ntldr not seen but is there

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil
  • Start date Start date
P

Phil

I know this should net have to be asked but I cannot see what is wrong.

I am trying to reinstall Win2000 server on a computer here at the office.
The hardware is a Pentium 2 350 with 256mb ram, 2x80gb hard drives, a cd rom,
and floppy. It also contains an Altigen Quantum phone card. I am trying to
reinstall the OS because we are sending the unit to another office. Only one
hard drive is connected to the Primary master and the cd-rom is connnected
to the secondary slave. I booted from the cd and formatted and copied the
installation files but on reboot I get the error "ntldr could not be found".
Boot options in the bios are correctly set, all the necessary files are in
the root of c:\, i.e. ntdetect, boot.ini, ntldr, etc. I connot figure out why
on reboot ntldr is not detected even though it is there. Ideas please?
 
Repying to my own post: I think the hard drive size is too large for Win2000.
I created a 15gb partition and reinstalled to it and the install is going
along. I thought the OS could read to 137gb partitions. The install routine
detected the full size of the drives duriing initial setup so I am not sure
what the deal is.
 
Phil said:
I know this should net have to be asked but I cannot see what is wrong.

I am trying to reinstall Win2000 server on a computer here at the office.
The hardware is a Pentium 2 350 with 256mb ram, 2x80gb hard drives, a cd
rom,
and floppy. It also contains an Altigen Quantum phone card. I am trying to
reinstall the OS because we are sending the unit to another office. Only
one
hard drive is connected to the Primary master and the cd-rom is
connnected
to the secondary slave. I booted from the cd and formatted and copied the
installation files but on reboot I get the error "ntldr could not be
found".
Boot options in the bios are correctly set, all the necessary files are in
the root of c:\, i.e. ntdetect, boot.ini, ntldr, etc. I connot figure out
why
on reboot ntldr is not detected even though it is there. Ideas please?
Click to expand...

To install Win2000, you don't copy the boot files from the CD to the hard
disk. You boot the machine from the Win2000 CD, then follow the prompts to
perform a full installation. Best to allow your disk to be repartitioned and
formatted.
 
I booted from the cd and formatted and copied the

I suppose I should have stated that the install routine copied files to the
hard drive. Nevermind anyway, the installation finished after I created a
15gb partition on the drive and installing there instead of using the entire
80gb as one partition.
 
I'm mildly surprised that Windows had a problem with an 80G drive.

That's a pretty old machine though which probably well pre-dates 80G
drive sizes - are you sure the HD size problem isn't a bios issue?
 
Back
Top