Member Avatar for csdbfloyd2

My old motherboard finally gave out and i replaced it with a different motherboard and CPU but i am using the same HDD. It has windows XP home edition on it. when i try to turn on my computer it takes me to boot in safe mode or normal mode, and keeps booting to this screen. well i have a copy of windows XP Pro i tried to install. i set my bios to boot from CD-ROM first and i keep getting NTLDR not found press ctrl+alt+del. is this because i have windows xp home edition on this?

thanks,
Dave

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by bobbyraw

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As swapped the motherboard/CPU but kept the same IDE disk, the “NTLDR not found” message usually points to either a missing/corrupt boot loader on the hard drive or the install media failing to load its boot code. NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM live in the root of the system partition and are used both by an existing XP install and by the XP setup process, so restoring those files or repairing the boot area generally clears this error.

When the XP CD will actually boot, run the Recovery Console and execute these commands (adjust the CD drive letter if it is not D:):

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

Brief notes: fixboot rewrites the partition boot sector, fixmbr repairs the master boot record, the two copy lines restore the loader files, and bootcfg /rebuild recreates boot.ini. An admin password will be required to enter Recovery Console.

If the XP disc will not boot at all, confirm the disc was burned as a bootable image (try it in another PC). If it is not bootable, reburn the ISO using the “burn image” option or create a bootable USB/WinPE environment. A rescue/live environment (WinPE/BartPE/Hiren’s or a Linux live USB) can be used to examine the HDD root, copy ntldr and ntdetect.com onto C:, and to set the partition boot flag if necessary. For newer motherboards that use SATA/AHCI/RAID, slipstreaming the correct storage drivers into the XP installer may be required.

Given the observations by and , these steps cover both missing boot files and non-booting media. Use fixmbr with care on multi-OS systems and back up important data before making partition or MBR changes.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

Hello and welcome to Daniweb,need a little more info ,you replaced the board,what type of harddrive is in the computer SATA or IDE ,

when you try booting to the winxp pro cd does it start to try and install winxp pro

Member Avatar for csdbfloyd2

THe hard drive i have is an IDE hard drive, and when i try to install Windows, it doesn't make it to the installation part it, it says Booting from CD: NTLDR not Found

NTLDR not found:
Press ctrl + alt + del.

When i turn the computer on, it runs through the screen showing what processor i have, memory, etc... then says the above.

Member Avatar for caperjack

for some reason its not detecting your hard drive as being install.open the case and make sure all power and data cables are secured into the hdd,unplug and plug them back in .also make sure the hdd jumpers are set correctly to master .does the hdd show in the bios .

Member Avatar for csdbfloyd2

Yes i checked the Bios and it does show it is there. i made sure the jumpers were set to master and i replaced the cables, unfortunately it is still doing it. i read somewhere that it is possible to burn the NTLDR file to a CD and run that before you run the windows XP CD not sure if that is true.

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

if u have xp already installed on the HDD.u also need to check jumper on the HDD. to run the new installation from the cd make sure the cd is set as first boot pref in bios. and most important, is the cd a bootable cd.

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