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General discussion

Trying to load windows 98 SE --- NTLDR not found

by Critter_97 Nov 24, 2003 4:24AM PST

I am trying to rebuild my computer. I have an 810MLR motherboard, 512 meg SDRAM, a Maxtor 80 gig 7,200rpm hard drive. The hard drive I am using was originally set up as the second hard drive in a RAID 1 configuration in a windows 2000 computer. The software I need to run needs windows 98 or 98SE. When I use the 98SE boot CD, I get the response that NTLDR is not found, press ctl, alt del. When I put in a boot disk floppy, it is seen (sometimes), but nothing happens or on occasion it gives me the NTLDR not seen response. When I put a windows 2000 or Windows XP CD in, it begins to load. I am thinking I should maybe make a boot floppy for 98SE and add the NTLDR file to it? I have also thought of putting the drive into the windows 2000 machine as slave and telling it to format to fat32. Or, maybe I should download "Maxblaster" for Maxtor hard drives and try to run that. Any help would be appreciated. Steve

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11 Posts
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Re:Trying to load windows 98 SE --- NTLDR not found. Your hard disk is likely NTFS formatted.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Nov 24, 2003 4:32AM PST

The error message is the Windows 98 SE doing an upgrade check and failing. It's just Microsoft's way to telling you the machine can't be upgraded.

If you were to FDISK the drive and DELETE the partitions, then create one partition (format isn't require since 98's setup can do that for you), then you might start your 98 install.

Once you have 98 installed, then you go get drivers for motherboard, video, audio and what else since Microsoft will not fetch or install these for you.

That's it in a nutshell.

Bob

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Re:Re:Trying to load windows 98 SE --- NTLDR not found. Your hard disk is likely NTFS formatted.
by Critter_97 Nov 24, 2003 5:40AM PST

I am not able to Fdisk because I can't get to the A:/ prompt. The machine recognizes the floppy but won't read it. It sometimes just stops to tell me that there is a floppy in the drive and other times it tells me NTLDR isn't present and to press ctl/alt/del. Can I put an NTLDR file on the boot floppy to make it reach the A:/ prompt so I can Fdisk it? Steve

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Diskette.
by Kees Bakker Nov 24, 2003 6:52AM PST

It seems that either the diskette or the drive is defective. Try making a new diskette (download from www.bootdisk.com if necessary) on another PC. If that gives the same symptoms, replace the drive. They are practically free at the moment.

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Re:Diskette.
by Critter_97 Nov 24, 2003 9:42AM PST

I was working on this with a friend. He thought the drive might be defective because of this but it has worked up till now. I just got new diskettes today to try. Thank you. Steve

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Your hard disk is likely NTFS formatted.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Nov 24, 2003 6:54AM PST

"I am not able to Fdisk because I can't get to the A:/ prompt. The machine recognizes the floppy but won't read it. It sometimes just stops to tell me that there is a floppy in the drive and other times it tells me NTLDR isn't present and to press ctl/alt/del. Can I put an NTLDR file on the boot floppy to make it reach the A:/ prompt so I can Fdisk it?"

The answer is no. NT or Windows does not boot this way PLUS it's not what we need. A DOS boot disk that you create elsewhere could be a good idea such as those you can fetch (then run to create the diskette) from http://www.bootdisk.com A tool called DELPART.EXE can be useful if you need to delete NTFS partitions.

It seems you haven't installed this OS before? No problem, but heed my warnings about drivers. You get to do all that work.

In closing, be sure the BIOS is set to boot from A:

Bob

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Re:Your hard disk is likely NTFS formatted.
by Critter_97 Nov 24, 2003 9:46AM PST

Actually I have loaded windows 98 SE before without any problems. I will try delpart.exe and make some new bookdisks at bootdisk.com. I bought some new diskettes in case my old ones were too old. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks. Steve

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Are you sure you're booting from the floppy?
by Keith Marcotte Nov 24, 2003 2:40PM PST

It doesn't sound like it is. Check your BIOS settings to ensure that A: is checked first.

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Re:Are you sure you're booting from the floppy?
by Critter_97 Nov 24, 2003 10:07PM PST

We have it set to boot from the floppy, but it has not been getting to the a:/ prompt. It detects the floppy, but doesn't read it. Then again it would not read the bootable windows 98 se CD when we put that in but would read the windows 2000 CD. The last post that Robert Proffitt answered specifically stated that it would not reach the a:/ prompt. He did not seem concerned, so I think he's saying that with delpart.exe in the floppy it will read from the floppy. I am going to try that tonight. Does that sound logical to you? Steve

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Gotta boot.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Nov 24, 2003 10:33PM PST

You have a non-booting diskette and can't boot the 98 CD.

Two of your options are not working. Looks to me you need to fix one or the other.

In short, aging hardware may boot one CD, but not another. Same goes for that diskette. Looks like repairs and replacements of what doesn't work is needed.

Bob

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To me: not logical at all.
by Kees Bakker Nov 24, 2003 10:45PM PST

If you can't boot from the hard disk, and can't boot from the diskette, you simply have no operating system at all, so nothing that can ever read, let alone execute delpart.exe.
It seems to be true that the boot sector of the hard disk is read before booting from a:, but I don't think this will give rise to the error message about NTLDR.

Best solution maybe the one you suggested yourself: mount the drive as a slave in another computer and repair it there.

Still, if the boot diskette is OK, then I continue suspecting the drive.

We'll see.


Kees

Kees

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SUCCESS!!!!!!
by Critter_97 Nov 25, 2003 12:28PM PST

It was TWO bad bootdisks that caused the problems. As well, I found that delpart.exe was a great tool. Thanks for pointing it out Bob. Thank you all for your help. Steve

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