Boot problems

[oOWaXOo]

I have a user down today that I can't figure out. It could be something simple. It's just nothing I've ever encountered before. When booting, she gets a "invalid system disk" message. I tried then booting from a bood disk, and I got a "NTLDR is missing" error. I tried booting from the hard drive first and still nothing. Any help would be apreciated.

[OuTpaTienT]

Make sure there is no floppy in the drive when booting. NTLDR missing is NT's or 2K's or XP's version of "invalid system disk" message.

http://www.computing.net/windows2000...rum/22894.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/NTLDR.html

[oOWaXOo]

No floppy in the PC. I checked that first. If she's running 95, why does the NTLDR message show up when a 95 bootdisk is in there? This is so weird.

[DutchMaster]

Are you sure thats a win 9X boot disk??
You can download one here:
www.bootdisk.com

What is the original OS installed on the PC?

"Invalid system disk" could be hardware:
- Damaged disk
- Loose cable
Or software:
- Corrupted filesystem
- Virus
You need FDISK and Format then

FDISK /MBR might get you back in the OS again. Which saves you from a format. This only counts for windows 95/98

[Richard Cranium]

My guess is that this user has NOT run SCANDISK in a long time and a partially bad sector has developed with boot records in the sector.

Or, they have attempted a installation of XP and it got botched.

MS's idea->>

NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart
This behavior occurs only if Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me is installed on a large-capacity drive that uses the FAT32 file system

"To resolve this behavior, correct the invalid Heads (sides) value in the FAT32 BPB to enable the Windows XP boot process to continue. The easiest way to update the field is to rewrite the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code by using the following procedure:

Restart the computer by using a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me startup disk that contains the Sys.com file (this file is included by default).


At a command prompt, type sys c: . This command rewrites the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code with accurate BPB information. If this command runs successfully, skip to step 3.
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q314057

Everything I find at MS shows references to XP, NT or Win2000 (which are all related)being installed over windows 95

http://search.microsoft.com/default....us/itresources

[Richard Cranium]

I searched my Windows 95 CD for the file in question, no go. Though it might be in the compressed cab files, I had "check subfolders" enabled without luck.

Looked on this 98 machine in the C drive, not there either.

At MacroSwamp, a scan of the MBR files showed no reference to NTLDR

A intensive search for NTLDR under the Windows 95 topics came up empty.

sorry, can't help this time.

DrVette

[oOWaXOo]

I know for sure that she was running 95, and not updating. I'm thinking it's a virus.

[DutchMaster]

Quote:

When booting, she gets a "invalid system disk" message.

The Master Boot Record is corrupted.
Most likely a virus or bad sectors. If you can put the HD on slave on another machine so you can acces the HD and run a virusscan on it. If everything looks save you can backup important files.
After backup, put the HD back in the original PC. Get a windows 95 bootdisk.
The one you have now is cleary some "NT based" bootdisk made from ME (??), windows NT, 2000 or XP.
After restarting you get a dosprompt. Type in FDISK /MBR and enter.
Then type in SCANDISK C: and enter.
After the repairs and fixes, restart the PC without bootdiskette.
Hopefully the system starts up. If so you need to run defragger too. If not you may have to format the HD and do a fresh Windows install.

[cadetstimp]

Has anything been added to the system such as a zip or jaz drive? If an item has been added to the system that includes a disk origonally formatted by NT then this error could occur.

Also, was an NT CD left in the CDROM drive? Maybe the user booted the system off an NT 40 CD and started install. By the time you were called the boot sector may have been written to even if the setup was aborted.

To fix...if you have a Win9x bootable start up disk that matches the same exact ver of Win9x the system is/was installed with ... then you could try booting off the floppy and use the command "fdisk /mbr". Restart and then see what happens. Still no go? then boot off the floppy again and try a "sys C:" from the command prompt (only try this if your confident the start up floppy is the exact same version of the Win9x install)

[vfrxsw]

Check out virus info here http://www.antivirus.com/pc-cillin/v...TLDR&alt=NTLDR