37. How Do I Correct An NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM Not Found Error

For some reason or other this problem has appeared quite regularly in the XP newsgroups and while it can be an inconvenience - you not being able to boot your pc - the actual remedy is relatively simple. However, although the remedy is simple, the way you go about it will be dependent upon whether you are able to boot your system from the Windows XP CD or whether you need to boot from an older Windows 98/Me startup floppy disk.

Booting directly from the Windows XP CD

Place your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and Reboot your PC.
XP's setup program will automatically start and files will be loaded to memory.
When you reach the Welcome to Setup screen choose the Repair option by pressing R.
This will open the Recovery Console.
The list of Windows installations will appear.
As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1 (one).
You now need to enter your Administrator password to gain access. If you are using Windows XP Home the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter.
Now enter the following depending upon which file you need to replace. In both instances replace the 'X' with the drive letter of your CD-ROM.

COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C\:

COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:\

Finally remove your XP CD from the CD-ROM and then type Exit.
Reboot your machine to see if the the problem has been cured.

Using a Windows 98/Me Startup Disk

Insert a Windows 98 startup disk into your floppy drive and reboot your machine.
From the floppy menu make sure that you boot with CD-ROM support.
Once you are at the DOS 'A' prompt insert your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM.
Next, at the 'A' prompt type X (where X is the drive letter of your CD-ROM).
The DOS prompt letter should now change to that of your CD-ROM's drive letter.
Now type: cd i386 (the cd in this case means change directory).
You should now have access to the i386 directory on your CD-ROM.
Finally you need to copy either the NTLDR or the NTDETECT files from the i386 directory to the root of your C:/ drive.
After copying has been completed Reboot your machine to check that the problem has been solved.