Cant boot - “NTLDR IS MISSING, press Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart – 240 days old

[bobbo]

Can't boot into Win 7 32 bit or Win 7 64 bit of my dual boot system, getting a message “NTLDR IS MISSING, press Ctrl/Alt/Del to restart.

In my previous thread, I was able to reinstall my display adapter drivers by restoring an image of my 32 bit Win 7. When I did that, I failed to designate a drive letter, which resulted in the 32 bit platform not showing in the 64 bit platform in My Computer because the order of all drive letters were changed, and some apps not being able to open.
Prior to the following changes, I was able to boot into both platforms successfully.

Its going to be a bit complicated to describe what changes I made, so please have patience with me (again). Since the 32 bit W7 did not appear in My Computer because it didn't have a drive letter, I decided to reassign drive letters to enable to access the apps that weren't running. Drive C: was in use, So I made the following changes in Computer/Manage/Disk Management to what I thought I remembered them to be before restoring the image in order to make Drive C available for the 32 bit platform:

Disk 0:
In the 64 bit layout in My Computer, the following partition letters were changed. All partitions are NFTS.
C: Win 7 (Healthy System boot, page file Active) became D: Win 7
F: became E:
The unlettered partition Win 32 bit was given the letter C: I thought by naming the unlettered partition as C: it would restore the original partition letter order when I rebooted. I was wrong; it disabled my computer and couldn't reboot.
H: became F:

Disk 1:
D: became G:
E: became H:

External drive L: became M:

I believe that I need to run a repair by booting with the Win 7 install disks, and I am requesting a step by step repair procedure from my gurus here at Bitbenders. I should have come here first before making the above changes.

[dolittlejerry]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ir.html?filter[2]=Performance%20Maintenance
Try this. Good luck

[bobbo]

Thanks for the link Jerry. Reporting from my repaired computer Ran the repair from the Win 7 install disk and both platforms are running again. I will have to look over my settings to verify that all apps are functional.

[Michael_Horatio]

Thanks for the link Jerry. Reporting from my repaired computer Ran the repair from the Win 7 install disk and both platforms are running again. I will have to look over my settings to verify that all apps are functional.

Hmmm, do you have another hard drive/partition in the mix with Windows xp on it Bobbo? As far as I know, Windows seven does not even use ntloader...Maybe Grogan can comment on that scenario.

[bobbo]

Hmmm, do you have another hard drive/partition in the mix with Windows xp on it Bobbo? As far as I know, Windows seven does not even use ntloader...Maybe Grogan can comment on that scenario.

Just two hard drives with Win 7 32 bit on one partition and Win 7 64 bit on another; both on the same HD. The other HD is for misc apps and storage.

[Grogan]

Somehow, something that was used may have written back a Windows XP boot sector. (That's where the ntldr message may have come into play... You're right that there is no ntldr anymore, I think the boot program that the code in the boot sector looks for is just called "loader" now.

When you have Windows XP, and you are booting it with the Vista or Windows 7 boot loader, it uses the old Windows XP boot loader for that session, where it uses boot.ini and stuff.

Another alternative cause might be it was trying to boot from the wrong drive or partition, something that used to have Windows XP on it and still has a Windows XP boot sector.

[Michael_Horatio]

that's curious. I have never seen that ntldr error on a windows 7 system with no legacy (pre windows vista) operating systems installed. If you run the bcdedit command without any switches now - does it just show the two operating systems?

[zeke36]

This sounds eerily similar to what happened to my attempted image recovery a couple days ago. I ran the start-up repair twice with out luck. That article says maybe 3 times is a charm.

[bobbo]

When I changed the letter designations as described in my initial post, it cause the NTLDR is Missing problem. Running the Repair function from the Win 7 Install disk has restored access to both the 32 bit and 64 bit Win 7 platforms, however on running Disk Management in each platform, Disk 0 and Disk 1 are reversed. In Win 7 32 bit, Disk Management shows Win 7 64 but and Win 7 32 bit on Disk 1 and in the 64 bit Disk Management shows both Win 7's on Disk 0.

