I own a emachines desktop running windows xp media center edition and ive had it for about three years and one day i try to get on and it starts up like normal then it says ntldr is missing. press ctrl alt del to restart. if you could tell me what it is i need to do to get my comp working i would be very thankfull, i mean if i just have to copy a couple files or if i can just nuke the whole thing as long as it works in the end is all i care about.
rdmercer - i dont know if you can access system restore if the computer wont load (you can with vista using a vista cd, but i dont think a xp cd has that option)...
gumball - this error suggests a file corruption, possibly just of NTLDR, but possibly worse.
you may be able to fix your installation using the repair options on a windows xp cd-rom, if you have one - do you have one?
If you don't have a dual-boot or exotic boot loader, then more than likely an improper shutdown cause some file corruption of the system files. The ntldr isn't missing (unless you deleted a dual boot).
You can run a chkdsk c:/f to fix the problem that fixes most system file problems. You can also do a scandisk with the block to fix errors checked.
If you can make a bartpe boot cd, that is a great boot cd to run the chkdsk command from. You can also do it from a windows installation cd (but it's more complicated). In worst case scenario you can remove the drive and stick it on another computer and do a chkdsk there on it.
I had to use it after a failed Vista instalation. I'm still feeling the reverbs on my partitions from that one. But yeah use that and just keep on picking one of the options until you can get into Windows. But that's all it does. For a permanent fix I can't really help you.
I've had this same problem 3 days ago. I was dual-booting vista and xp, vista worked. So, I checked for viruses, copied ntldr and ntdetect from windows xp cd to drive root, then rebuilt boot.ini. Also, try disk doctor, both of my os started crashing randomly and i got messages telling me that hard drive is corrupt.
