Re: NTLDR File is missing Msg upon Windows startup

Hi CF,

Ideally, when you use Windows XP Pro Ed CD to partition, format and
install the operating system, you want to start with an unpartition or new
Hard Drive.

For Example: If a brand new Hard Drive was 320 GB in size, you want to
use the XP CD to create a partition size of 40 GB in size. After it is
created, you will notice an unformatted partition of 8 MB in size. Format
that space using either FAT32 or FAT. This will be Drive C:\. Next format
the 40 GB in size with the NTFS File System and install Windows XP Pro Ed.

You do not have to finish partitioning the Hard Drive all at once.
Within Windows XP, you can use the operating system to partition the rest of
the Hard Drive, or you can use, if you have it, Acronis Disk Director Suite
10. You never ideally want the operating system partition to be larger than
40 GB in size. Maintenance takes forever with large partitions. You want a
seperate partition for your Documents. Why? You don't need to worry about
losing the Documents partition, if your Operating System partition, becomes
corrupt and unbootable. You can reformat and reinstall the operating system
or even restore an image file of the operating system, when it was working.
Now, you can also create a seperate partition that holds your Drive /
Partition images, but ideally, you want a second Hard Drive to store the
image on, if possible.

Let's not forget about Outlook Express Store Folders, or the Briefcase
Folder. The Briefcase Folder, itself, does not need to be locate on the
Desktop, but can be located on the Documents partition, but not within My
Documents folder. Just create a shortcut of My Briefcase Folder on the
Desktop.

True, it is complicated, but well worth the hassle, if your operating
system becomes corrupted or unbootable. It is the User's Decision on how to
proceed. Note: Manufacturers create one Large partition and place the
operating system and everything inside it, because it is real fast getting
it out the door. As a User, you want a safe system, because problems do
occur.

To reply directly, take out "ofXuxa". :)

Both Hard Drives, do not need to be partitioned the same, unless you are
using RAID configuration.



--
thecreator

"CF" <CF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7D869B52-4E43-4AE7-8280-578DC853494B@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello thecreator,

After reading up on the subject, I can have 2 partitions: the system
partition which contains the boot files(NTLDR, NTDETECT, Boot.INI) & the
boot
partition which contains Windows.
1) Is this what you were referring to?
2)If this is what you meant, is there an option that allows me to create a
system partition while installing windows in the other partitions?
3) If 1 & 2 are true, if I were to create a system backup from the working
'C' drive
do both drives need to be formatted/partitioned/created the same way?

Thanks in advance
Regards,

CF

"CF" wrote:

Hello thecreator,

Curently the large HD has 8 meg unpartitioned space while everything else
is
inside one large partition, so I basically created one very large
partition(by the way, this is XP Pro). What would I gain by reformatting
&
partitioning the HD into 2 logical drives as it pertains to the boot.ini,
or
for that matter, any file needed during booting of system?

Regards,
CF

"thecreator" wrote:

Hi CF,

That's okay.

Just remember, if you are starting over, try partitioning your
large
Hard Drive. I don't have Windows XP Home Edition on any Hard Drive as
C:\, I
have it installed as E:\ and G:\ on this computer. Partition / Drive C:
actually holds the Boot information, where you will find the Boot.ini
file.
Each time, you make a change, the working Boot.ini is renamed
Boot.ini.saved.

This is a normal working Boot.ini Configuration File on my system:
[boot loader]
timeout=6
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition E" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition G" /fastdetect



--
thecreator

"CF" <CF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AFB46FF1-C6C9-4345-AFDD-835147ACE1B2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Windows hogging up space
    ... - bad news - doesn't work that way with Windows XP. ... Drives are cheap. ... Is hibernate turned on and do you use that feature? ... You mean to change the size of the C partition? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • RE: dd for windows and imaging a 40Gb drive
    ... dd for windows and imaging a 40Gb drive ... Imaging a disk to another disk: just be sure the target is empty -- dd ... Imaging a partition to another partition, ... to drives and partitions. ...
    (Security-Basics)
  • Re: Windows wont boot if any partition extends past 120 GB on 250 GB drive
    ... Neither would be able to change anything on the partition. ... "Creation of bootable restore media to restore to drives that can't be restored to from witin Windows" ... will dot pittenger1 at gmail dot com (use this address for large ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: 2000 pro constant freezing. Help!
    ... Almost always due to operating system corruption further manifested by the ... To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 CD-Rom or setup disks. ... | Logins Network Drives ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.general)
  • Re: NTLDR File is missing Msg upon Windows startup
    ... The option to format with FAT and FAT32 are there. ... use Windows 98 SE Startup Diskette and also BootIt NG program from a Floppy ... It also has the ability to create Partition Images. ... Both Hard Drives, do not need to be partitioned the same, unless you ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)