NTLDR not found!!!

[ASP]

I have samsung HDD.Since i attached my HDD to my friend's Pc, i am not able to boot my HDD. Tried re-installing WinXP. But it gives error "NTLDR not found".
I have tried the following things:
1>re-partition and re-install.
2>fixboot and fixmbr.
3>copy ntldr c: copy ntdetect.com c:
4>was not able to check boot.ini.
5>Flased CMOS by taking off the cell for some time.
I am not sure if its IDE data cable problem, but the same data cable worked.
And the best part. I took the same HDD to my friend's system and installed WinXP with same WinXP CD, and i got installed and worked fine. Back to my system, it again gives the same error.
P.S.: there is some geometry problem in the first sector of the HDD which makes Win98se installion not possible.
Please suggest the reason for still geting the error>
Thanks in advance.

 

[PCDaddy]

1. why were you putting it in your friend's pc?
2. What setup and pc does your friend have? Does he already have a hard drive in it?
3. How old is your friend's pc?
4. Can you give more info?
5. I found it easiest to get a 98 boot disk, use fdisk and delete the partition. Then use xp to try to repartition and reinstall. Or download max blast onto a cd and use that to partition the hard drive or delete the old. A part of ntldr gets left behind or if the hd came into an error and most likely you won't get xp back until it's gone.

 

[ASP]

New Type:"NTLDR missing"

1. why were you putting it in your friend's pc?
2. What setup and pc does your friend have? Does he already have a hard drive in it?
3. How old is your friend's pc?
4. Can you give more info?
5. I found it easiest to get a 98 boot disk, use fdisk and delete the partition. Then use xp to try to repartition and reinstall. Or download max blast onto a cd and use that to partition the hard drive or delete the old. A part of ntldr gets left behind or if the hd came into an error and most likely you won't get xp back until it's gone.

To the reply to the above mentioned questions:
1> I placed the HDD in friend's system to copy some songs...we generally do this but this problem hapened for first time.
2>My system is Compaq Presario (5000 Series) Celeron 600 MHz. My friend has Assembled PC. Configuration is P4 1.3GHz, 256 MB RAM, intel i315 chipset. He has Seagate HDD 4000 RPM.
3> My friend's system is 2 year old with P4 1.3GHz (both had XP installed).
4> The information: Recently on of my previous HDD (Quantum) 15GB got some problem so i decided to make my Seagate HDD (that i used to use as a backup for files) to use as a master.
But i was not able to install any OS in it. Win98Se Boot CD does not proceed after the first option of select boot medium.
Then i gave to a vendor for repair and he said some pin problem was there. He partitioned using Disk manager and installed Win2000. Then i upgraded it to WinXP. And since then every thing was fine. untill i took off my HDD to friend's System. For information. I have first time tried making slave of my Seagate HDD to friend's Pc. Till now he used to get it to my system, and it used to work fine.
PCQuest partition tool doesnt work and says partition table error.
FDisk doesnt work due to some sector(0), cylinder(0),atpi...(1) error. (i guess some geometry problem)
Untill that problem of geometry is removed, i think this problem will pursist.
We partitioned HDD using the partition option in WinXP installtion.
We have WinXP servicePack 2 edition.

"A part of ntldr gets left behind or if the hd came into an error and most likely you won't get xp back until it's gone" --- i am not clear with this sentence.

Please feel free to ask, if further clarification is needed regarding this.
And thanks very much for investigations.
--ASP.

 

[PCDaddy]

Sorry, let me be a bit more clear, ntldr not found, sometimes means it's damaged. It will leave a small part of itself on the partition but not enough to boot, damaged hd etc.... it is a pain to fix in most cases. Getting the files and trying to install them usually won't work. I have tried this many times. It is difficult to install any OS until that is resolved. It almost creates a lockdown on the hd. The partition seems damaged in any case, could have been a virus. The cylinders are the tracks at the beginning of each plate of the hd , multiple plates or can be on bothe sides of the plates. By what you have told me, swapping hard drives to different pc's frequently isn't a good idea. I don't know how carefull you were with it but a good bump, ESD or too many hard boots isn't good for a hard drive, or moving it around alot.
By pins, the tech probably meant your pins on the hard drive which have a little platstic connector with metal connectors inside, to set the hd to master or slave. Back to your problem, if it worked and then didn't with the same install, and you keep losing your partition, the hd is probably bad, wore out. They, like a rw cd, can only be written to so much. Eventually they wear out. Depending on the usage. If you deal with alot of music downloads and info swapping etc... then i would simply say you wore the poor sucker out! One other option, and i have been thanked for this by higher technicians, is to use a second hard drive[one that works] use it as a master, install xp on it, then use disk manager to fix the ntldr problem on you problem drive, which should now be a slave. Or put it in your friend's pc as a slave and use his xp disk manager to delete the partition, and reformat. This should work unless your hd is totally fried.

 

[ASP]

Thanks once again for suggestions...
but before i decide to buy a new HDD, i just wanna make one point clear. If my HDD does not have proper NTLDR file for booting, then why is it booting in my friend's system.
As i told you earlier, since I was not able to install OS in my HDD, so i took it to my other friend's system.
Tried installing XP there, and it got installed. Rather, its working fine there.
Its not working in my system only.
What can be the reason? and is it possible that my first friend had a boot sector virus that infected my HDD and not his???
With regards,
ASP

 

[PCDaddy]

For one, you set it up as a slave in his, correct? it didn't need to boot the os as primary. You might have changed some hard drive configurations on the hard drive for the system. Now you can't boot from it. Just a bit of advice, transfer files by cd. Regardless if it worked before, it's not good practice. One other thing, if Win xp on your hd became a slave in his pc, it probably changed the drivers and such to match his pc's hardware. Once again, you can't boot. Something else that got my attention, 98se? The geometry for xp is different, you would have to format fat\fat32 first and then install 98se.

 

[ASP]

For one, you set it up as a slave in his, correct? it didn't need to boot the os as primary. You might have changed some hard drive configurations on the hard drive for the system. Now you can't boot from it. Just a bit of advice, transfer files by cd. Regardless if it worked before, it's not good practice. One other thing, if Win xp on your hd became a slave in his pc, it probably changed the drivers and such to match his pc's hardware. Once again, you can't boot. Something else that got my attention, 98se? The geometry for xp is different, you would have to format fat\fat32 first and then install 98se.

I attached my HDD first time as a slave to my friend's pc to copy some files...
after i tried to install WinXp in mine and failed....
i took the HDD of mine to different friend and made my HDD as master in his system, removing his HDD.
So now my HDD was master. Then we formated the partition to install XP and it went fine. Rather, we started XP in his system and the HDD was fine.
Also, he copied some files in my other partition...so other partitions are perfectly fine.
What can be inferred from this?
With regards,
--Anand.

 

[PCDaddy]

Ok, if it was a geometry problem, it wouldn't work on any pc. Another thing is, i don't know of techs that install os on a pc unless it's liscensed and packaged for a pc. To be honest, and this is just my thoughts, it sounds like you are actually copying windows xp from your friends pc to use on yours. The reason why i say this is
1. geometry problem would be on any pc you put the hard drive in.
2. if you use an oem version from your friend , copied on a hard drive, or xp non oem, it is setup for that system and the hard drive will not work on your pc.
3. if it works on other pcs then missing ntldr is because you are using someone elses version of windows for their system.
4. why would someone swap hard drives when cds are much easier?

Finally, i don't judge, someone else or what they do. But "IF" this is the case then i can't help.