Disk Management in 64 Bit Win 7 shows both Win 7's on Disk 0.
dev mgr 64 bit win.jpg

Disk Management in 32 Bit Win 7 shows both win 7's on Disk 1
disk mgt 32 bit win 7.jpg

Regarding the Acronis TI failure:
Previously when restoring an image I could start the restore from within Windows, which required a reboot at which time the image would commence and continue until the image was completely restored. Now, after the reboot, the restore process will start, but reach a point and abruptly cease, probably because it cannot locate the partition to restore to. If I use the Bootable Rescue Disk, it mislabels the source of my images to C: with the list of images,instead of I: where the images are designated as stored, and doesn't provide the correct location for a restore, only showing C: and another partition, omitting the correct partition for the image restoration. I have no idea how to correct the problem. Currently I have an Image of the 64 Bit Win 7 that precedes all the screw ups I created when I changed the letter designations, and if I can restore it, it might be able to correct much of the mess I made.

Is it normal for the two Win 7's to display different drive for their locations? If not, can it be corrected?

[bobbo]

BTW, The Win 7 32 bit platform seems to be fully functional, whereas the 64 bit Win 7 has some problems of some apps not found when attempting to run them; again, probably because of the changing of partition letters I did. I may just dump the 64 bit for the time being until such time as I can restore it's earlier functional image.

[Grogan]

When you did your startup repair, you may have used the 32 bit DVD when you should have used the 64 bit. The 64 bit OS was probably the one that actually had the active boot loader.

As for why your drive letters changed, when you do screwy things, screwy things happen with Windows. (Why would you make a drive with no primary partitions your first drive? Did you connect your SATA cables differently at some point? Perhaps that's what caused the drive letter shift? It shouldn't (no primary partitions), but something did. Why do you even need a complex partition setup with BOTH 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 7? You could just use the 64 bit, it runs 32 bit programs natively. The only reason might be that you want to run 16 bit or DOS programs and if that's the case, consider if it's really worth it)

Once Windows takes it upon itself to change the drive letters because of partition tomfoolery... good luck. I have never been able to fix that. Windows will not let you change them back. About all you can do is reinstall any broken applications (install them to the same directory, especially if they won't uninstall) due to the changed drive letter. I've seen that happen, for example, when an OEM partition somehow gets deleted and then Windows is repaired so it can boot again (e.g. fixmbr and fixboot, or startup repair). I've seen it where the C drive is gone, and Windows has assigned H for what's now the only partition on the drive and nothing will get it to change as well.

So I think you either have to make the best of your situation, restore a full disk image, or start over. (i.e. Do a clean install of the 64 bit Windows. It probably will preserve your 32 bit setup anyway)

[Michael_Horatio]

Regarding the Acronis TI failure:
Previously when restoring an image I could start the restore from within Windows, which required a reboot at which time the image would commence and continue until the image was completely restored. Now, after the reboot, the restore process will start, but reach a point and abruptly cease, probably because it cannot locate the partition to restore to. If I use the Bootable Rescue Disk, it mislabels the source of my images to C: with the list of images,instead of I: where the images are designated as stored, and doesn't provide the correct location for a restore, only showing C: and another partition, omitting the correct partition for the image restoration. I have no idea how to correct the problem. Currently I have an Image of the 64 Bit Win 7 that precedes all the screw ups I created when I changed the letter designations, and if I can restore it, it might be able to correct much of the mess I made.

Is it normal for the two Win 7's to display different drive for their locations? If not, can it be corrected?

of the three times over the years I have tried Acronis TI free, it has failed every time at some point- usually wouldn't even create an image properly, but once having had an image stored it failed to restore it.

[bobbo]

I guess my first plan of action will to try another repair with the 64 bit Win 7 install disk. If that works,... great. If not, I'll start over with a reinstall of 64 bit Win 7. The main reason that I installed 64 bit Win 7 was that I had purchased additional memory, only to learn that the 32 bit Win 7 couldn't utilize it, so I went to the 64 bit version. My ultimate goal was to hone the 64 bit platform until I was fully satisfied with it and then dump the 32 bit one.

[bobbo]

I have been using a paid version of Acronis TI for a number of years and it has saved my bacon more times than I can remember. It's failure this time is probably a result of my changing the partition letters which was the origin of my whole problem.

[Grogan]

Also, when you image drives you are best to image the entire drive, not individual partitions. In modern imaging software, you will have the choice of what to restore (checkboxes) when you to go restore the image so it doesn't limit your options like it would have in Ghost or something in the 90's.

