Member Avatar for harsha_123

Hello Everyone;

I was using my Toshiba Netbook lately & ended up having an NTLDR is missing error. I googled this & understood that it's my own fault causes this error.

  1. I've got my netbook 2 recovery disks with me.
  2. I've 8GB pen drive (no usb DVD rom)

WIth these I need to create a bootable flash driver. but the problem is I've 2 recovery disks. which makes it impossible to create a single iso file.

How to get these two image files together as one & create a bootable flash drive ?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by gerbil

Dani AI

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Quick summary: it is possible to put the contents of two recovery discs onto one USB, but you must preserve the disc that contains the actual boot files and create the USB with the correct filesystem/boot method. reported the “NTLDR is missing” error; that indicates a missing boot loader, so the key goal is to make sure the recovery environment’s boot files (see below) are present on the USB root and that the stick is made bootable.

Practical workflow (use a PC with a DVD drive):

  1. Make an image or copy the full contents of each recovery disc to separate folders on the hard drive (as @gerbil suggested, tools like ImgBurn can create ISOs if you prefer images).
  2. Inspect each folder for the boot files: older XP-style media will show NTLDR and boot.ini; Vista/7/8-style media will show bootmgr plus a \boot folder and a \sources\boot.wim. Whichever disc contains those boot files is your “boot disc.”
  3. Create one master folder: copy the boot-disc contents into it first, then copy the other disc’s contents into the same folder but do not overwrite the boot files when prompted. This preserves the boot environment while adding any extra files from disc two. If disc two contains a very large install.wim (>4 GB) that must be included, note the filesystem implications below.

Making the USB bootable:

  • Format the USB appropriately (FAT32 for UEFI compatibility; NTFS if you must include a >4GB WIM). Use a tool like Rufus or the Windows USB tool to write a single ISO, or use disk utilities to format/mark the partition active and then copy the master folder contents to the USB. If you produce a single combined ISO, tools such as UNetbootin/Rufus will write it to the stick — Rufus tends to be more reliable for Windows images.

Troubleshooting and cautions:

  • Some OEM recovery discs check for original media and may refuse to run from USB; keep the original discs until you confirm success.
  • If the stick won’t boot, double-check BIOS/UEFI boot order and legacy vs UEFI mode, confirm the boot files are in the USB root, and ensure the partition is marked active.
  • Test the USB on another machine before relying on it for repair.
Member Avatar for gerbil

Get imgburn. It's free. Build a recovery set of files from your two discs, then use Imgburn to create an image [an .iso file] from them on your hdd [Create image file from files/folders]. Default settings should work; extract boot files from one of the recovery discs. Creating a bootable image is not straightforward, is not a one-click operation, but the Imgburn helpfiles should steer you through it. There is no need to burn a cd, so no cost as you learn.
Get Unetbootin. It's free. Use that to load the iso onto your UFD.

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