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How to Resolve the “NTDLR is Missing” Error on Windows Start-up

May 24th, 2008 · 5 Comments · Printer Friendly Version

If the NTLDR becomes damaged, you may get an error message informing you that “NTLDR is missing” when you start your computer. After this error message, you will be prompted to restart your computer at which the same error will be displayed again. This effectively prevents you from being able to access Windows at all. In most cases, you will not even be able to boot into safe mode. Here are some steps you can take to fix the problem:

  1. Insert the Windows XP installation CD into your computers CD-ROM drive and restart.
  2. You will be prompted to “Press any key to boot from CD…”. Press a key.
  3. Once loaded, the Windows XP setup menu will give you several options. Press the “R” key to repair Windows.
  4. When prompted, selected your Windows installation. In most cases this is “1″. Press enter.
  5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password. If you don’t have a password set, just press enter. 
  6. Type the following commands, pressing enter after each line. Replace “e:\” with the letter of your CD-ROM drive.
    copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
    copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
    fixboot
    fixmbr
    bootcfg /rebuild
  7. After entering that last line and pressing enter, you will be walked through the process of rebuilding the boot file. Most of the prompts should be self explanatory, but here are a few tips:
    • The first prompt should ask you to confirm the operating system that was automatically detected. Make sure the detected OS is the operating system you have installed and then type “y” and press enter.
    • You will also be prompted for a “load identifier”. This is the user friendly name that is displayed when selecting advanced startup options. You can type anything you want here, but it is best to type the full name of the operating system (such as “Windows XP Home Edition).
  8. Eject the CD from your computer. Type “exit” and press enter. Your computer will restart, and this time it should load without displaying an error.

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5 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Reply to this comment onGlue // Jul 12, 2008 at 3:21 pm


    I’m getting the NTLDR.then my computer shuts own cant even get cd in to fix.any ideas..thanks alot Jeff

  • 2 Reply to this comment Ryan Adams // Jul 12, 2008 at 3:38 pm


    @onGlue: If your only problem is getting the CD in, you should be able to open the CD drive and insert the CD immediately after powering your computer on and before you get the error.

  • 3 Reply to this comment Jonathan Esker // Sep 10, 2008 at 7:06 pm


    The above user needs to know how to get into their PCs bios and change the Boot Order (Hard Drive, CD-Rom, Removable etc) to load to their CD tray and press any key to Repair using the Recovery Console.

    The user needs to hit or repeatedly hit the F1 or F10 or Delete key on their keyboard right when the computer starts, it should say Entering Setup, then usually like 4 screens over, you will need to find something that says Boot Device Order or similar sounding, and change the Primary Boot Device to CD-Rom. Then hit F10 to Save this setting, restart, and your PC should say Press any key to boot to CD-Rom…(if you did it correctly).

  • 4 Reply to this comment Ryan Adams // Sep 10, 2008 at 7:22 pm


    @Jonathan Esker: Excellent point. If that is your problem onGlue, you’ll need to do as Jonathan describes.

  • 5 Reply to this comment dodger4 // Oct 17, 2008 at 12:48 pm


    I have just recovered a computer from this error (ntldr missing) and wanted to thank you lots for your advice and help with getting this issue resolved.

    Many thanks
    Donald

  • 6 Reply to this comment adedayoor // Oct 30, 2008 at 11:05 pm


    Thanks it really works for me.I was thinking of returning my notebook for a replacement since I still have wrranty on it,but all my valuable data could have been lost.

  • 7 Reply to this comment Sjarrel // Nov 2, 2008 at 12:49 pm


    Hi there,

    What if the cd is not accessed before the error? I’ve changed the boot up sequence to my dvd-rom first (the drive is properly recognized, it’s a sata dvd-rom drive). I enter the xp cd-rom, and after the initial boot-screen (where all the devices are listed), I immediately get the error. So no message “Press any key to boot to CD-Rom…”. Any thoughts???

  • 8 Reply to this comment Ryan Adams // Nov 2, 2008 at 6:32 pm


    @Sjarrel: Please triple check your computer is in fact booting from the CD-ROM. This error should only appear if your computer attempts to boot from the hard drive first. If you still can’t get it to work, you will need to connect your computer’s hard drive to another computer (as an internal slave drive or using a USB adapter). Then manually copy over the ntldr and ntdetect.com files.

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