Category: Geeks r Us
Hello. I did a really stupid thing not knowing it a few days ago. I saw 2 files on my harddrive called NTLDR and Ntdetect.com , which hadn't been modified in a long time and they made no sense to me, so I deleted them. Little did I know that this would cause my computer to no longer boot. So my question is, can I get them back without getting sighted assistance? I know that it can be done if you have a windows xp CD with the recovery consel on it, but I don't have that here. A friend recommended I create a bootable CD with the 2 files I need plus boot.ini and said that windows should automatically start after I run the bootable disk. I did this with Nero, and nothing worked. So, can anyone help me with this? Any suggestions would greatly be apreciated!
assuming that it is on an ntfs drive the other way is to take and make the boot floppy disks from a computer or to get the xp cd. If you can piggy back it off of another computer for the short time then you can just copy them over. if not then you would have to run the xp cd in recovery con mode. I hope this helps.
So what you mean is there is no way to do this with a bootable cd rom? The other machine I have is a laptop which doesn't have a floppy drive. And, finally, can it be any windows xp bootable cd? Would a corporate adition also contain these files? Finally, here is how I understand to launch the recovery consil, does this sound right to you for a procedure? Put the cd in the drive, and press enter to continue which will boot the computer from the CD instead of your hard drive. Then, wait for the drive to stop spinning and enter the commands as follows. "copy d:i386ntldr c: " And then press enter. I should then be able to enter the same command for the other file, followed by enter. Then take the disk out of the machine type exit, followed by enter. Does that sound correct? Thank you for reading and all of the help!
Perhaps it may be different from manufacture to manufacture.
But the procedure that I'm use to is:
1. place xp cd in, wait for spinning to cease.
2. Hit r, for recovery console, wait for cd to cease.
3. type copy xx:i386ntldr c:
4. If sighted assistance available, should see, "one file copied", if not, just have to assume that it worked.
Hope that helped.
ouch... you deleted the boot loader and the ntldetect.com. i had done that before, although I was lucky enough to have sighted assistance. YOu can also get something online that will hopefully restore both without really having to use the microsoft cd. Use your search engine.
Wow...a throwback to the old DOS world. Yeah, that sounds right. You would launch Recovery Console, and then to copy ntldr to your C drive, type:
copy d:\I386\ntldr c:
and press Enter.
Then, to copy ntdetect.com, type:
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:
and press Enter.
Welll, I did this entire procedure, first on my own, and then with sighted assistance. It says it has successfully coppied the 2 files, but when I reboot the machine, the same error message comes up about not being able to find ntldr. The files are there though, since every time I try to copy them afgain from the recovery consel, it asks me if I would like to overwrite the existing file. Clearly, the harddrive is still in tact, so I'm starting to wonder if I should just put the drive in an external case, get what I need off of it, and then reinstall windows. Thoughts?
You may need to repair the MBR. This can be done from within the recovery console, thoughI'm presently unsure of the correct procedures.
If I were you:
1. slap enclosure on it
2. grab what you want(as you suggested)
3. do a full reformat(slow, not quick)
4. partition the hd in to 3 partitions
A. partition 1, I'd say 30 gb for os and/drivers/progs is plenty
B. Partition 2, 30 gb
c. Partition 3, the rest, hopefully over 100gb
5. reinstall windows and drivers on partition 1
6. Do updates, install firewall/anti-virus/spyware progs/office/whatever, Make sure that you do not put anything that you don't absolutely trust, as this is important for the later steps
7. Image the hd in to partition 2, 30gb should be large enough for subsequent incramental backups.
8. place all data in to partition 3.
9 Go wild, install whatever you want, as you can 99.99 percent reimage the hd in to your base clean image.
The image will save 99 out of 100 headaches/problems you will face in the future.
Of course to be full proof, you might even wish to clone your clean hd and store it away in case of hd failures.
My 2 cents, for all its worth :) (yes, I intended that spelling)
there's a program you can run from dos called mbr.exe. This can be obtained from terabyte unlimited.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm
Look for the MBR utility heading. The read me file explains the command line parameters.
One more thing. there's a program you should check out, also from terabyte unlimited called image for dos. It can be used with USB mass storage, right from dos. I use a 500GB disk, and the image gets backed up and restored without a problem. Back up the drive after you install and configure everything you want, and lots of headaches will be saved. You should also think about incremental backups every week or so.
That was so stupid that everyone does it at least once. <lol>
I did a search on my computer for ntldr and found three copies of the same length, so, I assume they are the same files.
One was on the c drive, and you've already copied that one.
The second was in the i386 folder, which you may want to try copying.
The third one was somewhere in the documents and settings folder such that that damned search window wouldn't give me the whole path. But, I don't think that one is important.
If you try copying the files into the i386 folder, and that doesn't help, let me know and I'll ferrett out the mysterious third file.
Hope this helps.
Bob
porque
rofl, that msg was meant for qns, no clue how it ended up here... I must have been that sleepy *snicker*
If your HD has an I386 folder, type this into the recovery console to copy ntldr and ntdetect.com from it:
copy c:\i386\ntldr c:
copy c:\i386\ntdetect.com c: