BleepingComputer.com: Deleting partition

Hi there,
I just bought a new Samsung hard drive to replace my scrawny 30G hard drive. When I first got the Samsung, I immediately installed Windows XP on it. I didn't remove my old hard drive yet. Basically, I had two hard drives in one computer. Two days have gone by, and it was working like a charm. Things started turning awry a couple days after it was working so well. My computer screen hung at the BIOS screen and it took more than 5 minutes to change to the Windows XP screen. Days after that, my computer started getting the "NTLDR is missing" error. I looked up some information about this, and I probably got this error because a faulty installation on my new hard drive. I tried reinstalling Windows XP on the new one, but it didn't work.
My question is, will deleting my main and only partition (C:\) and reinstalling Windows XP hopefully resolve my issue? Will my computer boot normally without getting the "NTLDR is missing" error?

Hello .

<<My question is, will deleting my main and only partition (C:\) and reinstalling Windows XP hopefully resolve my issue?>>

That depends on what the issue is.

You mention having two hard drives, each with XP installed on it.

You mention a BIOS screen hang, which can an indicator of damaged hardware, bad cables, faulty connectors, a bad CMOS battery....the issue is not clear-cut, IMO.

You don't indicate what medium was used to install XP or what your system manufacturer and model might be.

<<I tried reinstalling Windows XP on the new one, but it didn't work.>>

What...did not "work"...the CD, the optical drive, the installation effort? What error messages did you receive onscreen?

We need more pieces of the puzzle, IMO.

Ntldr Is Missing

Louis

Thanks Louis for your response.

Yes I have 2 hard drives both with Windows XP installed. As soon as I removed my old hard drive, I was left with the message "NTLDR is missing" non-bootable source after the BIOS screen. From there I thought that the solution was to reinstall and repair the Windows XP on the new hard drive by installing it with a Windows XP CD. From two unsuccessfull Windows XP installation, the screen prompted that it could not be installed because my hard drive was damaged (even though it was brand new and I'm pretty sure all my cable are working properly since they were unused before I got my hard drive) and/or because my hard drive came from a non-bootable source (I'll have to check the exact message as soon as my installation ends in a couple of minutes). And speaking of my computer, it was custom built.

My main issue is that, my computer isn't booting for an OS (that's probably why I'm getting NTLDR is missing).



The issue has been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you Louis for your kind response.

This post has been edited by EricaT: 10 May 2010 - 10:26 PM

Glad you resolved it, thanks for the feedback...happy computing .

FWIW: If you installed XP on the second drive...while the first drive was still seen as the boot drive...removing the first drive would likely have removed the boot.ini file (which would have reflected both installs).

In that case, the second drive would have been unable to boot without either the older drive or modification of the second install's boot files, IMO.

Louis