NTLDR is missing on Clean Install (attempt) of W2K Pro

[louv68]

I'm at my wits end. I have attempted to do a clean install of W2K Pro on my newly built system the last two nights, to no avail.

I have tried to load the OS directly off the CD (bios changed to boot from CD first) Does not work. I have also tried booting with the 4 floppies created from the CD (bios changed to boot from Floppy first) I get an error similar to this: NTLDR is missing Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart. I also downloaded the files to create the 4 boot discs and they are identical to the one's I created from my original CD. They also don't work!!

What the hell am I doing wrong? The software CD that came with my HDD's boots up DRDOS just fine, so I know the CD-Rom isn't the problem. The Floppy Drive is also functioning properly.

Am I supposed to change the name of one of the files on the first of the four boot discs to NTLDR.xxx? Please help. I'm about to blow a gasket.

[bigstusexy]

Are you over clocking your computer? if you don't know what that is don't worry.

Download a copy of memtest86 and run a complete memory range test, you can also try the windows memory test too.

Tell me if it lists any errors. If not I've got one more thing in mind.

[louv68]

No OC'ng. I changed some of the bios settings, but nothing that I believe should affect the installation of the OS; only minor changes such as Power Management and Power Save.

[punisher]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%2...ing%22&spell=1

This explains it better and quicker than I can. The first hit has good info, the second has info to make a boot disc to correct the problem.

Doubleck all of your settings, make sure the hard drive shows up in BIOS etc. I got stuck with this "ntldr missing" stuff because of Acronis and it's problems with that.

[louv68]

What baffles me is how the CD-Rom recognizes and boots the HDD software CD but not the W2K CD?

[bigstusexy]

<q>What baffles me is how the CD-Rom recognizes and boots the HDD software CD but not the W2K CD? </q>

So you have a hard drive utility cd and that boots but the windows 2000 cd does not boot?

I would get a boot disk for windows 98 and boot up with the diskette and fdisk /mbr the drive. Reboot and then format that drive for good measure. After that try rebooting with the 2k cd and installing. I've run into a few issue where a corrupt install would make all attempts of an NT boot impossible with that drive installed unless it was whipped, don't worry during the 2k install you can partition and format as you like.

[ntscuser]

What baffles me is how the CD-Rom recognizes and boots the HDD software CD but not the W2K CD?

Your W2K CD is a full boot version and not just an upgrade or restore disc? You've successfully installed W2K from this same disc before?

[louv68]

What baffles me is how the CD-Rom recognizes and boots the HDD software CD but not the W2K CD?

Your W2K CD is a full boot version and not just an upgrade or restore disc? You've successfully installed W2K from this same disc before?

Yes, it's the original Full Version and I have installed it before. Using floppies made from this disc or downloaded don't initiate boot up either.

[SLK001]

Is it probable that your HDD software needs a driver to be loaded before the HD can be accessed? You might be better off letting Windows partition and format all drives, then install the OS.

Also, if you had your computer details filled out properly, there might be something in it that could help give us more clues.

[louv68]

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 GF6100 AM2 I believe the firmware ends in F1
64 X2 4600+ AM2 (65W)
Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 2 sticks
2 WD Caviar SATA 200GB drives
Pioneer DVR-112?
Panasonic Floppy Drive
VGA SAPPHIRE 100192L X1050 256MB GPU

All parts are brand new, out of the box except the floppy drive which I took off my old computer. It is functioning properly.

The BIOS recognizes all the parts correctly.

[bevills1]

Current problem is not HD problem since he can't boot to CD or floppy created from CD. I see HDs are SATA. Is the DVR-112 connected to IDE controller as it should be? A DVR-112 connection to SATA could be a problem if that was done in error. The CD itself could be the problem as well possibly due to physical damage or file corruption. Have you tried to see if another system will boot to that CD?

[Dr_Layne]

Did you make SATA controller driver floppies? If not, the w2k cd will not see the hdd's. You need to do the "press F6 if you need to install additional drivers" or something like that. Then you have to load the SATA controller driver. Normally these drivers are on the driver cd for the motherboard. You can also download the SATA Raid driver from here:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=2434

[Dubber]

Do you have a setting in BIOS to make SATA drives act as IDE? If so, change to IDE mode and you should be fine.

[Dubber]

Ok, took a look at the manual:
http://america.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-m61p-s3_e.pdf
they call it ATA not IDE, same thing.

