"NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

K

Kaneda979

Member
My specs:
Compaq Presario
Model: SR5550F
Processor: AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5400+ (2 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 3.00 GB
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
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Hello. My problem is when I boot up my computer all I get is this "NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart". I can still get into bios, but that's it. I've desided to order the recovery discs for my computer to do a full system recovery, hoping that will fix it.
My question is though, will the discs fix this "NTLDR is missing" thing, or will I have to fix it some other way??
Really appreciate any help you can give me.
 
kairozamorro said:
Follow these instructions.
Click to expand...

You must be a man of few words. You mean fallow them using a disc made from to NeoSmart link or using recovery discs ordered from Hp Compaq?

If you mean using the disc made from the NeoSmart ISO, I've already tried that. Sadly the disc didn't do anything. After making the disk and putting it in, then rebooting, it just gets to an all black screen with a white blinking underdash (_). The "NTLDR is missing Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart" doesn't even show up with the disc in.

I've tryied pushing keys with the blinking dash sitting there, but nothing happens. All I can do is hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and it'll reboot again. And yup, I did set my bios to boot from CD/DVD before any hard drives, still, nothing works.
sad.gif


Is this disc I made from NeoSmart just like the one I would order from Hp Compaq though??
 
Sorry to interrupt, but.. Are you saying Vista is your only OS? Or you have an XP installed as well? Because, I have to say, I've never seen Vista displaying such a file missing.

Although if there is an XP, all you gotta do is insert your XP CD and run the recovery console, when you see the command prompt you just type "fixboot" and hit enter, and it fixes your boot, so you could boot into XP only, once in XP you download and install EasyBCD and add Vista to the list.

But that's how it would be with XP installed next to Vista, otherwise, hm, maybe see if the same works with Vista, I haven't tried but its just 10 minutes at the most to complete, worth the try if you ask me.

Cheers :smile:
 
As Sarge pointed out, that's an XP error message. Not something you get with a Vista MBR.
It means either that the MBR on your Vista HDD has been replaced with an XP version, or possibly that your Vista HDD is inaccessible, and the BIOS has moved on to another HDD, where it has found an XP MBR but no XP.
Check in the BIOS that your Vista HDD is visible.
If it isn't, unplug the data and power leads from your HDDs and reconnect them a few times to clean up the contacts and try to boot again (make sure Vista is first in the BIOS boot sequence)
 
Terry60 said:
Check in the BIOS that your Vista HDD is visible.
If it isn't, unplug the data and power leads from your HDDs and reconnect them a few times to clean up the contacts and try to boot again (make sure Vista is first in the BIOS boot sequence)
Click to expand...

K, I'll try it out and see if it helps.

I'll keep you posted.
 
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Help please! I tried everything...I have never install Win XP on my laptop but apperas:
"NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del"
every time I turn on my pc.
I havn't a recovery disk, I downloaded Windows Vista Recovery Disk from:
Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
but it dosn't work...always the same message...
I also tried to use the other way (for Xp users)
through a simply USB key as reported here: Simple "ntldr is missing" fix with boot floppy, CD-R, or USB flash

I don't know what I have to do =(
Now I show you what I've done...
A lot of time ago I Unistalled (for the first time) Ubuntu (in multi boot)and i had trouble with Vista Mbr...but i was able to start Vista and fix all problems..
Yesterday I decided to install Ubuntu again but my pc didn't reconize the Cd...
The boot go haed without find nothing..
I installed on Vista EasyBCD and i create a Boot.ini in C: coping on it the datails that i see in EasyBCD..(I don't know why I did it, but I was quite sure that was a good idea)...
Then when I reboot the system, i'm not able to enter on my operating system again (vista)...
I always have that:
"NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del"

What can i do??
 
Boot from the recovery CD correctly. You'll need to set the CD drive as first boot device in the BIOS.
 
I set the CD drive as first boot device and also disable the Network device (because gave me some problems)
I don't have the recovery CD, I tried to use the Windows Vista Recovery Disk downloaded from that site that I said before, but the system don't read it !!! =(
Why??
 
Do you see "press any key to boot from CD" when you boot with the recovery disk in the tray ?
If not, either the PC isn't set to boot from CD first, as CG suggested, or the CD might not have been burned properly.
You can try booting it in a working PC to check it out.
 
Is better to use a downloaded Vista Dvd in order to rebuild the bootloader or the recovery CD mentioned above?

Addendum:

My laptop is an Acer. I tried to use a Backup Cd of a friend of mine but it starts to erase my whole pc...It's not what I want...I will lose my stuff =( Someone can answere please? I'm desperate
 
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You can't use an OEM recovery CD, except one for your exact make and model of PC. It's designed to do one thing only, put a particular model of PC back to factory settings. It doesn't contain the drivers for a generality of hardware that a MS DVD has.
You need either a genuine MS Vista DVD or our download which contains just the repair facility from the MS DVD.
Have you checked that the CD you downloaded and burned, boots OK on a working PC ?
 
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