Big Problems Please Help !!!!!!!

Cause:

1. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
2. Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
3. Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
4. Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
5. Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32.
6. New hard disk drive being added.
7. Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
8. Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
9. Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable


Solutions:

Computer is booting from a non-bootable source

Many times this error is caused when the computer is attempting to boot from a non-bootable floppy disk or CD-ROM. First verify that no floppy diskette is in the computer, unless you are attempting to boot from a diskette.

If you are attempting to boot from a floppy diskette and are receiving this error message it is likely that the diskette does not have all the necessary files and/or is corrupt.

If you are attempting to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 and are receiving this error message as the computer is booting verify that your computer BIOS has the proper boot settings. For example, if you are attempting to run the install from the CD-ROM make sure the CD-ROM is the first boot device, and not the hard disk drive. Second, when the computer is booting you should receive the below prompt.

Press any key to boot from the CD

When you see this message press any key such as the Enter key immediately, otherwise it will try booting from the hard drive and likely get the NTLDR error again.

Note: If you are not receiving the above message and your BIOS boot options are set properly it's also possible that your CD-ROM drive may not be booting from the CD-ROM properly. Verify the jumpers are set properly on the CD-ROM drive. Additional information about checking the CD-ROM drive connections can be found on document CH000213.

Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.

Verify that your computer hard disk drive is properly setup in the BIOS / CMOS setup. Improper settings can cause this error. Additional information on how to enter the BIOS / CMOS setup can be found in document CH000192.

Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file

Windows 2000 users
Windows XP users

Windows 2000 users

If your computer is using Microsoft Windows 2000 and you are encountering the NTLDR error. Create the below boot.ini file on the floppy diskette drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from another computer using the same Operating System. Both of these files are located in the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. For example C:\NTLDR and C:\NTDETECT.COM should be the locations of these files on many computers.

* Please keep in mind that these files are hidden system files, if you need additional help with viewing hidden files in Windows please see document CH000516.

Once these files have been copied to a floppy diskette reboot the computer and copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files to the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. Below is an example of what commonly should be performed from the A:\> drive.

copy ntldr c:
copy ntdetect.com c:

After the above two files have been copied, remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.

Windows XP users

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy ntdetect.com c:\

7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file

Edit the boot.ini on the root directory of the hard disk drive and verify that it is pointing to the correct location of your Windows Operating System and that the partitions are properly defined. Additional information about the boot.ini can be found on document CH000492.

Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32

If you are getting this error message while you are attempting to upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP from Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME running FAT32 please try the following recommendations.

1. Boot the computer with a Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME bootable diskette.
2. At the A:\> prompt type:

sys c: <press enter>

3. After pressing enter you should receive the "System Transferred" message. Once this has been completed remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.

New hard disk drive being added

If you are attempting to add a new hard disk drive to the computer make sure that drive is a blank drive. Adding a new hard disk drive to a computer that already has Windows installed on it may cause the NTLDR error to occur.

If you are unsure if the new drive is blank or not try booting from a bootable diskette and format the new hard disk drive.

Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.

It's possible your computers hard disk drive may have a corrupt boot sector and/or master boot record. These can be repaired through the Microsoft Windows Recovery console by running the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

Additional information and help in getting into the Microsoft Windows Recovery console can be found on document CH000627.

Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP

If you have tried each of the above recommendations that apply to your situation and you continue to experience this issue it is possible you may have a seriously corrupted version of Microsoft Windows. Therefore we would recommend you reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

If you are encountering this issue during your setup you may wish to completely erase your computer hard disk drive and all of its existing data and then install Microsoft Windows 2000 / Windows XP. Additional information about erasing the computer and starting over can be found on document CH000186.

Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable

This issue has been known to be caused by a loose or fault IDE/EIDE cable. If the above recommendation does not resolve your issue and your computer hard disk drive is using a IDE or EIDE interface. Verify the computer hard disk drive cable is firmly connected by disconnected and reconnecting the cable.

If the issue continues it is also a possibility that the computer has a faulty cable, try replacing the hard disk drive cable with another cable and/or a new cable.

go in and reconfigure the boot process of the pc to boot up the cd drive first. you will need the windows cd in the drive for this to work, obviously, then start pc

I use to use a compaq.

Take out your HDD. Set it to master take it off the cable select or whatever they got it on. (assuming you didint do this at all) (but if you set it to master set it back to cable select) Its one way or the other. I set one HDD to primary master, and the CD-ROM To Secondary master. And i got that error. But when i put the drives back to the way the thing came from compaq. (cable select) It installed fine. Its funny because i struggled for hours try to figure it out myself. I hope this give some insight. Lates.


And on another compaq i had to set it to master HDD and Sec Master CD-ROM for it to find my XP disk.

If you dont know what a jumper is when you take out the HDD look at the back there should be a plastic square. With marking PRI SLA CAB

Primary, Slave, Cable Select.

