can't boot from floppy or cd

[oatesj77]

got a new mombo, cpu and ram. tried starting up and got an error "ntldr is missing" so i tried booting from my w2k cd, and got a mesage "non bootable disk" then i went ahead and made some boot disks from the cd on another computer and tried booting from them, same thing, non bootable disk. what gives?

i'm probably just going to pull the drives and format them tomorrow unless anyone has any ideas.

thanks

[tpoynton]

is this the same computer as in your previous "no post" thread?

do the disks boot up in another computer?

can you boot into safe mode?

here is an interesting find from a google search - http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

I keep a copy of Knoppix (or Damn Small Linux) around just for things like this - it allows you to quickly determine if problems are due to a "windows" thing or a more hardware-related thing. this sounds like something with hardware...

[IanS]

Have you set the boot order and it is actually attempting to boot from the floppy (or CD) rather than failing to boot from the HD and defaulting to the alternative device?

And, as above, do the floppy and CD's allow you to boot on other machines?

I like the Knoppix idea :)

[oatesj77]

knoppix eh? i tried with a linux live cd (ubuntu version) but am unfamiliar with linux. i was able to see the drives, but couldn't do anything with them. wouldn't allow me to browse them or format either. I will grab knoppix and try that if you think i will have more luck. *edit* doesn't look like knoppix is that small, 715 mb, too big to fit on a cd. you have a location where i can get a version that will fit. i looked hereknoppix (knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html) and everything ot too big for a cd.

i don't know what is on the drives, but was assumung there was an operating system on one of them, i think my best bet will be to pull the drives one-by-one and reformat them in another machine, thought i am wondering if there might be a conflict with drive letters?

and yeah, it is sorta the same machine as earlier. turned out it was the cpu that was toast, so now i have a new mombo, cpu and ram, so basically a new machine.

thanks

[tpoynton]

SO you could boot into ubuntu linux? if so, you should be able to do a clean install of windows by booting from the CD - you can format the drive as part of the install...you shouldnt need knoppix, which is designed primarily to run as a "live" linux distribution, if you can get into the OS in ubuntu (which i am not familiar with...)

i'm no linux expert, but i do know you have to mount the drives before you can do anything with them...regardless, it sounds like a clean windows installation will do the trick as the hardware now seems to work...maybe there is something wrong with the win2k CD?

As IanS said, be sure to set the boot order in the BIOS; if you dont put the CD before the hard drive it wont boot...but if you booted to Linux off of a CD that is probably not the issue...

[MTsymbal]

Hey,

I'm new here but I'm a computer tech that works at a hospital...

Heads up, the NTLDR missing file is an essential file used to boot up windows.
A simple restore or reinstall of windows will solve the problem.

Now, to get your floppy or cd-rom drive to work, you'll need to get into the systems CMOS - BIOS. From there, verify that the boot order is set to CD-ROM first, more than likely its booting your hard drive first.

Hope this helps. –MT

[oatesj77]

thanks all, thing i got it all figured out.turns out my cd doesn't work any more, i couldn't boot from it on my other machine either. in the mean time i've been using the ubunto live cd to get things going.

thanks for all the help