Re: Laptop HD upgrade, NTLDR is Missing!!

On 11 Dec, 17:23, "Pegasus \(MVP\)" <I....@xxxxxxx> wrote:
"Stephen" <srm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:ae64686c-a990-4c50-bd78-06be1ee73746@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





I have a Compaq Evo N600c laptop, with Windows 2000 Pro.

The existing 30GB HD gave me a scare the other day when the machine
started and wanted to scan the drive for errors. It had previously
shutdown normally. The scan showed 32K of bad sectors, so I thought it
time to replace it. The original drive was a Hitachi Travelstar, but I
could get an identical new one, so I got a Hitachi Travelstar 60GB
drive instead.

A sector-by-sector copy was taken using Ghost 8.5, and this was put
onto the new drive. When mounted in a USB casing the new drive
functions fine, and all the files in the new drive are accessible.
However the laptop will not boot from it.

I have tried running the Windows Console, and repairing the W2K
installation, I have tried copying NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from
the original drive. I have checked the BOOT.INI file, and can't spot
anything untoward there.

I have found various techniques on the net, that require the use of a
laptop drive which I don't have. So those techniques are not available
to me. As far as I can tell the Ghost copying process has copied the
NTLDR and NDETECT.COM files and yet it still says the file is missing.
I can only assume at this stage that the MBR and/or the BOOT.INI file
are pointing to the wrong place, but I am unsure how to verify whether
or not this is the case and how to correct them is they are wrong.

I have access to:

USB drive case, for 2.5" ATA drives.
The laptop, which has a DVD-ROM drive, but no floppy drive.
A PC, also with a DVD+/-RW drive, but no floppy drive.

What am I likely doing wrong?
How can I more fully diagnose what is actually happening?

Cheers

The boot sequence goes roughly like this:

1. The BIOS launches the code located in the MBR (Master Boot Record).
2. The MBR code invokes ntldr.
3. NTLDR processes boot.ini.

Since the error message reports "Missing ntldr", there is no point in
examining boot.ini.

I can think of two reasons why you might get this error message:
a) The MBR is incorrect. An easy way to fix it is to boot the
machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com),
then to run this command: fdisk /mbr.
b) The disk geometry (Cylinder/Head/Sector) is incorrect.
To fix this you would need to compare the old and the
new setting on a desktop PC because few laptop BIOSs
have a facility to adjust these parameters. You would
also need an adapter to connect your 2.5" disk to a
standard ribbon cable.

Until you get this problem resolved, you could probably boot
the machine with a Win2000 boot diskette or CD. Post again
if you need instructions on how to make one.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I have managed to get a hold of a floppy drive module for the laptop,
so that's a new option open to me if needs be.

Reading your reply makes sense. I have just run an "Ultimate Boot CD 4
Win", which has various drive tools on it. One of which stated that
there was a problem with the drive geometry, and went on further to
say that it was probably an incorrect figure for the number of heads.

How do I ascertain the correct geometry for the new drive? And what do
I need to change to make this work? The laptop BIOS has precious
little helpful options in it, and certainly nothing that looks useful
with regards to the hard drive.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: BIOS modification for headless unit
    ... You can place your MBR code that will toggle state of some RS-232 pin so you can see whether MBR was executed by BIOS. ... You can inject your code on the beginning of ntldr this way you will see if ntldr was loaded by PBR. ... You can make boot.ini that will load dos boot sector from file and boot to dos. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded)
  • Re: WinXP dual boot with w2k server
    ... I expect the system will prompt me to press any key to boot from CDROM, ... Both will write to the MBR, if there is a problem replacing a back'd ... That's why the best way to create dual boot XP & 2K is to install ... matter is ntldr, boot.ini and ntdtecet.com. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Booting to XP on a dual boot with linux problems..
    ... you might not be able to launch that from ntldr (it ... > might only boot if second drive was set as boot drive in BIOS). ... How do you get GRUB to start the ntldr? ... How do you stop XP from overwriting the MBR every time you start it? ...
    (alt.os.linux)
  • Re: WinXP dual boot with w2k server
    ... I have set the BIOS to boot from CDROM as the first priority. ... >> up copy of the MBR is just quicker if a problem is encounter'd. ... > If they are two physical drives the 2K install shouldn't touch the MBR ... > matter is ntldr, boot.ini and ntdtecet.com. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: computer wont boot now
    ... > in the MBR and was choosing betweenn debian and Windows 2000) and not even ... The first time I tried to boot Debian and got to ... I had put LILO in the MBR. ... Sorry to say this, especially since it's a laptop, but if it won't even ...
    (Debian-User)