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NTLDR is Missing - Linux Boot Possible?
Hi all
My colleague just came to ask about recovering his home PC. As the subject really, he is getting the "ntldr is missing" error and I wondered whether it would be possible to boot off a Ubuntu CD to recover data to a memory stick. Does the ntldr error suggest that info is missing from the drive which would stop the Ubuntu method of data recovery? Thanks Phil |
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NTLDR is Missing - Linux Boot Possible?
On 14/06/2011 16:26, TheScullster wrote:
Hi all My colleague just came to ask about recovering his home PC. As the subject really, he is getting the "ntldr is missing" error and I wondered whether it would be possible to boot off a Ubuntu CD to recover data to a memory stick. Does the ntldr error suggest that info is missing from the drive which would stop the Ubuntu method of data recovery? Before getting too involved, the error message often highlights he has left either an 'old school' floppy disk left in the drive, or a removable USB device; memory stick/card or some other storage device which the machine is attempting to boot from, instead of the hard drive. If not, then yeah shouldn't be an issue booting from a Linux Boot CD and getting at that drive's data. -- Adrian C |
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NTLDR is Missing - Linux Boot Possible?
TheScullster wrote:
Hi all My colleague just came to ask about recovering his home PC. As the subject really, he is getting the "ntldr is missing" error and I wondered whether it would be possible to boot off a Ubuntu CD to recover data to a memory stick. Does the ntldr error suggest that info is missing from the drive which would stop the Ubuntu method of data recovery? Thanks Phil That error usually means that boot.ini is corrupt or missing. A corrupt MBR I believe can cause it too. This problem is generally very easy to fix. Windows Recovery Console and running FIXMBR and FIXBOOT normally gets Windows running once again. And no, you shouldn't have any problems reading the drive from another OS. Unless the drive itself is failing, which could be possible with what you told us so far. -- Bill Asus EEE PC 702G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC Xandros Linux (build 2007-10-19 13:03) |
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NTLDR is Missing - Linux Boot Possible?
TheScullster wrote:
Hi all My colleague just came to ask about recovering his home PC. As the subject really, he is getting the "ntldr is missing" error and I wondered whether it would be possible to boot off a Ubuntu CD to recover data to a memory stick. Does the ntldr error suggest that info is missing from the drive which would stop the Ubuntu method of data recovery? Thanks Phil With Ubuntu, you may have a copy of TestDisk on there. If the MBR (sector 0) was totally erased, TestDisk can scan for partitions, and re-create the MBR (minus boot code). So at the very least, you'd have tools available to take a shot at recovery. Once a partition table is in place, if you're lazy, you'd reboot and let Ubuntu discover the new partitions that now exist. You can get more info on TestDisk here (if the machine really is broken). If it's just the "floppy thing", the solution might be very quick, and Ubuntu might not be needed at all. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step To determine what is in a partition, you can also use Synaptic Package Manager, go to the Repository setup, tick all five boxes, click the reload button, then after about 3 minutes of downloads, type "disktype" into the Search box. The "disktype" program can look at a partition, and tell you what type it is (whether it was FAT32, NTFS, EXT2 or whatever). It checks key areas of the partition, to tell what it is. disktype /dev/hda3 That would test the third partition, to see what file system is on there. So that's another way to determine what the file system used to be. You can even use that on a CD or DVD, to determine the formatting. http://disktype.sourceforge.net/ And if you slave that drive to a working Windows computer, you can use this freebee, to try to recover files. One poster claims to have used this on an NTFS partition, and got their data back. One of the many $39.95 data recovery programs, can do that too. http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/Wou...rescue19d.html Paul |
#5
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NTLDR is Missing - Linux Boot Possible?
"Paul" wrote Hi all My colleague just came to ask about recovering his home PC. As the subject really, he is getting the "ntldr is missing" error and I wondered whether it would be possible to boot off a Ubuntu CD to recover data to a memory stick. Does the ntldr error suggest that info is missing from the drive which would stop the Ubuntu method of data recovery? Thanks Phil With Ubuntu, you may have a copy of TestDisk on there. If the MBR (sector 0) was totally erased, TestDisk can scan for partitions, and re-create the MBR (minus boot code). So at the very least, you'd have tools available to take a shot at recovery. Once a partition table is in place, if you're lazy, you'd reboot and let Ubuntu discover the new partitions that now exist. You can get more info on TestDisk here (if the machine really is broken). If it's just the "floppy thing", the solution might be very quick, and Ubuntu might not be needed at all. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Step_By_Step To determine what is in a partition, you can also use Synaptic Package Manager, go to the Repository setup, tick all five boxes, click the reload button, then after about 3 minutes of downloads, type "disktype" into the Search box. The "disktype" program can look at a partition, and tell you what type it is (whether it was FAT32, NTFS, EXT2 or whatever). It checks key areas of the partition, to tell what it is. disktype /dev/hda3 That would test the third partition, to see what file system is on there. So that's another way to determine what the file system used to be. You can even use that on a CD or DVD, to determine the formatting. http://disktype.sourceforge.net/ And if you slave that drive to a working Windows computer, you can use this freebee, to try to recover files. One poster claims to have used this on an NTFS partition, and got their data back. One of the many $39.95 data recovery programs, can do that too. http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/Wou...rescue19d.html Paul Thanks to all respondents. Unfortunately I was given some duff info yesterday and the error relates to BOOTMGR not NTLDR. Much obliged if you could re-visit the question in the later message. Thanks Phil |
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