Hi guys just looking for some computer knowledge as mine has run out. Setting up a pc for my mate from bits he has got from work (bits being thrown out) have done a few of these in the past as I have a multi computer setup so I know quite a bit what im doing. Unfortunately this time something has cropped up that I don’t understand so I thought I would ask to see if anyone would have any idea.

Turned pc on and it says NTLDR missing please press ctr, alt, delete to restart. Press it same msg.

I have wiped the hard drive and installed a copy of windows on it using it as a slave on my pc. All works fine can open both XP desktop (mine) and win7 (slave) but when I put the hard drive back into the other pc it comes up with the same msg. I tried a few different combo’s of pc’s, ram, hard drives and it seems to only be when its working as a slave that it will work.

Then I put my hard drive into his pc to see if it was the pc itself that wont work and as soon as the windows loading logo comes on it restarts itself.

Am I missing something big? Is the pc buggered? Is the HD buggered? I dunno.

If you could help I would be most grateful!

Muchos thanks

 

you need to change the boot priority in the bios to the hard drive with windows on it.

 

Hello mate,

There are loads of topics/info on this if you Google it.

I'd say that because you had the Win7 drive installed as a Slave drive when you installed Win7, then it isn't configured correctly to be booted from. You need to fix/update the Master Boot Record.

I don't know Win7, but on XP I'd boot from the CD, choose Recovery Console, and run Fixmbr.exe or Fixboot.exe. These MS utils come on the Win XP (maybe 7?) DVDs and should sort you're problem.

steve

 

i shall give it a go! going to wipe 7 for now and just get it working again on xp and then upgrade it! xp is what i know best so i shall try those bits thank you! ill keep ya posted how i get on!

 

not got a floppy still in the drive, that always used to be a common user problem with NTLDR missing?

 

Don't just delete Windows, Format (or quick format )the suspect hard drive.

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tried this again but when the cd boots up it thinks for a while and then comes up with an error screen saying problem detected so windows has been shut down to prevent damage to computer.

 

tried all suggestions above. the hard drive has now been totally formatted and i have put it back in the offending pc. set boot to read from cd to load xp. goes through the checking stage and as it is about to start windows (the bit where you get options to install etc) it crashes and goes blue saying there is a fault so it has been shut down. have tried a boot disk and would update the bios settings but i dont have an os so thats proving difficult!

 

Not really sure mate. Sounds annoying for you.
What error message do you get when it blue screens?

So I take it that you booted from the XP cd, it then loaded the screens which allow you to format the hard disk, or choose a partition to install to etc. It then copies files to the hard disk before trying to boot into Windows to continue the install, but fails here....

You got Win7 / Vista install cd you can try instead?

In the BIOS make sure that all settings set to the 'safe defaults' and no other hardware / unnecessary cards are installed which may be causing problems with the install process.

Maybe the components that you're friend got for this PC are just busted or not compatible with each other?

Steve

 

put hdd in your pc .. wipe it format it ... use one of the s.m.a.r.t. disc monitors to look at any errors the hard drive has ...
if it has errors .. bin it ... if not reset jumpers to master boot from dvd and install windows ... if it fails again run memtest booted from cd to check memory...
bios can be updated in most mobo's by using a setting on bootup to look in the pc for an update file .. check mobo site for details..

personally i suspect memory tbh ...

 

done a mem test everything else has to be done once the xp disk has finished loading but just as that is about to happen i get the blue screen. could be ram problem as when i put my own hard drive into the broken pc as windows is loading it turns itself off. v strange! i shall plod on!