A full disk image has the MBR and partition tables and if restoring just a single partition messes things up, you can always go back and restore that.

[bobbo]

Also, when you image drives you are best to image the entire drive, not individual partitions. In modern imaging software, you will have the choice of what to restore (checkboxes) when you to go restore the image so it doesn't limit your options like it would have in Ghost or something in the 90's.

A full disk image has the MBR and partition tables and if restoring just a single partition messes things up, you can always go back and restore that.

I don't think I have seen that option in Acronis TI. I have always selected the C: drive, whether in 32 or 64 bit Windows. I have imaged other partitions just to save some important files, but have mostly imaged C:

[bobbo]

I have noted that when in Win 7 64 bit, The operating systems are on Disk 0, whereas when in Win 7 32 bit, the operating systems are on disk 1. Is this significant?

[Grogan]

Disk 0 and Disk 1 etc. refer to the physical disks, as enumerated. (Drive letters are another matter)

I would certainly not expect Windows to enumerate the disks differently unless their physical connections have changed, let alone differently in two installations of Windows 7. (Does it still show this the same way in both OSes, or were those screenshots taken at different times?)

Perhaps "Disk 0" and "Disk 1" aren't necessarily their physical positions on the disk controller, but only the order that Windows processes them in. Silly Windows. I've not noticed such a thing before and I can't say if it's significant for two copies of the OS to detect disks in different order. It's certainly not mandatory that an operating system detect them in bus order though, it would be a matter of policy.

It really shouldn't have anything to do with the drive letter assignment problem though as both Windows drive letters (C and D) are on the same disk. I also see that it's changed all the other drive letters around... did that always happen and/or is it still the same way now?

[bobbo]

Disk 0 and Disk 1 etc. refer to the physical disks, as enumerated. (Drive letters are another matter)

I would certainly not expect Windows to enumerate the disks differently unless their physical connections have changed, let alone differently in two installations of Windows 7. (Does it still show this the same way in both OSes, or were those screenshots taken at different times?)

Perhaps "Disk 0" and "Disk 1" aren't necessarily their physical positions on the disk controller, but only the order that Windows processes them in. Silly Windows. I've not noticed such a thing before and I can't say if it's significant for two copies of the OS to detect disks in different order. It's certainly not mandatory that an operating system detect them in bus order though, it would be a matter of policy.

It really shouldn't have anything to do with the drive letter assignment problem though as both Windows drive letters (C and D) are on the same disk. I also see that it's changed all the other drive letters around... did that always happen and/or is it still the same way now?

It still shows this in the same way in both OSes. The screen shots were taken at different time, but the current situation shows them the same as displayed above.

I believe that's what always happened.

[bobbo]

Tried to run a TI restore from within Win 7 32 and part way through the restore, got a blue screen. On restarting, an information window displayed the following:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1000008e
BCP1: C0000005
BCP2: 838D955E
BCP3: AC9C7934
BCP4: 00000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\092412-20904-01.dmp
C:\Users\bobbo\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-39452-0.sysdata.xml

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?link...8&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

Does this help in identifying my image restore problem?

[Grogan]

No, that doesn't provide any useful information. You would have to decode and analyze the crash dump file and even then it's likely to be a red herring.

If you wish to, this utility is an easy way to decode a dump file.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Try opening C:\Windows\Minidump\092412-20904-01.dmp

Personally, I never do that shit from within Windows. If ever I use an imaging program, I do the imaging while booted from its rescue/restoration disk. I never like imaging a live system, with Windows in a running state.

[bobbo]

No, that doesn't provide any useful information. You would have to decode and analyze the crash dump file and even then it's likely to be a red herring.

If you wish to, this utility is an easy way to decode a dump file.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Try opening C:\Windows\Minidump\092412-20904-01.dmp

Personally, I never do that shit from within Windows. If ever I use an imaging program, I do the imaging while booted from its rescue/restoration disk. I never like imaging a live system, with Windows in a running state.

Imaging from within Windows has worked well for me in the past, but I have successfully used the rescue disk to image also. In this case I am unable to restore an image from within Windows or from the rescue disk. I really screwed the pooch when I restored an image without assigning a drive letter, and changed drive letters afterward.