NTLDR is missing

i have debian on a partition on my laptop and when i try to boot vista from grub, it tells me ntldr is missing. i have no recovery disc because hp didnt give me one.

 

maybe the grub loader links to an earlier version of windows cause vista uses bootmrg instead of ntldr



try to edit or recreate the vista entry from the grub loader

 

im not sure exactly what to change or edit the grub menu to.

EDIT: does anyone know where/how i can get a home premium recovery disc?

 

You say HP didn't give you a recovery disk, ok they don't but they do put the required files on a recovery partition and a link from the start menu so you can burn a copy of it to DVD, if you didn't follow the instructions which are clear and deleted the partition without making a DVD first then unfortunately your only legal way to recover is to buy a copy of the OS.

added you could try Vistabootpro to recover Vista's boot files free download HERE

 

couldn't find much about a boot loader editor in debian

but I found this



http://www.qt-apps.org/content/show.php/QGRUBEditor?content=60391



hope that helps

 

some one else where told me i needed to fdisk /mbr. is there another why i can do that with out buying a copy of vista?

oh and cyclic, it never told me to burn the files to a disk. i was never prompted.

 

Try and get your hands on a vista disc (any vista disc will work, including burnt from the internet as long as it hasn't been altered in any way), and boot into the disc and select 'start up repair'. This will rewrite the vista bootloader, and get vista back. You will then need to try and get the GRUB loader back because you can't get into linux from the vista boot loader.

 

i dont even care about getting back into linux. im done with it.

 

No but the quick reference booklet tells you this and there is a make recovery disk link in the start menu, and the 'recovery' partition is not hidden. I'm not saying you were wrong for not doing so just explaining why HP and many other oem's don't supply a recovery disk anymore, as long as they provide a method whereby you can recover the original configuration they have complied with all the various laws covering such things. It may be only recently HP added the prompt the last one I set up did that as soon as the first run installation was complete.

I think you should be able to recover your booting problems using Vistabootpro, for which there are several links on these forums.

 

ok, so, i donwloaded vistabootpro and have no idea what im supposed to do with it. mind you, i cant run it on the laptop because i cant get to vista.

 

Have a read of this, I have not tried it myself as I only just found it. Providing you can boot to a floppy that will read the files from the Vista partition you can copy the boot files to a floppy and boot to that and straight into Vista, might be worth a try.

Vista boot disk

 

You shouldn't even be getting NTLDR error messages -- unless you upgraded from XP, or you're running a dual (or in this case, triple) boot machine that is still running XP. As previously stated, Vista does not use NTLDR and, in new Vista installations, does not install that file.



As to the Grub/boot problem, the solution depends on how many hard drives you have and how many partitions. I don't know about Debian per se (I'm using Ubuntu), but when I installed Linux, I used the Alternate CD which gave me the option of where to install Grub. The default with the LiveCD is to overwrite the MBR of the primary disk -- which, in my case, boots a menu that allows the selection of Windows versions. Since you can't boot Vista, it sounds like your Grub installation overwrote the MBR of your system.



Since you don't have a Vista DVD, and you didn't make restore CDs/DVDs before you installed Debian, and you don't want to completely reinstall Vista (don't blame you, I wouldn't either!), you do have another option. Go to the CompUSA online site and purchase the Windows Anytime Upgrade Disk. It costs a whopping 5$ but it provides you a bootable Vista medium that you can use to do the Recovery stuff. It will take a few days to ship to you (it can't be downloaded), but apart from buying an OEM DVD (that will cost > $100), since you already clobbered your MBR with the Debian install (meaning that you can't use an Linux SystemRecoveryCD to save and restore your MBR), this is probably your best bet.

 

Hey everyone. I want to thank you all for your help. I got ahold of a Vista disc and went into a command line. I then did chkdsk c: /f which fixed both the MBR problem, and the Volume Bitmap error. Thankts once again. If there is any way to give 'karma' points or whatever, I would be more than happy to.

As soon as i get home, I will make a backup disk.

 

Just hearing you got it fixed is good enough for me

 

They must have changed chkdsk in Vista because I never knew it would correct a boot problem like that. Interesting. It must have did a file integrity check and noticed something was gone, replaced it and now your all good!

 

I found this forum and it sounds right up my ally..

I have the same "NTLDR is missing" problem.

I have recently installed a 2nd WD 400G HD, which has been running fine for over 3 weeks.

But this arvo my PC cracked a fit and stalled, I had to restart and checked in the BIOS and found it was not detecting the original 400G Disk which Vista was on a partition off.

I switched everything off and checked the cables and found one was loose and there it was back in the BIOS. However I then got the NTLDR is missing thing. So I went for the Vista install CD and it had to re-detect windows (recover it?). Still no good, so I tried system restore from the Vista Disk. Still no good. Then I tried Command Prompt and tried the solution the last chap had luck with and still no good..

Please help me, I seem to know too little to be of help to myself and enough to be dangerous.

Cheers