HOW TO SOLVE THE “NTLDR IS MISSING” ERROR

HOW TO SOLVE THE “NTLDR IS MISSING” ERROR

Description and Symptoms

The error messages, alerts, warnings, and symptoms below are tied to this error.

Symptoms: When a computer is turned on, the BIOS picks an eligible, bootable hard drive and then load the NTLDR file. The NTLDR file is normally located in the root directory of the active partition on the first boot drive. However, if the NTLDR file is not found or is corrupt, then the loading process halts and the “NTLDR is missing” error screen appears.

“NTLDR is missing” Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

The exact error message may vary: while “NTLDR is missing” is the most common one, the computer may also show “Boot: Couldn’t find NTLDR” or “NTLDR is Missing Press any key to restart”.

Causes of this Error:

This error has been known to occur as a result of one of the following causes:

Cause 1: Computer is booting from a non-bootable source. Sometimes this error can be caused if a computer tries to boot from a non-bootable source, such as a floppy disk or a flash drive. This usually happens if that computer’s BIOS boot sequence is configured incorrectly.

Cause 2: when the NTLDR-related files are corrupt or missing, this error may appear if any of boot-related files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini) are missing or corrupt. These files are normally hidden and system protected, but they can still go bad because of user errors, power outages, or virus attacks.

Fixing “NTLDR is missing” on Windows:

Windows Setup CD/DVD Required!

Some of the solutions below require the use of the Microsoft Windows setup CD or DVD.

Fix 1: Unplug all removable media:

Since this error is often caused by BIOS trying to load from an external non-bootable drive, the user may try to unplug all external drives, and remove all removable media, such as CD/floppy disks, memory cards, and USB devices to make sure the BIOS doesn’t try to load from any of them.

Fix 2: Change BIOS boot order:

Alternatively, it is possible to check the BIOS boot order to ensure that the PC tries to load from an internal drive first.

To check the boot order, follow these steps:

1.    Restart the PC

2.    Press the necessary key to open BIOS menu. This key depends on the computer manufacturer and computer model. This is usually listed on the first screen that appears on your monitor. It can be any of the following: Esc, Del, F2 , F8 , F10 or F12.

3.    If the screen shows multiple keys, find the key to open “BIOS”, “setup” or “BIOS menu”

Use the arrow keys to select the BOOT tab. Move the HDD drive to the top of priority list.

Fix 3: Replace NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files:

Windows XP users can replace the required files for NTLDR to load correctly by using your Windows Installation Disc. The files are named NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM.

Here are the steps to replace these files:

1.        Insert the Windows XP install CD

2.        Restart the computer and boot from the CD

3.        Press any key to boot from the CD

4.        Press R when the Windows Options menu is loaded to access Repair Console

5.        After this step, log into Windows by pressing 1.

6.        Enter Administrator password if set.

7.        Use the following commands to copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from the Windows installation disk to the hard disk:

copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\ 

copy D:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\

Where D:\ is the install CD’s drive letter and C:\ is the Windows XP partition’s drive letter

8.        Once these files are copied, remove the Windows installation disc from the disc drive

9.        Restart the PC.  

Fix 4: Change the boot-sector code:

On Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 this error can be fixed by writing a correct BOOTMGR-related boot sector code to the bootable partition.

Here are the steps to write a correct boot sector:

1.      Insert the Windows Vista (or any newer version) install CD

2.      Restart the computer and boot from the CD

3.      Press any key to boot from the CD

4.      Click on Repair your computer after selecting proper language, time and keyboard input.

5.      Select the Windows installation drive, which is usually C:\, and click Next

6.      Choose Command Prompt when the System Recovery Options box appears

7.       Write the following command and press Enter afterwards:

bootcfg /rebuild

8.      If the program finds a Windows installation and asks whether it should add it to the boot list, press Y

9.      Remove the install CD

10.   Restart your computer

Fix 5: Rebuild boot.ini file:

The next steps are to rebuild the boot.ini file:

1.        Insert the Windows XP install CD

2.        Restart the computer and boot from the CD

3.        Press any key to boot from the CD

4.        Press R when the Windows Options menu is loaded to access Repair Console

5.        After this step, log into Windows by pressing 1 using the Administrator password if set any.

6.        Use the following command when Command Prompt appears:

bootcfg /rebuild

7.        When the systems prompts you about adding an identified Windows installation to the boot list, answer “Y”(Yes)

8.        Enter “Windows XP” as Load Identifier and “/fastdetect” as OS Load Options.

9.        Remove the install CD

10.     Restart your computer