Latest BIOS is F3:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/BIOS_Model.aspx?ClassValue=Motherboard&...ame=GA-M61P-S3

Another thing, I noticed you got 2 HDDs; did you enable RAID? Be careful with it

[louv68]

This is my first computer to use SATA drives. I don't intend on using them in RAID. Do I still need to make SATA driver floppies? I have attempted booting using the original CD, floppies created from the CD, floppies created from downloads and I also tried booting with a Win 98 floppy. All give the same damned error. I'm considering spending $90 and getting XP Home. It would suck if that didn't work either. Is it possible that the MB or RAM is defective? How would I be able to tell? The MB sees all the peripherals correctly and the floppy drive and CD-Rom spin when attempting to boot. How is it that the HDD utilities CD boots? This is so frustrating.

[DereX888]

GIGABYTE GA-M61P-S3 GF6100 AM2 I believe the firmware ends in F1
64 X2 4600+ AM2 (65W)
Kingston 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 2 sticks
2 WD Caviar SATA 200GB drives
Pioneer DVR-112?
Panasonic Floppy Drive
VGA SAPPHIRE 100192L X1050 256MB GPU

All parts are brand new, out of the box except the floppy drive which I took off my old computer. It is functioning properly.

The BIOS recognizes all the parts correctly.

I see 2 problems:

1 - SATA (you need to load drivers manually during setup)
2 - 200 GB drive (W2K original CD will have a 128GB hdd size limit; you need to add bunch of registry keys in the setup to overcome this limit)

Specially the 1st one might be a problem.
I usually try to use some small IDE hdd for windows use to avoid the hassle of SATA and RAID during install.
W2K needs less ~1GB for itself (~1.5GB if with all updates from custom disc) so any IDE hdd should do if you have any leftover.
That would be easiest and quickest solution.
(and you can set "Documents and Settings" and "Program Files" etc default directories easily to one of your SATA drives later using i.e. TweakUI)

Anyways why don't you make a bootable and updated W2K CD for yourself?
Add the boot image (you won't need to make floppies anymore) and at least service pack 4.
I'm using W2K too, and before I used to install W2K on a weekly basis thus i always made a fully updated (SP4, Security Rollup 1, IE6SP1, DirectX9c, etc etc - all updates up to date) and bootable new W2K CD every once a while. I also included all the drivers, registry tweaks, programs (WMP9, Winamp, .NET Frameworks and such) on the CD and made it completely unattended since almost all machines were always exactly the same models in that company Usually it lasted me good half a year until new updates accumulated to the point that I had to recreate the CD again.
However this probly may be over your head if youre not accustomed with it, but certainly you should made it easy for yourself and make W2K CD with at least SP4+SRP1 incorporated on a bootable disc since (adding these) is not complicated and is perfectly legal (Microsoft even have instructions how to slipstream updates and patches to newly created 'updated' CD copy on their website, but IMHO there are many much better descriptions and manuals with pictures and step-by-step on the web, just google "slipstreaming" or "slipstream updates").

Don't go for XP Home - thats the worst ever OS from Microsoft ever. Even Windows 95 could log on to domain - but XP Home is so castrated and crippled that it can't even do that...(but hey - it has a Movie Maker LOL )
Stay with W2K, all your installation problems come from your very outdated installation CD at this moment, but once you'll solve these problems you'll reward yourself in long term with fast, stable and smooth best microsoft's operating systems ever. You take shortcut with XP Home and you won't have installation problems, but you won't have any good operating system either...

[Nelson37]

First, disconnect the Hard drive and verify the Win2K CD will boot with no other drive attached.
That is your starting point.

Second, was any sort of software installed from this "Hard Drive CD", the disk which does boot? This disk has apparently been used, these often contain non-standard partitioning and formatting utilities which are best avoided. You're running Windows, let Windows set up the drive. Partitions created or used by any other software should be removed, Windows setup run on a blank drive whenever possible. Why? Because crap like this happens.

Windows either can not find or can not write the boot files to the Hard Drive. Partition issues or Controller driver, it is one of these two, assuming the CD will boot and the HD is functional.
Possible but unlikely Mobo or RAM is at fault.

Yes, you will most likely need the SATA drivers. This gets confusing, as the normal SATA drivers are often listed as RAID drivers when they are not, and most MOBOs have a completely seperate, actual RAID implementation which requires different drivers, also listed as RAID. This alternate controller can be configured and installed as a RAID controller while actually working in single-drive mode.

So you can have a non-RAID, listed as RAID, functioning as single drive, and/or an actual RAID, listed as RAID, functioning as either a single drive or a real array. Which one depends on BIOS and hardware setup, Sometimes you can identify the correct driver, sometimes you just get a multiple choice selection, usually with a 50-50 shot. No harm loading both drivers from the MOBO disk, some PC this can be done from a USB slot, but likely will need a floppy. Not usually more than two drivers on the disk, but... Load 'em all, if necessary.

