trying to install xp pro - Tech Support Forums

munkeyboy123 · January 4th, 2008, 09:41 PM

i have a bare drive going into a new computer and i have a windows disk and it wont let me boot from the disc and in the post screen it says "NTLDR is missing" and only lets me restart what is this!!!!!

Atomic Rooster · January 4th, 2008, 09:46 PM

Have you gone into the BIOS and set the boot order so it boots to CDROM first? After doing so, look for a prompt while booting that says " Press any key to boot to CDROM".

munkeyboy123 · January 4th, 2008, 09:49 PM

yeah i set it that way and i even took out the hard drive boot option completly. think it might be a problem with the disc?

Atomic Rooster · January 4th, 2008, 09:56 PM

If it's a legitimate Windows CD, there could be a problem with it. Does it have any scratches or smudges?

Mickwish · January 4th, 2008, 09:58 PM

Do you have another computer to put the CD in? If it lets you read it in another machine, either the BIOS option is not set right, or the CD is not reading the disk (may need cleaning?).

Cheers
Mick

nemowolf · January 4th, 2008, 10:04 PM

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

If you have another computer, verify that the CD you are using boots properly. If that is not the case, then your bios is not selecting the CDRom first as it should. You may need to hit f12 and force it to select the CdRom as the boot drive you want.

munkeyboy123 · January 4th, 2008, 11:02 PM

well i found a version of 98 that works, but uhh i think the components are too new of a technology that 98 doesn't support it, when its trying to load 98 the screen takes forever to do anything then it just shuts off and when i restart it and try sfe mode still nothing. any ideas or should i just tell my friend to stop being a cheap butt and buy a new o/s

Mickwish · January 4th, 2008, 11:08 PM

Another option is to use the win98 disk to partition the drive, then copy the winXP setup files from the CD (after booting with the win98 CD, or after amking a boot floopy if it has a floppy drive), then running winXP setup form the hard drive. That's if you can even read the winXP CD.

Buying a proper XP install disk would be best, though.

If he has a valid XP licence you can get an install CD cheap.

Or you could install linux. for him..

Cheers
Mick