Ok, this isn't your usual problem, and so I am going to need some major help here this time around.
The situation is, I am working on a laptop that was deliberately sabotaged. The person who sabotaged it was supposed to fix it for the owner, but this person got greedy, and sabotaged it because he wanted it, so he was going to pass it off as not working. Now I have possession of this laptop, and I have to fix it so the owner can have a working laptop again.
So here is the scoop, it's a Dell Inspiron 1100 with Windows XP, and what happened was, the person who sabotaged it deleted the BOOT.INI file so now all I get is a NTLDR is missing at the boot. The problem is, the CD drive doesn't work, so I can't re-install or anything! Plus, for some reason, I can't boot off of my external CD-RW drive either. I CAN though boot off of my USB flash drive, which has 128 MB.
So... any thoughts? My biggest question is WHY can't I boot off of my external drive?
Because you probably have to have drivers for the external CD/RW drive, whereas a flash drive will usually install itself automatically.
it looks like you have more problems than just cd rom.. buy a new one then load the file in and throw the old cd rom at the person who f*cked it up lol
Why is the post I made last night not here?
I thought "Not 'too long; didnt read'" when I first read this thread title.
I felt that needed to be said.
That "r.o.f" dude probably wasn't reading right since this is a labtop but whatever...
That's one messed up problem... You can load off the flash drive, but not the external... huh.
Ok... NEW UPDATE!
I am very close to fixing this problem. I have narrowed down two ways to get into this laptop and fix the NTLDR problem. These are the solutions I want to focus on, so if I can get help, I will be very very gratefull.
OK with that said, here are my two ideas.
#1. I have gotten ahold of a 1 GB USB flash drive, so I copied the whole Windows XP CD to it. My plan was to boot from that, and use the repair in Setup. So when it boots up, it goes into the DOS prompt because that is how I have it set up. So then to get into the Win XP Pro setup, I go into the I386 folder, and then WINNT.EXE. It brings me into the Windows Setup, and starts copying setup files (not sure where, but I think it's to the flashdrive itself). It copies the files but then hangs after that. Why it doesn't go directly into the part where I can push R for repair, I am not sure... So that is where I am with that idea, and not sure if I am doing anything wrong or what.
#2. I finally figured out a way to boot from my USB Plextor CD drive by using the DUSE drivers. The problem with that is, it will load the USB part, and it sees the Plextor, but then it says it failed in loading the drive up. :( BTW I am booting the DUSE drivers off my other flash drive. What am I doing wrong with this?
If I can just get into my plextor, I think I can have this thing all wrapped up!
Your ideas? I was the one who advised you of the first 'idea,' at the other forum you asked this question at. In any case, setup usually freezes at the file copy stage when you start it from DOS; run the smartdrv.exe command without any switches before you run winnt32.exe.
A password all caps in the user acount allows me to enter my notebook PC. My notebook has keyless entry: the booked is locked and can only be opened by a decoder just like the car's keyless entry decoder. Well, that keyless entry thing is my imagination - it's not real. Ideas that makes life easier seem to rattle inside my head.
I wouldn't recommend an upgrade to Windows XP from any previous operating system but especially anything lower than Windows 2000. There have been recorded problems with the NTLDR file being missing and causing the same boot problem you're currently experiencing when users upgrade to Windows XP from Windows 95, 98 or ME. If you find yourself still experiencing the problem even after attempting to peform an upgrade, read [URL="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314057"]this[/URL] Microsoft support article.