Re: NTLDR File is missing Msg upon Windows startup

Hello thecreator,

I apologize about taking a two week hiatus before tackling these PC issues.
I have good news. After clearing the CMOS bios and using only one connected
hard drive, I re-installed XP using the regular format & not quick format. I
now have a working system. I was able to re-connect what was originally the
primary HD, but is now the 'E' drive. The CD-ROM is the 'D" drive. If you
remember, the current 'E' drive
was the drive originally reporting the 'NTLDR file missing' messages. After
doing a quick search on boot.ini, XP could not find it(I probably need to
click the option which allows me to show hidden files). I will retrieve the
output of the defective drive's boot.ini & display them to you. At this point
I am thinking of trying to copy the boot.ini from the working 'C' drive to
the 'E' drive, swapping the cables between 'C' & 'E' & going for broke.
Otherwise you can expect the output from the bad boot.ini

Regards,
CF

"CF" wrote:

Hello thecreator,

Thanks very much for helping. As it turns out, this motherboard by Soyo has
2 internal controllers, so each HD can be master in its respective
controller, but controller 2 can never own the "C" drive. When I installed XP
on the "D" drive, it gave messages that it successfully installed but I never
got past the "Verifying DMI Pool data" message followed by YoYo(unreadable)
machine language. So I will disconnect the good drive, connect the 2nd drive
to primary controller, & reinstall XP on the drive, but this time the 2nd
drive will be the "C" drive when I do the install. Even before I install, I
will disconnect primary HD & make secondary HD "C" drive & reboot, I may get
lucky. I could sure use some luck just about now, But at least I have a plan,
I will keep you posted, I will be working on this throughout weekend, so you
can lookout for updates from me during weekend.
Regards,

CF

"thecreator" wrote:

Hi CF,

I found this link on the Web: http://www.duxcw.com/faq/computer/dmi.html

Remove all CDs from the CD Drives and see what happens.

Also Clear Computer BIOS, by following the motherboard's manufacturer's
procedure for resetting the Computer BIOS and see what happens.

You will need to manually readjust the settings you were using to boot
to a specific Hard Drive.


--
thecreator

"CF" <CF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BD664DA6-9404-4642-B88E-45A64CBA8FF1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello the creator,

I am really at a loss here, running into more unexpected complications.
After re-installing XP on the spare HD, Windows will still not boot up. I
get
"Verifying DMI Pool data" message followed by "type any key to boot from
CD".
Normally I don't type anything at that point so Windows will boot up from
HD
after CD installation. But instead, I get "YoYo"(this is the unreadable
stuff
I mentioned previously). Also
different parts of the ROMBIOS screen change color. The last time I
experienced this I wrote the HD off, obtained another HD & installed XP,
which brings me to my present situation. So the only option I have is the
following:
Take the good HD out of the machine & put it into another machine, copy
the
data I want to keep & open the boot.ini file so I can forward to you for
review.

If the boot.ini is repairable, I will do the necessary changes, put HD
back
in problem machine & try to reboot. By the way, I am also getting the
"YoYo"
phenomenon when I try to boot from good HD. If booting from good HD still
fails, I will format & install XP & hope for the best(since I copied the
data
from this HD into another machine). I think I am on the verge of getting
rid
of this machine(at least the motherboard which gave me at least 7 years).

Any Thoughts?
Regards,
CF

"CF" wrote:

Hi thecreator,
Thanks for the input. I will install Windows on the 2nd HD. Once
re-installed, I will be able to access the main HD. I will also retrive
the
contents of the main HD's Boot.ini & pass it along to you for further
assistance. Stay tuned,
Regards,
CF

"thecreator" wrote:

Hi CF,

Thanks for getting back to me.

