# Windows 7 64bit NTLDR is missing



## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

Well this shouldn't happen on windows 7 for one thing. I have no other operating systems installed on the system. 

This is occurring on the comp in my system specs.

I have 4 hard drives in the system. One 80GB drive for the OS only and then 3 data drives. Two 250GB drives and one 1TB drive. I use the 1TB drive for backup and all my games, one 250gb drive has my music movies and pictures on it the other just has misc things on it. 

When I disconnect the three data drives and only leave the 80GB system drive plugged in windows 7 boots just fine. When I connect the three other drives the post screen stays at checking DMI pool for awhile and then the NTLDR is missing pops up. 

I tried repairing the installation with the Win7 install disc but it did nothing. Also reset the bios/cmos. nothing so far. 

Don't know what to do at this point. 

Any help is appreciated.

UPDATE: Just noticed in the bios my 1TB drive is not detected but in a weird way, it is in there but the bios does not show its name like the other hard drives its just blank, like the bios detects it but doesn't know what it is. This has never happened before.  


Currently posting from my backup comp: Athlon X2 4200+ skt939, 2gb DDR400, HD3650 512mb GDDR2. stock everything


*FIXED*

*My 1TB hard drive died and would not let the system boot.*


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## francis511 (Apr 15, 2010)

Check the boot sequence in your bios and make sure that it`s pointing to the drive with the OS


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

francis511 said:


> Check the boot sequence in your bios and make sure that it`s pointing to the drive with the OS


was the first thing I did.


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## francis511 (Apr 15, 2010)

http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm

^^ has worked for me previously. Otherwise google a lot is all I can suggest.


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

francis511 said:


> http://tinyempire.com/notes/ntldrismissing.htm
> 
> ^^ has worked for me previously. Otherwise google a lot is all I can suggest.



I was using Google but did not find this link you posted. I will check it out.


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

When I goto the link in that article for win vista/7 it says server not found, neosmart.net or what ever.

the rest of the article is only for win XP


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## Mussels (Apr 15, 2010)

i know what you've done.


when you installed the OS, you left all the other drives connected - and you didnt bother ordering them (you know, if the OS drive is on SATA, make sure its SATA 0).

Windows installed the bootloader to the first drive it found, and then installed on the drive you chose later - and you've formatted or removed the drive it had the loader on (when this happens, the drive with the loader must be set as the boot drive in the BIOS - NOT the one with the OS on it)

win7 is smart enough to boot without a loader if its the only drive on the system, and theres an OS on it.


unplug all the other drives, boot from the 7 DVD, do a startup repair. problem solved. (and next time, install the OS when just one drive is connected... why dont people ever learn that?)


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

Mussels said:


> i know what you've done.
> 
> 
> when you installed the OS, you left all the other drives connected - and you didnt bother ordering them (you know, if the OS drive is on SATA, make sure its SATA 0).
> ...



Sorry to burst your bubble mussels but I did disconnect all other drives when I installed Win7 the first time. I KNOW I disconnected then because I am SUPER paranoid when I format a HD. 



> "unplug all the other drives, boot from the 7 DVD, do a startup repair. problem solved."


 When I choose to repair it checks for problems but it doesn't find any. 

The weird thing it that it auto seachs and find the drive as drive D: and not drive C which is the drive my windows install is on.


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## Mussels (Apr 15, 2010)

theres only two reasons for this error:

the NT loader is missing (formatted drive etc)
the NT loader is on a different drive to what the BIOS has selected as the boot drive

since you ruled out the OS drive being formatted, as well as ruling out the BIOS having the wrong drive selected, it was the only logical alternative left.

are you sure the BIOS isnt automatically changing which drive is the boot drive when you reconnect the others?


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

Mussels said:


> theres only two reasons for this error:
> 
> the NT loader is missing (formatted drive etc)
> the NT loader is on a different drive to what the BIOS has selected as the boot drive
> ...



How would I check if it was doing this?

I have an idea I going to leave all the drives connected and then repair and see if the helps.


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## Mussels (Apr 15, 2010)

Nick89 said:


> How would I check if it was doing this?
> 
> I have an idea I going to leave all the drives connected and then repair and see if the helps.



plug all drives in, go into BIOS. check boot order.


oh and dont take this the wrong way, but i see a lot of people who pick "HDD" as the first boot option, without bothering to go into the other menus to choose WHICH hard drive to boot from.


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## francis511 (Apr 15, 2010)

Nick89 said:


> When I goto the link in that article for win vista/7 it says server not found, neosmart.net or what ever.
> 
> the rest of the article is only for win XP



Yeah it was the xp one I meant. 
Do what mussels said and then make sure there`s nothing about this on the microsoft website


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

Mussels said:


> plug all drives in, go into BIOS. check boot order.
> 
> 
> oh and dont take this the wrong way, but i see a lot of people who pick "HDD" as the first boot option, without bothering to go into the other menus to choose WHICH hard drive to boot from.



I know, NOW the fun begins, I cant change any of the hard drives in boot priority. It shows 4 slots my 80GB with Win7 on it is first the one of my 250 is second the third slot where my 1TB drive is is blank and the 4th slot is my other 250 GB drive. I cant change any of them. WTF.


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

My 1TB HD has died from what I can tell. I put it in this comp and it could not detect it and the computer would not boot with it installed. 

I only had my games on this drive so it is not a total loss.


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

Posting from my main comp now. Took out the 1TB HD and now the comp works perfectly. F$&K!

Now I have to see if I can RMA the drive.


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## H82LUZ73 (Apr 15, 2010)

Is that a Seagate drive by chance? They are famous for that.If yes there RMA process is easy as cake had one of there 500 gig drives do the same thing like its firmware got up and left.


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## IINexusII (Apr 15, 2010)

throw in the windows 7 dvd and do a startup repair. you might need to do it twice but it usualy repairs the boot to the correct drive


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

H82LUZ73 said:


> Is that a Seagate drive by chance? They are famous for that.If yes there RMA process is easy as cake had one of there 500 gig drives do the same thing like its firmware got up and left.



Its a Western digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 32mb cache



IINexusII said:


> throw in the windows 7 dvd and do a startup repair. you might need to do it twice but it usualy repairs the boot to the correct drive



No need, taking out the 1TB drive has fixed the problem.


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## ste2425 (Apr 15, 2010)

my mobo does something similar, if i put in sata drives it wont let me change the boot order and puts the last hdd i plug in as the one to boot from, an idea, put all ur hdd's in including the 1TB, except ur os drive turn on then off then put ur os drive in, if it works your 1TB isn't defunct if it dont all youve lost is time and you no next time not to listen to me


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## Mussels (Apr 15, 2010)

changing the boot order is weird on some boards - i've had some that required you to use the numpad +/- keys... which my dinovo edge didnt have, lol.

but yeah at least its solved. weird that its a dud drive causing it.


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## Nick89 (Apr 15, 2010)

what can you guys recommend for a good reliable 1TB hard drive?

I'm thinking about this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136313


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## wrathchild_67 (Apr 15, 2010)

Samsung F3 all the way. The RE3 drives are a ripoff. You're paying for slightly tweaked firmware and the proper TLER for RAID controllers to not kill the array when there are hiccups.


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## Mussels (Apr 16, 2010)

i go for samsung F3 as well.


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