Re: When I upgrade a motherboard I sometimes get NTLDR is missing
From: R. C. White (RCWhite_at_msn.com)
Date: 05/11/04
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Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 14:26:22 -0500
Hi, Tristanguy.
If the new mobo is essentially the same as the old one, then you may get
lucky. But why "upgrade" unless the new one is better? Which usually means
a new chipset, including new IDE controllers and lots of other changes. A
new mobo/chipset/BIOS/CPU/RAM is very much like a heart/brain transplant for
a person.
When WinXP is installed, one of the first things that Setup does is detect
the hardware environment, then it customized WinXP as it installs it to fit
THAT environment. When a significant part of that environment changes - and
a new chipset certainly qualifies as significant - then Setup must be run
again to re-detect the hardware and re-customize WinXP to fit the new
configuration.
I'm NOT a tech of any kind, so I don't know which brands of chipset might
trigger the need for reconfiguring WinXP. But I've seen plenty of messages
in these newsgroups that lead me to believe that MOST motherboard UPGRADES
(as opposed to simply replacing a bad mobo with a similar good one) require
Setup to run again.
NTLDR is the key file that starts WinXP to loading. It must be in the
"system partition", which is usually the first primary partition on the
first physical drive the BIOS sees when the power is turned on. Many modern
BIOSes, though, allow us to set a different boot device. If the new mobo
has a different BIOS or the CMOS settings are different, or the hard drive
line-up is different or on a new IDE controller, then the computer may be
looking for NTLDR in the wrong place.
Based on reading thousands of posts in these newsgroups, my impression is
that very few computers will boot WinXP after a "simple" motherboard
upgrade.
RC
-- R. C. White, CPA San Marcos, TX rc@corridor.net Microsoft Windows MVP <Tristanguy1224@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:b7f801c4378b$3cf29850$a101280a@phx.gbl... >I am a PC tech so I upgrade a lot of motherboard however > everytime I do so on a system that has WindowsXP I cross > my fingers because I may boot up with an "TLDR is missing" > error or I may not I have found no major similarities in > cases where this had happened to be able to narrow it down > to perhaps a specific manufacturer or chipset. My question > is this WHY? why is it that the NTLDR can not be found > after installing a new motherboard and no other hardware
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