Computer becomes unresponsive: NTLDR is missing error on bootup

Asked By Britney Stevens 200 points N/A Posted on - 06/14/2011

Hi everyone,

My computer was hanging at a certain point and became unresponsive. 

I could not restart it because it just was not responding to anything that i did. I therefore turned it off by pressing in the power button.

When i placed it back on, i got an error message saying:

I restarted my computer several times, but each time i still get the same error. 

How can i solve this error without having to reinstall my operating system.

I have lots of valuable information, and I cannot lose.

Thanks!

Please see a picture of this error below.

NTLDR missing.  Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

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• Question Category: Windows XP

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Answered By Karmen 0 points N/A #125196

Computer becomes unresponsive: NTLDR is missing error on bootup

Hi there

You can fix this issue by using Windows Recovery Console. Here's a step by step procedure:

• Make sure to set your computer in the BIOS to boot on CD/DVD first.
• Put your XP installation CD and open your computer. Follow the instruction to boot from your XP installation CD.
• Once done loading, you will see this image below:

• From here, Press R
• Once you press R, a prompt will ask you to choose the XP installation you want to use.

• Choose what you want accordingly by entering the number corresponding to your installation and press Enter.
• You will be taken to a command prompt and from there type in COPY D:I386NTLDR C: and press Enter then COPY D:I386NTDETECT.COM C: then press Enter. Note that D: is the drive letter of your disc drive so change it accordingly if needed.
• Remove your CD and restart your computer.

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• Posted on - 06/14/2011
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Answered By mozak 5 points N/A #125197

Computer becomes unresponsive: NTLDR is missing error on bootup

Boot From the Windows XP CD

1. Watch for a Press any key to boot from CD… message similar to the one shown above.

2. Press a key to force the computer to boot from the Windows CD. If you do not press a key, your PC will continue to boot to the Windows XP installation that's currently installed on your hard drive. If this happens, simply reboot and try to boot to the Windows XP CD again.

3. When you reach the command prompt , type the following two commands, pressing Enter after each one:

copy d:i386ntldr c:

In the command listed above, d represents the drive letter assigned to the optical drive that your Windows XP CD is currently in. While this is most often d, your system could assign a different letter. Also, c: represents the root folder of the partition that Windows XP is currently installed on. Again, this is most often the case but your system could be different.

4. If you're prompted to overwrite either of the two files, press Y.

5. Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.

Assuming that missing or corrupt versions of the NTLDR and/or Ntdetect.com files were your only issues, Windows XP should now start normally.

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• Posted on - 07/22/2011
• Question Category: Windows XP