Member Avatar for johnnybegoode

Installed new hard drive running xp, and keep getting "ntldr" message? Hard drive is 80 GB Maxtor 7200rpm t/m ultra ata/133 8mb cache. Old one crashed, Can anyone help i tried microsofts solution but will not work? What am i doing wrong? I followed instruction and ran cd provided.

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Dani AI

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Short, practical checklist for the "NTLDR is missing" boot stop after swapping a drive (addresses points already raised by and others).

First confirm the hardware/BIOS basics that commonly get missed when a PATA drive is replaced: power off, verify the Maxtor's jumper is set appropriately (Master or Cable‑Select per the sticker), and that the drive is on the primary IDE cable and at the cable end connector. Boot into BIOS and confirm the exact model shows as the primary disk (IDE channel set to Auto). If the BIOS does not list the drive, the OS repair steps below will not help until the hardware/cable/jumper problem is fixed.

If the drive is detected, repair the boot files using the Windows XP Recovery Console from the original XP CD. Boot the CD, press R for Recovery Console, pick the Windows installation number, then run these commands (the CD-ROM letter is commonly D: in Recovery Console — use dir d:\ to confirm):

fixboot c:
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild
chkdsk /r c:
copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Notes and cautions: 1) If bootcfg reports no installations, the Windows system folder may not be present on the drive (no completed install or wrong partition). 2) If the disk was cloned from the old drive, confirm the clone included the MBR and that the Windows partition is marked active — some cloning tools omit the MBR or leave the wrong partition inactive. 3) Avoid running fixmbr if a non‑Windows bootloader (GRUB, etc.) must be preserved.

If Recovery Console repairs don’t restore boot, perform a Repair Install of XP (Setup from CD, choose Repair when the installer detects the existing Windows). This preserves installed programs while rebuilding core boot files. This guidance expands on earlier suggestions by , and by focusing on the jumper/cable/BIOS verification and the exact Recovery Console sequence that most often resolves a fresh drive swap producing an NTLDR error.

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Member Avatar for johnnybegoode

huum no one has any idea??? With all the reading i have done in here I would think that i would have had 12 different solutions by now!

Member Avatar for caperjack

Installed new hard drive running xp, and keep getting "ntldr" message? Hard drive is 80 GB Maxtor 7200rpm t/m ultra ata/133 8mb cache. Old one crashed, Can anyone help i tried microsofts solution but will not work? What am i doing wrong? I followed instruction and ran cd provided.

Me slow learner !
what is the full ntldr message ,you are running XP is this a fresh install on the new drive .do you only have one HD drive in the computer

Member Avatar for johnnybegoode

Yes I have only the one hardrive and thank you for responding? I followed all instruction and I get a "Ntldr" is missing!
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Member Avatar for Dani

You get that error message if you have a non-bootable floopy in the floopy drive. Not quite sure when else you get it though. But check your floppy drive ;) or any other external drive (zip, floppy, etc.) that your PC may be trying to boot off of.

Member Avatar for johnnybegoode

Drive is fine! and boot order is fine???????

Member Avatar for caperjack

Drive is fine! and boot order is fine???????

if that is the case, then why do you think you are getting this error message ??? Will it then continue to load or dors it just stop !! i still think you need to rpaire or reload windows ,

Member Avatar for alc6379

if that is the case, then why do you think you are getting this error message ??? Will it then continue to load or dors it just stop !! i still think you need to rpaire or reload windows ,

Assuming nothing's wrong with your install (other than the boot sector being corrupted), a repair reinstallation of Windows is a feasible idea. I've had it work in several instances where NTLDR was missing or not found.

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