NTLDR: FATAL ERROR 256 READING BOOT.INI

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NT Loader (NTLDR) is a boot sector file necessary to load the necessary
drivers to start Windows XP. If this files is corrupted or missing, normal
boot is interrupted and a boot disk has to be used to logon or a repair of
the Boot Sector files copied from the Windows XP CD by means of the Recovery
Console, or with the FIXBOOT command in the Recovery Console, or after
gaining access into the system by means of a boot disk, the files can be
copied to the boot sector from the diskette. To delete or restore a
corrupted boot sector file you need to make hidden files and protected OS
files visible in Tools\Folder Options\View\select "Show hidden files and
folders" and uncheck "Hide Protected System Files (Recommended) and in C:\
look for NTLDR file, right click and select Properties\remove check from
Read Only and delete or move the file and replace it from the boot diskette
and make the new NTLDR file Read Only and a Hidden file.


http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm
http://1gighost.net/jerseyboy/xpquick.zip
 
Thanks for the help. Im going to try it out. if for some reason i cant get it
to work ill be back.

Thanks again.

Rick "Nutcase" Rogers said:
Hi,

Boot the Recovery Console, run bootcfg /rebuild from the prompt.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP [Q307654]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307654

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

G. M. Reynolds said:
This is the message I get when I try to boot. No one I talk to seems to
have
an answer.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Create an NT floppy boot disk as per the instructions here:
http://www.nu2.nu/bootdisk/ntboot/ and see if you can boot the computer
with it. Make sure that you use an NT type machine to format the floppy
drive, the disk will fail if you format it with a Windows 9x machine.

John
 
Excuse the typo, last line should read: Make sure that you use an NT
type machine to format the floppy *diskette*

John
 
Because Windows XP is Windows NT 6.0, it's an NT operating system. Try
and boot the computer with the startup disk.

John
 
Glitchie

It could help the rest of us if you quoted the complete error message
exactly as it appears.

What is your computer make and model?

Are you seeing a Blue Screen of Death?

Disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by
allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Keep pressing the F8
key during Start-Up and select option - Disable automatic restart on
system failure. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure.

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Why use an NT disk when I'm running XP pro? Sorry, it has been ages
since I worked on them much, and so there might be new things I'm not up
to date on...
Click to expand...


XP *is* a version of Windows NT. Under the hood, it's actually Windows
NT 5.1 (Windows 2000 was NT 5.0). "XP" is its marketing name.
 
As others have said XP is NT5.1, NT6.0 is Vista.
Because Windows XP is Windows NT 6.0, it's an NT operating system. Try
and boot the computer with the startup disk.

John
Click to expand...
 
What kind of computer are you using to post to the groups? Are you
using a Windows 2000/XP computer or are you using a Windows 98 computer?

John
 
With all due respect the guys at Intel may know an awful lot about
processors but they don't appear to know all that much about Windows XP
startup diskettes!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595
How to create a bootable floppy disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in
Windows XP

To be able to boot Windows XP the floppy diskette *must* contain an NT
boot sector. If you format the diskette with a Windows NT/2000/XP
machine it will have the proper boot sector.

John
 
Glitchie said:
NTLDR: FATAL ERROR 256 READING BOOT.INI was the original error we were
getting. We bought two 500Gig hds from Western Digital and copied the
old drive to the new one - we still have the old drive, but if its not
reading it, would we be able to copy the BOOT.INI from the old drive to
the new one?

I found out that it wasn't reading the new drive as C: at all - it was
reading one of the Ebooks we had attached as C and that was why it was
saying that there was some error that wasn't allowing bootcfg /rebuild
to work, and also why it wasn't showing up with with any errors on
chkdisk either - because there weren't any errors, but Windows also
wasn't installed on the ebook.

Once I removed the ebooks from the computer, it said that there was an
irreparable error. I made two boot disks from the disk that came with
the drive - Data Life Guard Boot Disk and Data Life Guard Diagnostics
Boot Disk and have tried booting from both of those, and all it does is
have the green light on the a drive for an innumerable amount of time
and the cursor on the screen blinks. Since then, I tried booted from the
Windows XP cd again and it reads the disk in the drive, but I'm not
given the option to boot from the CD any more. I don't know what is
going on with this, these drives have been nothing but trouble. And I
feel like I'm ready to throw the computer out the window.

Glitchie

This is why I gave up Tech Support ages ago, and now it seems like
nothing I remember how to do, works anymore. My problem with finding the
NT system is finding one that matches where the computer has a floppy so
I can make a boot disk. The 'automatic boot disks' I made from
Allbootdisks.com didn't work.
Click to expand...


Glitchie said:
My laptop has XP Media Center on it. That is what I post with. Talking
to someone my husband works with at Intel, they said that XP Pro, like
is on my desktop was harder to repair and cause you had to have another
computer with XP Pro on it for making the boot disk. Right now it's
copying the files from the old drive to the new one. There was nothing
wrong with the old drive, we just replaced it due to storage capacity.
The newer drives were bigger and I needed the space for my graphics
program.

Glitchie
Click to expand...


Glitchie:
Unless I misunderstand the nature of your problem it seems that what it
comes down to is that you're unable to "copy" the contents of your "old
drive" to the "new" one in such a way so that the new HDD will be a
bootable, functional HDD.

You indicate that you purchased *two* 500 GB HDDs - presumably one of these
was to serve as a replacement for your "old drive" and I guess the other
would be used for other purposes - perhaps add'l storage, backups, etc.

Or perhaps you desired *both* of the 500 GB HDDs to serve as replacements
for your "old drive", so that *both* of those HDDs would contain the XP OS,
etc. and each would be bootable, i.e., each would be a copy of the old
drive. Perhaps you might want to clarify your objectives in this regard.

Anyway, one way or another it seems the problem comes down to this...
1. Your "old drive" was non-defective, bootable, and functional in all
respects as you've indicated.
2. So the only problem is that something went amiss with the "copy" function
with at least one, if not two, of your 500 GB HDDs, right?
3. And the program you were using to "copy" the old HDD to one (or two) of
the new HDDs was the WD Data Lifeguard Tools program, specifically its
"Drive-to-Drive Copy" utility, right?

Let me say that while we've used that WD disk-cloning (disk-copying) program
many times over the years it's not exactly our favorite program for
accomplishing its objective of cloning the contents of one HDD to another
HDD. To put it bluntly, the program is iffy at best and many users have (as
we have had) a good deal of trouble with that program. I mention this
because that may be at the root of your problem. Since you've indicated that
your "source" HDD, the "old drive" was perfectly functional (and of course
we're assuming your 500 GB WD HDD(s) is (are) similarly non-defective) we're
assuming the problem lies with the disk-cloning program you're using and/or
possibly the way you have used it. We have found that many users (through no
real fault of their own) unknowingly improperly use the program and the
result is a failed disk-cloning operation.

Anyway, if you think there's some merit to what I've indicated above and
would like any further suggestions from me as to what disk-cloning
program(s) I would recommend to you please so indicate and I'll respond
accordingly.
Anna
 
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