hrs and I'm tired and going to bed. Thanks a bunch for working with me so far !!!!!!!
OK- Good to see things are finally progressing for ya!! :)
YES !!! The install disk is loaded and everything seems to be fine ! Thank you for all your great help ! This place rocks ! I hope one day to help you as you have helped me !
Thanks again !
YES !!! The install disk is loaded and everything seems to be fine ! Thank you for all your great help ! This place rocks ! I hope one day to help you as you have helped me !
Thanks again !
No prob - Happy computing! ;)
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