NTLDR missing in action

[plunjerboy]

I formatted my 16 gig and plugged it in just for the heck of it.Came up with NTLDR is missing press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.So then i put my hardrive in another computer and proceeded to install XP Pro.Finished installation and booted up, worked great, put it back in the original computer and came up with the same error.What do I need to do?thanks

 

[rookie1010]

IMO you can not install windows xp on one machine, and then move it to another machine, since the device settings of the machine become a part of the installation.

 

[plunjerboy]

well it wouldn't boot from a cd so that was my only option

What else would yo suggest?

 

[rookie1010]

in case you do not have a bootable windows xp, you can get the setup disks from microsoft's website. the link to it is somewhere in this forum too.

you download the exe file, this upon execution gets converted into files on 6 disks. you use the 6 disks to boot up and setup, and then use the windows xp cd to do the rest of the installation process.

 

[plunjerboy]

I have windows xp on the computer that i used to install xp on to the 16 gig hard drive after the format.but my original computer that came up with the error still comes up with the error even with the freshly loaded xp. and i've heard that you can swap out the hard drive to another computer after installing xp because the drivers will automatically load themselves.

 

[jaksback]

I had the EXACT SAME thing happen to me installing win 2000 using the computer I am using at the moment, went to put it into the other machine and kept getting the NTLDR is missing error. So, I left it in the other machine and I reformatted the drive (had to) and then re-install the operating system. I was getting so pissed off cuz I too thought hdd's could be swapped out like that after a clean install and after spending mucho time for each format and re-install I was at wits end.

as you can see in an old post of mine:

http://www.tech-heaven.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=15538