Your CD-Rom will also say the same. If you got 2 CD drives going ONLY USE ONE FOR THE INSTALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Unplug the one your not using. (both power and Ribbon) Make sure the HDD has its own ribbon and the CD-ROM has its own ribbon. And try again.

Good luck!!!

I cant remember specifically if the HDD should be master or cable select. But im 100% confident that is your problem.

Just try to self the HDD to master.

Then try to set your CD-ROM to Sec Master.

They are pins in the back of these drives.

One last thing. Your compaq CD will no longer work because you deleted the necessary files that are hiding on HDD.(on most likley the D partition) To bring it back to life. You will need to call Compaq and order a complete install CD. If you want to use the compaq disk again. (its half CD, and Half HDD files on older compaq) its stupid that these companies do this. I had to order one myself. 4 years ago.

HI guys. Thanks for info, hope Optiv got his problem solved. I have a similar issue. I got the same error message while trying to upgrade my Dad's Presario 5240 to XP. I want to do a clean install so I formatted and partitioned the HDD (NTFS file system) and went to install XP but I got stuck. I got that couldn't open drive bla bla bla error message and then I found this forum.

Since then, I've tried every combination of jumper settings and EIDE inputs on the motherboard and I either get an error message about disk control and then a hang on boot or the "couldn't open drive..." message. I have no problem booting from the XP CD but after I start the install and teh HDD takes over, I get nothing. Any ideas?
Thanks.

I had the same boot problem. I searched other fora and found that this can occur if the hard drive you are installing on is not connected as ide drive 1.

On my system (compaq 5000 series) I saw that the 2 cdroms were seen as
disks 1 and 2, and my hard drive was disk 4. So I removed the ide cable from
cdroms and connected it to hard drive and then took ide cable that was on hard drive and connected it to cdroms.

on booting system, I saw that hard disk was drive 2 and cdroms were drives 3 and 4. Install failed. I then disconnected hard drive from ide cable and connected it to the other connector on same ide cable. I rebooted and saw that hard drive was now disk1 and cdroms were disks 3 and 4.

I now reinstalled and system installed and booted fine.

net... one of the causes of this "NTLDR:couldn't open..." error is that hard drive is connected to wrong connector of IDE cable.

as an aside, this problem arose when someone installed new hard drive, and disconnected and reconnected everyting in the machine.

Further, I found it interesting that in the 'bad' configuration, I was able to install various LINUX systems and windows 2000 perfectly fine... only had problem installing Windows XP Home Edition.

oops..wrong thred

I had same problems. After a few hours of frustrating i found this forum. I've tried what they said.
After setting up the HD to cable select, so it were Disk 1 it worked fine after reinstalling from xp-CD.
Thanks a lot for your help.

I have a similar problem. NTLDR missing press shift alt delete. I've seen some downloads, but mine is a 64 bit and I'm posting this on a 32 bit. tech support thinks i need a new hard drive.

What do you want to do?

Do you want to go back to ME, or move to XP? If trying to move to XP, NEVER EVER do an upgrade. It just makes a mess and does not work for the most part. Buy the full version and get it over with. BUT, before you do that, check your computer on the winxp hcl (hardware compatibility list). Compaqs are proprietary hardware and may even require it's own unique version of xp to work. Compaq's and gateways and others are known for this. If you setup the disk for NTFS, the restore to ME won't work, you need FAT32, enable large LBA for large disks. If you want to load XP, you can no longer upgrade since it is an upgrade disk, not a full version disk. You would have to format as fat 32, load ME, and upgrade IF the hardware is compatible. The fact that you're on ME already tells me it is older hardware.
Personally, I recommend getting rid of the compaq and going to a dell or better yet, building your own pc from scratch. I refuse to touch a compaq unless you beg me repeatedly and sweeten the pot.
What model compaq is it? I can tell you by the model if the upgrade will even work.
JerseyDevil

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Unfortunately, this thread and the other one you`ve posted in are over a year old.

I posted in one or two old threads when I first joined Techspot lol.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

Lol

Ya got me. Just tired and not paying attention. Hopefully he scrapped the compaq by now.
Too funny - JerseyDevil

Hey no problem mate.

Like I said, I`ve done it myself as have a lot of other members.

Regards Howard

I just wanted to say, on behalf of Compaq presario's...That I have owned mine since it was manufactured in 2003. I love it, its still fast, and it still plays all my favorite games with no problems. i have re-installed XP on it several times with no trouble whatsoever. as well as numerous hardware upgrades and changes, with little to no input on my part. Some compaq systems may have their issues, but no one computer is the same, and we all know that. So try not to be so hateful over compaqs, because this one I own is the best computer I have ever owned.

I love it when people post in super old threads. Bring it back from the dead! :grinthumb
Last post was two years ago! 11-15-2006