NTLDR missing and boot problems???

When you boot into your XP, the most probable message you could see one day is

Sometimes you may have a boot if you restart... But this is for those who don't...

This problem could be because of any of the following:
1. Configuration changes to boot.ini file in your system drive (C:\ for most)
2. New hard disk added to your computer and it may be set a primary
3. Some fault in HDD cable
4. File or partition corruption
5. Corrupt boot sector/master boot sector
6. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source

Let me give you the solutions for the above problems:

1. Configuration changes to boot.ini file in your system drive (C:\ for most)

Your boot.ini file in system drive must point to the correct location of the drive in which you've installed windows. Or you can take this

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Open notepad and copy the above and paste into it. Save it as boot.ini.
NOTE: This is only for those who've installed XP in partition 1.

For those who need an auto recovery follow this:

1. Insert Windows XP CD and Enter Windows XP Recovery Console

2. When you reach command line just type following command and press enter

bootcfg/rebuild

3. The bootcfg utility will scan your hard disk for XP installation

4. Now it'll ask Add installation to boot list?(Yes/No/All)

Now type Y and press Enter

5. Now it'll ask Enter Load identifier:

This is the name of your operating system. Type Windows XP Professional and press Enter

6. Now it'll ask Enter OS load options:

Now type /Fastdetect and press Enter

7. Now take the CD out and type Exit and press Enter to reboot.

2. New hard disk added to your computer and it may be set a primary

If you've just added a new hard disk to your computer, you have to go to your control panel and make it secondary and your old hard disk as primary.

This varies for different motherboards and for those who need assistance in this, contact me.

3. Some fault in HDD cable

In this case, first check whether you HDD cable is plugged tightly and see that it's not damaged.
This will be a rare case but it's not bad to check it.

4. File or partition corruption

This may be related to boot.ini and also you may have to copy certain files.

ntldr
ntdetect.com
boot.ini (This can be restored as discussed above in soln. 1)
ntbootdd.sys

You can copy these files either from your friends computer from their C:\ drive and paste it in your C:\ drive by booting into your system through any other OS CD.

But don't worry there's auto recovery for this too in case...

1. Insert Windows XP CD and Enter Windows XP Recovery Console

2. When you reach command line, type in the following and press enter after each line

copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

NOTE: Here d:\ denotes the drive of CD/DVD ROM and it can change for your system and c:\ denotes where Windows XP is installed in your system.

3. Now reboot and your problem will mostly be cleared.

5. Corrupt boot sector/master boot sector

This is the most simple step of all...

1. Insert Windows XP CD and Enter Windows XP Recovery Console

2. When you reach command line, type in the following and press enter

fixmbr

3. Now reboot.

Here mbr is the master boot record and has details regarding the current boot sector of XP.

6. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source

This is the most common mistake that we do and nothing to blame our computer.

Check up your BIOS and see that you've selected HDD as your boot device and not floppy disk or CD ROM.

Sometimes in our BIOS we would've enabled boot from removable media. Now we would have plugged in our pen drive and when we restart our system, the boot device will be our pen drive and this too may cause not to boot. So just remove your pen drive and there you see windows booting.