Tinyempire.com - NTLDR is missing fix using a usb flash drive - Added May 31st 2010.

Screenshots of making USB drive to fix issue. I realize this webpage looks like it was made in 1995. That makes it easy to be read on a cell phone, and each step explained cuts down on the email questions I get. If you haven't already, get your hands on the smallest usb drive you can find. It may be required that it be less than 2 gigs, but I'm not sure yet on that part. Make sure it's okay to delete whatever is on the flash drive and plug it into your working computer, we are going to "prepare it" for use on the broken computer. *** Right click this link -> notes/files/ntldrusb.zip <- and choose "Save Target As" (If you are using something besides Internet Explorer 8, it may look a little different, like "Save File As" or similar)

*** You can save it anywhere you want, but I find it easiest to click "My Documents" on the left, then click "Save"

*** Once the download completes, click "Open Folder" (again, slightly different if you don't use Internet Explorer 8 or Windows XP)

*** Right click the file "ntldrusb.zip" and choose "Extract All" (or uncompress it however you want, with a program like WinRAR)

*** Click Next (This is the the Windows XP unpacker, so it might look slightly different to you)

*** Click Next (You could specify a different location under "Browse" if you wanted)

*** Click Finish (a new folder window will open up since "Show extracted files" is selected)

*** In the new folder that opened up, double click "HPUSBFW.EXE"

*** Click Run

***

Change the File System to "FAT" (It's possible that for usb flash drives over 2gigs you can select FAT32 and it still work, but I'm not sure. I'm fairly certain NTFS will not work however and will give an error of "Long filename protection enabled see the LOCK command for more details, but again, details are still sketchy at this point) Twitter user @UltorOfficial suggests that if the system you are using to do the formatting is Windows 7, that you choose FAT32 as choosing FAT just gave him a black screen

Now if you happen to have more than one device plugged in via USB, I'd recommend disconnecting the other device before going on. If you can't , you can make sure that you are formatting the right hard drive by matching up the letter under "Device" and "My Computer". The "Volume Label" will also match.

***

This is really important, IT WILL DELETE EVERYTHING ON THAT DRIVE (Usually if you just bought a new drive it will be empty instead of all the folders that I have listed in the example)

*** Click "Create a DOS startup disk"

*** Click the dots button (this will open to file browser window)

Find the uncompressed "ntldrusb" folder, if you followed my instructions it will be in "My Documents", so click the plus sign beside "My Documents"

*** There's that ntldrusb folder, click the plus sign by it

*** Click the folder named "dos system files" then click "OK"

*** You can rename it to something else in the "Volume Label" field if you want (don't have spaces), this makes it easy to see what it's for when you find it behind the computer desk a year from now. Then click "Start"

*** If you were sure it's okay, click "Yes"

*** It will say "Formatting the device.." for a few moments.

*** Okay close out that window and you should be back at the ntldrusb folder, double click "putonusb" to open it

*** We should now be in the "putonusb" folder. Click "Edit" then "Select All"

All the files will get a blue highlight. Click "Edit" then "Copy"

*** Allright now click the Start button then "My Computer" and then double click your usb drive to open it

*** Now you are in the USB NTLDR drive (or whatever you named it). Click "Edit" and "Paste"

*** Once the files are done copying, close all those file windows. Like the drive we just copied files into. Now in the bottom right corner is the system tray, click the green arrow.

*** It will pop up the dialog to "Safetly remove USB Mass Storage Device - Drive(your drive letter:) Click that

*** Now place our flash drive into the broken computer. Turn it on and press whatever button is needed on the BIOS to bring up "Boot Options" and boot from the USB drive. Usually something like Del, F2, F12, Enter, Esc Okay the first time we boot up with this flash drive you get this screen.

You should notice that the line on my screen that says 0 : C:* type=c (Win95 Fat32 LBA), size = 7929824 KB, Lba Pos=63 Your screen should say something similar and the KB size will look "close" to the number of MB you have.

*** Press the Y key on the keyboard, and it should modify the usb drive to the way we need for it to boot the computer. Check for it to say "Writing bootsector complete".

*** What? You didn't see that message but instead got an error that says: """ Windows has disabled direct disk access to protect your long filenames. To override this protection, see the LOCK /? command for more information.

The system has been halted. Press Ctrl Alt Del to restart your computer. """ If you got that error message, restart the computer, get back to the screen you just saw where I asked you to press Y, but press N instead. You will get a normal "C:" prompt. Type: bootpart You will get a screen that lists the drives like this: Physical number of disk 0 : 35ba277 0 : C:* type=e (Win95 XInt 13), size= 127968 KB, Lba Pos=63 Physical number of disk 1 : 1c7dd491 1 : D:* type=7 (HPFS/NTFS), size= 7000000 KB, Lba Pos=2048 (Notice how I put the C and D in bold) Now my system is setup to automatically type: bootpart winnt boot:c: But apparently that didn't work, so you'll need to see what is the correct letter that matches your USB drive in the "boot:c:" part. So try to determine the letter that corresponds to your USB drive, and type the command with that letter. For example, if the correct letter is "D" then the command will end in "boot:d:". IE: bootpart winnt boot:d: Type that and press Enter, then it will ask if you want to write the bootsector, press "Y" on the keyboard, and move on to the next step. *** Press Ctrl Alt Delete to reboot the computer. (Or just power it off and on) *** Now you should get the screen with the 10 options, try all 10 till you find one that boots. If you go through all 10 options and couldn't get back into Windows. I recommend the next step of a "Repair Install" detailed here: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html *** Fixing windows once inside: Go back to http://ntldrismissing.com/ and pick back up after the step where you go through the 10 choices

*** Hey if it worked for you, how about a donation :-) I'm Miles Comer (on twitter as @ntldrismissing (previously @kilotech) )and I developed this "solution" back in 2002 when I had to fix my relatives computer without me standing over their shoulder. If I fixed it for you, might I humbly suggest you use a credit card or PayPal to donate for $10 or whatever amount you choose. PayPal email address: milescomer@gmail.com If you don't have a credit card or pay pal account, you can mail a check to me, just send an email to milescomer@gmail.com and I'll let you know my mailing address. If you want to say "thanks, it worked for me", just add a comment to this blog post "Sing your praises here".

I added this button because I am sometimes told that the other Donate button doesn't show up.