One way to dual-boot is to use Rombios to select the Hard Drive to
boot
to. Another way, is to use BootIt NG program, that you can buy or use
for 30
days, then uninstall and reinstall the program.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm

and download from:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

If you have access to another operating system on the same
computer,
then use Explore to access the C:\ partition on that problem Hard Drive
and
edit Boot.ini . Sometimes Boot.ini gets changed and points to a
different
partition, resulting in missing files error.

Also for Automatic Updates to work, the following must be set
correctly
in Services:
Automatic Updates Set to Automatic
Background Intelligent Transfer Service Set to Automatic
or Manual
Event Log Set to Automatic

--
thecreator



"CF" <CF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BE10F66D-A01C-42D6-B4C9-71BDB633218E@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello thecreator,

I am using Drive C: and there is no dual reboot. Although I have 2
HD's,
I
have to go into rombios to choose which HD to boot from. The reason I
have
2
HD's is because I thought the first HD was bad, resulting in the
acquisition
of a 2nd HD.
I also tried some more commands last night with no success(mbscan,
mblist,
mbrebuild) I could be saying them incorrectly but you get the idea. I
also
confirmed my windows XP Pro CD is inclusive of SP2. Each time Windows
is
installed, I always turn on automatic updates. Apparently no one
seems to
be
buying into my theory
of bad memory as the cause. I will replace the memory before any
further
attempts
at this machine, so there is time & I am open to suggestions. At this
point,
the last message I get is "Verifying DMI Pool data" followed by
~~~~~(unreadable words)
The unreadable words are a result of doing the FixMbr & fixboot
commands.
Prior to my running these commands, the original problem was the
NTLDR
file
missing message. Anything you can suggest would be greatly
appreciated.
Regards,
CF

"thecreator" wrote:

Hi CF,

What is the operating system's Drive Letter? Is it C:\? Are you
dual-booting?


--
thecreator

"CF" <CF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:047632C7-B242-4AFA-9515-0D121F714EC7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Greetings,

A few months back I had the same issue & followed the advice
given:
Delete NTLDR & copy back from Windows Installation CD
Delete NTDETECT.Com & copy back from Windows Installation CD
If these things didn't work, then I did the following:
delete & create a new master boot record(FIXMBR & FIXBOOT)
None of these things worked. So I went to Windows Install CD,
chose
option
to
re-install windows over itself, & now I get message with some kind
of
unreadable notation like the infinity sign.

Please keep in mind I have gone through 3 HD drives, with the
thought
that
the hard drive was the culprit. Now I am convinced the hard drives
never
had
anything wrong. Each time I reformatted & re-installed Windows
from
scratch,
everything would be fine for about 2 months, until the infamous
message
"
NTLDR File is missing press CRTL+ALT+DELETE to restart" would
re-appear. I
have another machine using the exact same Windows version so I
know
it's
not
the OS.

Lately, I noticed some other strange things taking place. Last
month,
the
zone alarm software would go into a loop each time windows
started, I
had
to
go to Windows in Safe Mode to uninstall then re-install zone
alarm.
Just
last
week, the computer froze for no apparent reason, so I rebooted &
problem
went
away until I got the NTLDR file missing message. I am firmly
convinced
I
have bad
memory which caused the computer freeze & zone alarm problems,
just not
sure
if the NTLDR file issue can be blamed on the same thing. What I
do
know
is
that strange things have happened as a result of bad memory. So I
will
replace the memory, but the question I have is the following: From
a
computer
engineering perspective, The NTLDR file is located from the master
boot
record in address 0 in hard drive. Once file is located, it is
placed
into
memory, from which it loads the appropriate instruction set into
real
memory
for CPU processing. Here is the question: each time the PC starts
or
restarts, does it always go to the hard drive to load the NTLDR,
or if
the
HD
has cache(which it does) will it look into the HD's cache, & if it
finds
it
there, then load it into memory? or: If the memory has cache, will
it
find
it
there? As I'm toying with these theories, & if I may be on to
something,
does
it not cause a myriad of issues provided the memory has been
corrupted?

Please send me your thoughts
Regards,
CF










.

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