75ZT Community

On normal boot up i got a black screen with white writing on it. At the bottom it read = NTLDR is missing.. press ctr alt and del to continue.. But all that did was to boot me back into the same screen!! So I phoned a techie friend who informed me that it was not possible to recover from that situation!

But, I have a copy of Norton Ghost on floppy and had used it to copy my C/drive to a file on my G/sata drive some months ago. AHA! I'm thinking, I can ghost back and all will be well again. So I duly used ghost to copy the saved file onto my C/drive, then rebooted.. And got the same deaded black screen again with NTLDR is missing etc....

Now I'm nothing if not persistant. Sooo, the only other screen i could get were the BIOS.. So I went in there, and altered the boot up to First A drive.. 2nd boot CDROM... 3rd boot Hard drive.. Then I selected the "optomise settings" thingy, saved and rebooted.. And Viola it worked!! I am up and running again.. But ----

What should I have done?? Could I have replaced the file NTLDR or something?
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Hi James

Seems there are a number of possibilities that can cause this error.

Have a read of this site has several answers.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Guess you must have done one of them by trial and error.

Comanche

Thanks comanche.

Yep looks like I got lucky when I changed the "boot from" sequence. As aparently that's one of the most common causes of the "failure to find a boot source".

Sometimes my ferklin around gets me more than my face slapped eh?
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Update-- The dreaded black screen kept coming back!! So I took it to a PC shop, and to cut a long story short, graphics card was kaputt, no new ones that would fit my m/board -- Total cost of replacing all bits was £430!!! Now I am reloading all my programmes.. Flight Simulator X alone has 24 CD.s plus two downloads..
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James always ask before here purchasing,
I still have several AGP Graphics cards new in boxes.

Hiya John.. I will do as you say in future. Thanks for the info..

Re the graphics card, what the shop were saying was that my m/board was too old to take a modern card, so I decided to update everything but..

I didn't expect the new m/board not to have ide slots for my hard drives.. So that meant replacing my C/dive with a SATA.. And the subsequent reloading of all my stuff..

I have more or less sorted everything now but.. The one programme I use a lot wont work! i.e. Cyberlink Power Director 6.. Its a video editing programmer. Cyberlink are trying to sort it, but so far, with no success..
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James.uk wrote:Update-- The dreaded black screen kept coming back!! So I took it to a PC shop, and to cut a long story short, graphics card was kaputt, no new ones that would fit my m/board -- Total cost of replacing all bits was £430!!! Now I am reloading all my programmes.. Flight Simulator X alone has 24 CD.s plus two downloads..
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You could have bought a new PC for that.

You can still get PCI and AGP cards so am not sure why they say no new ones would fit your board??

Unfortunately i wasn't aware of that at the time..

I don't mind the upgrades, but I did NOT want to lose my C/drive info!!! Still... Spilt milk now innit..
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I had the same thingy on my Evesham PC, had to get a replacement operating system CD. Been fine after that.

The problem gets worseee!!!

I took this PC back to the shop today as I couldn't get some progs to load... neither did they!!! But they are "aquiring " another copy for me to try..

But now my mouse icon (lil arrow) "sticks" whenever I hold it down on scrollbars, or a menu i wish to move out of my way. I have to left click again to make it "let go" ... I HATE COMPUTERS!!!!

PS I have run anti virus and malware stuff, they found nothing..
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If your mouse is battery-powered then it might be getting low on power. Alternatively, if it's cabled then something as daft as dirt on the sensor could be the problem. For example, Apples Mighty Mouse (the one with the little grey scroll ball in it) was infamous for getting dirt under it's ball and causing erratic scrolling behaviour. A similar thing could be happening to your mouse. If you can get one of those little compressed air cans and squirt some air in and around the buttons and scroll wheel it may dislodge any dirt that may be affecting the micro buttons/contacts etc.

I sorted it! (I have the ball on top type of mouse) ..

long story short. I uninstalled IE8 that the shop inadvertantly downloaded with win updates, and reinstalled IE7. that gave me my system restore back (it was missing) I was then able to restore things to before the shop got it ..
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MrB wrote:You could have bought a new PC for that.

You can still get PCI and AGP cards so am not sure why they say no new ones would fit your board??

Cos instead of selling a graphics card for a few quid they extracted £430?????

For me this is an ongoing saga.

My "new" PC is full of hiccups.. Med player 11 wont play mpeg2 videos, my Autoroute 2004 wont load, Only Roxio basic will load, not the full version. WIN6 classic doesn't do anything when items on the drop down menu are selected. WIN DVD5 closes when I try to move one frame either way.

Some of the folders normally found under -- C/doc and settings/user/local settings--- have vanished? e.g. no temp internet folder? And that's with the option to "show all hidden files and folders ticked...

I get the feeling the copy of WinXP pro they sold me and loaded is faulty. although it is a genuine XP pro disk. So I am seriously thinking of borrowing a copy from a friend to reformat My C/drive and start all over again by first loading his copy..

I think the PC is OK mechanically, but the software is a pain, Oh and I can't get any copy of AOL to work after loading from CD, that includes d/loading the latest one from their website... So I have to get my email from AOL.coms website..

Add the PC costs, to the cars wheel bearings and sensors etc, and this months "unexpected" bills exceed £1,000 so far, and the cars MOT is due this week. and-- I know it needs front disks and pads really.. *sighs*

Overall it's not been the best month I can remember innit?
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Next time James, bring it to me...I could've fixed it for you for £50.00...

*Makes note to save ALL old hardwear after all....*

Ellow Zeb..

Next time I will do what I always did in the past.. Fix it myself!

I just need to find the time to reformatt this thing and start over again with a "Known good copy" of WinXP ...

This weekend should be a picnic eh? I intend coming over on the Sunday, not sure about times, I may get there after everyone else has gone home!
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James.uk wrote:Ellow Zeb..

Next time I will do what I always did in the past.. Fix it myself!

I just need to find the time to reformatt this thing and start over again with a "Known good copy" of WinXP ...

This weekend should be a picnic eh? I intend coming over on the Sunday, not sure about times, I may get there after everyone else has gone home!
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T'will be a grand picnic..

Put a 'wanted' ad up about XP..someone might bring you a copy to try...

Hiya Zeb.. Nice idea, thanks for that, but I have a couple of mates who have offered to loan me their copies of WinXP Pro, but.. I am putting off the reformatt as long as poss coz I jus know reloading all my progs will take foreverrrr.. arrgghhhh...
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