NTLDR is missing!

So, I’m working on a PC where installing a fresh version of Windows (whether it’s XP, 7, or 8) just wouldn't take. My workaround was to pull the hard drive out, slave it to another machine, and install the OS there—though only XP actually worked, while the others refused to boot. Once I put the drive back into its original machine, I started getting an "NTLDR is missing" error during startup, even though everything runs perfectly fine on the secondary computer where I did the installation. On the original machine, I can't even run a Windows recovery because it keeps throwing this error: ''Check for viruses on ur comp. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drivecontrollers...

Has anyone dealt with anything remotely similar? I’ve honestly tried every trick in the book and I'm completely out of ideas.

Best,

You can't just install Windows on one machine and then expect everything to work perfectly when you plug that drive into a completely different computer. In about 90% of cases, it won't even boot because critical drivers—like the ones for your processor or other essential hardware components—are baked in during the initial installation process. Plus, seeing that "NTLDR is missing" error usually means you're dealing with a missing core system file, which honestly sounds like your hard drive might be hitting the end of its life.

Sure, but whenever I attempt to install XP onto the hard drive from my main PC, I just get hit with that classic blue screen of death, or rather

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart you computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run chkdsk /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer.

Technical Information:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xFFFFF880009A98E8,0xFFFFFFFFC000000D,0x000000000 0000000,0x0000000000000000)

And at that point, there's no way for me to move forward with the installation.

Take a look—is the BIOS set to IDE instead of AHCI?

What on earth would be any reason to stick with IDE?

I’ve already thrown everything I can at Google, but all I get are these textbook scenarios that don't apply here, because my situation is the exact opposite of what those search results suggest. I am running out of ideas after 🙂 attempting to swap out the power supply and replacing the RAM entirely, yet the system still refuses to function correctly.

Unfortunately, no. I’ve tried burning a few different programs onto CDs and attempting to boot from them, but it just keeps telling me they aren't available, which is incredibly frustrating 🙂I'm seriously looking for any alternative ideas if anyone has them. I'm working with a Dell OptiPlex 755 BIOS system

Maybe give it a shot by setting it to an IDE controller—see if that actually changes anything for you...

Honestly, I think the hardware is just faulty, guys; you really don't see the full picture here.

rapidwalker19 said:Unfortunately, no. I tried burning a few programs onto a CD to boot from them, but it just keeps telling me they aren't available—so now I'm just sitting here losing my mind. 🙂 Seriously, if anyone out there actually has a decent alternative idea—I'm all ears. I’m dealing with a Dell Inspiron 755 BIOS system here and it's... well, you know how these things go.

What exactly isn't working for you? Give me the details—I can't help if I don't know what part of this whole mess is currently out of reach.

It’s definitely a hardware issue if everything else works perfectly on a different machine.

I can't get any of my CDs or DVDs to boot either, including the one I burned with the NTLDR file, even after setting it as the primary boot device in the BIOS.
Also, none of my other operating systems will load, except for this one specific XP disc. It makes no sense.

Why on earth wouldn't you test that hard drive before jumping straight into a fresh OS install and swapping out the RAM? I honestly can't wrap my head around why everyone rushes into a complete reinstall without being 100% certain their hardware isn't actually faulty. It's basic logic. If you can't get it to boot from the disc, try using a USB instead.

I’ve already gone through the motions of running chkdsk and defragmenting the drive, checking the partition object and everything else, and it all looks perfectly fine until I move it to another machine. When I swap in a different hard drive that I know for a fact is 100% functional, I get hit with that exact same Blue Screen of Death I mentioned earlier.

http://support.techlogic.net/index.p...00000000000000

Brian Edwards78, I have already made it clear that whenever I attempt to boot from the XP installation CD, I am hit with the blue screen error I described above

I’ve tried absolutely everything at this point, and honestly, I just don't see any way out of this mess haha