Absolutely nothing wrong with XP Home for most home users, logging onto a domain not very common for HOME users. Something about the OS name.....

ME or DOS 4.01, followed by early versions of NT, now THOSE were bad and terrible crap.

[louv68]

Thank you all for your suggestions and advice. Unfortunately I have not been able to get anything to work.....yet. I used the utilities disk to format the HDD's to NTFS for use by Win 2000 (limit 137GB).
This was the only thing it did. The documentation said it could be done prior to OS installation or done at a later point.

I would rather not use an PATA drive if at all possible. The reason I went with SATA is for the added speed increase. If I did however put the OS on PATA drive, can I just copy it back to one of the SATA's, thus making it the "new" boot drive?

I will be disconnecting the SATA drives and doing as Nelson37 suggests tonight. What I am confused about is, how can I load the SATA drivers if I'm not able to boot?

I have tried placing the MOBO CD in, to see if it would do anything. Nothing! It gives me the same NTLDR error. How can I load the drivers if I can't get the system to boot? Will placing the drivers on a floppy initiate anything when the system is booted?

MOBO Manual: http://america.giga-byte.com/FileList/Manual/motherboard_manual_ga-m61p-s3_e.pdf

[ntscuser]

Have you considered moving a hard drive with W2K already installed on it from an old PC to the new one?

[louv68]

Have you considered moving a hard drive with W2K already installed on it from an old PC to the new one?

Yes, I moved the PATA drive with w2k from my old PC into the new one, and attempted a clean re-install. I was not given the option of what drive to install the OS on. It would only install onto itself. I removed the drive and put it back in the old pc.

[classfour]

verify your boot order in the bios.

make certain the CD drive is first.

[SLK001]

There is an option very early in the booting process to load an external driver (it says SCSI, but SATA may also work here). I believe that it asks for key F6 to be pressed so that you can insert the driver into the boot process.

Your system isn't seeing any of your SATA drives. Probably because you haven't loaded the drivers.

[louv68]

There is an option very early in the booting process to load an external driver (it says SCSI, but SATA may also work here). I believe that it asks for key F6 to be pressed so that you can insert the driver into the boot process.

Your system isn't seeing any of your SATA drives. Probably because you haven't loaded the drivers.

I have changed the boot order to CD when attempting to load off the CD, then changed it to floppy drive when attempting to boot of floppies. Neither works. I get the NTLDR error. The MOBO does see the drives during POST, I've hit <PAUSE> during it to verify that. I can't boot at all, so I am not given the chance to press F6 as you suggest.

[ntscuser]

Have you considered moving a hard drive with W2K already installed on it from an old PC to the new one?

Yes, I moved the PATA drive with w2k from my old PC into the new one, and attempted a clean re-install. I was not given the option of what drive to install the OS on. It would only install onto itself. I removed the drive and put it back in the old pc.

I'm missing something here? Why attempt a reinstall when you already have a working version of W2K? Why not just run W2K from the hard drive it's already installed on?

[bigstusexy]

hrm... I messed up my comment anyway.

All it said was if you are looking to make an updated disc check out nlite, it can handle service packs and hot fixes as well as a slew of other program via plugins.

[louv68]

Have you considered moving a hard drive with W2K already installed on it from an old PC to the new one?

Yes, I moved the PATA drive with w2k from my old PC into the new one, and attempted a clean re-install. I was not given the option of what drive to install the OS on. It would only install onto itself. I removed the drive and put it back in the old pc.

I'm missing something here? Why attempt a reinstall when you already have a working version of W2K? Why not just run W2K from the hard drive it's already installed on?

I want to use the SATA drives I bought, not an old PATA drive. It is also starting to flake out, so I want a clean install.

[Dv8ted2]

Is the W2k disc scratched or dirty? It sounds like the files are missing because of a scratch or a piece of dirt.

[SLK001]

IIRC, you get the "CANNOT LOAD NTLDR.COM..." error once the Windows installer tries to load after the initial restart.

[louv68]

Is the W2k disc scratched or dirty? It sounds like the files are missing because of a scratch or a piece of dirt.

Possible, but why don't the boot floppies I created off downloads start the boot sequence? Weird

[bevills1]

When you moved the PATA drive with w2k from my old PC into the new one, did you install SATA drivers before attempting new install. Win2k setup should give option to choose partition to install under "Advanced" during setup process, but it probably won't see SATA drives without drivers installed which would explain why no choice given if drives aren't seen. Note you may need to edit boot.ini before removing old drive if new install does complete to be able to boot to SATA drive.