XP Pro crashed on a31 thinkpad bought from old company

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lasvegascom · #1 Post by **lasvegascom** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:43 pm

About 6 months ago, I bought my IBM a31 thinkpad from my old company because they were closing down. It was a great deal as I only paid $250 for it. Then a few days ago it crashed completely. Now when I try to turn on the computer I get the message "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." I tried to call IBM and Microsoft but both said they can't do anything to help.

The computer originally came with windows 2000 and then my old company upgraded at some point to windows xp pro. So there is a product key under the laptop but it is for windows 2000. The problem is that I do not have the windows xp pro disc or the product key that goes with it nor am I able to get it from my old company since it is not around anymore.

I tried to use the windows xp home cd from my dell desktop but it did not want to accept the product key. So I uninstalled it. I even tried to use a friend's copy of xp pro and it said that his key was used too often already.

I do not want to have to buy a new version of Windows XP home or pro since this is an older computer and I just use it as an extra computer. But I do want it to be functional for a little while longer. Is there anything I can do?

DIGITALgimpus · #2 Post by **DIGITALgimpus** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:31 pm

If you can get a hold of an XP cd, fixboot and fixmbr should take care of it.

buy a license.

egibbs · #3 Post by **egibbs** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:02 pm

chkdsk /r may also be useful.

Ed Gibbs

Nolonemo · #4 Post by **Nolonemo** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:12 pm

Try using your Dell XP cd, start it up, and go into the repair console, then run fixboot and fixmbr. I don't think you'll need a product key to do that. (Though it may be too late if to tried to do a reinstall already)

lasvegascom · #5 Post by **lasvegascom** » Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:14 pm

DIGITALgimpus wrote:If you can get a hold of an XP cd, fixboot and fixmbr should take care of it.

buy a license.

my friend gave me a copy of the windows xp pro upgrade cd and i have dell windows xp home cd. how do i do fixboot and fixmbr?

i would prefer not to buy a license if i do not have to. but if i do, where is the cheapest trustworthy place to get one from?

egibbs wrote:chkdsk /r may also be useful.

how can i do that when i cant even get it to load past the "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." message?

egibbs · #6 Post by **egibbs** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 7:30 am

lasvegascom wrote:
egibbs wrote:chkdsk /r may also be useful.
how can i do that when i cant even get it to load past the "NTLDR is missing. Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to Restart." message?

Boot it from CD with a retail CD, select recovery console, when you get to the command prompt type chkdsk c: /r hit enter. and wait. It may take a very long time (possibly overnight) depending on how hosed the drive is.

But I have seen it work miracles. It even recovered a disk for me that was damaged by Partition Magic crashing in the middle of resizing a partition - just about the worst thing that can happen.

Good luck,

Ed Gibbs

lasvegascom · #7 Post by **lasvegascom** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:11 pm

egibbs wrote: Boot it from CD with a retail CD, select recovery console, when you get to the command prompt type chkdsk c: /r hit enter. and wait. It may take a very long time (possibly overnight) depending on how hosed the drive is.

how do i select recovery console?

Is that the automatic recovery thing (i think f2) after it starts setup? Or is it when you choose between a fresh install or repair? Or is it someting else?

#8 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 1:25 pm

From Windows XP Help and Support:

To start the computer and use the Recovery Console

From the Setup CD-ROM

1. Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.

2.When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.

3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.

4.When prompted, type the Administrator password.

5.At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

6.To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

#9 Post by **Kyocera** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 3:27 pm

Have you tried googling missing NTLDR? You may be able to fix.

lasvegascom · #10 Post by **lasvegascom** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 4:15 pm

Yeah. All the results that I found were not helpful.

#11 Post by **GomJabbar** » Tue Mar 14, 2006 6:03 pm

Again, go to Help and Support off of the Start Menu of Windows XP. While online, type NTLDR in the search box and press Enter. You will find a number of Microsoft articles on "NTLDR is missing" at the bottom left where it says Microsoft Knowledge Base. Click on "Microsoft Knowledge Base", then click on each item that seems to refer to your problem.

XP Pro crashed on a31 thinkpad bought from old company

XP Pro crashed on a31 thinkpad bought from old company

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