acer 2420 travelmate NTLDR is Missing! C:

I have an acer 2420 travelmate laptop. I have rebooted it before with system recovery and never any problem reloading windows, until today.

When the computer is starting up I hit alt + f10 key to go into acer recovery, I select system recovery, I have tried both options "Restore factory default system" and the other one "Recover system from cd/dvd backup."

Neither one of them work. With recover from cd/dvd back up, it worked last time i had to reload but will not work this time. I have tried over and over with back up dvd that laptop had me make when I first activated the computer after purchasing it.

No matter which prompts I go through to do the restore (system or from cd/dvd) i get the same results as follows:

it says please wait a moment and acer recovery management screen starts up going through all the files like it normally does on the recovery, but then says, "Fail in creating or opening a file" no other choices to select just click ok. So I do. Then I get this message;

please wait a moment......

Cannot find file: D:\preload.tag
click ok

Cannot find file: E:\preload.tag

Cannot find file: X:\preload.tag

then after going through all that computer sounds like it is going to boot up and flashes acer up on the screen and then stops, then says
NTLDR is missing PRess any key to start

no matter what I do nothing happens! Please help. I have tried over and over again to auto recover, nothing! The regular window start up will not happen at all. Even from a dead stop window start up with login screen will not appear just says

NTLDR is missing Press any key to start.

Please help...

I am not a computer tech or expert, when helping please tell me step by step what to press and do. Thanks..... acerdown

 

PS I am Running Windows XP that came with laptop.

 

Hello acerdown, and welcome to the forums.
In the future, please don't use bold and large-size font. It makes it look like you're shouting at us, which is far from polite.

That "NTLDR" error message means that your computer can't find the right partition on your hard drive to boot from, the Master Boot Record itself, which your computer needs to boot properly, or NTLDR, which is how Windows XP boots up.

This could point to a misconfiguration by Acer's eRecovery software or by hardware failure (the hard drive might be going). I'm leaning towards hard drive failure b/c of the recovery DVD's inability to create a file, but I could be wrong.

Have you tried booting from the DVD instead of hitting Alt-F10?

It might also be that your recovery image on your hard drive, and burned onto DVD, might be corrupt, but I'd say that's incredibly unlikely.

Failing that, try using the utilities from this site.

 

Hello TehSuigi,

Sorry wasn't trying to shout at anyone. Sorry if it came across that way. I am new here.

I went into f2 settings and reset it to boot from back up disk for acer. I loaded it up for me and started doing the recovery and then I get a message "Cannot find preload.tag for SetBootlni, i click ok the laptop starts up again with acer on screen then just tries to load ramdisk (back up) again. I tired a few more times from back up disk went through prompts to do recovery and no luck. same error message.

any ways to rewrite what needs to be in directories in the f2 dos mode set up thing? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

tried a few more times to do recovery from ram disk (back up) and it starts doing the recovery and before the message I told you earlier "Can not find preload.tag," the window pops up "Fail in creating or opening a file." then when you click ok it says "Cannot find preload.tag for SetBootlni."

The computer was running fine before I went to do the system recover. The only reason I went to do the system recover is I wanted to whipe c drive and reload windows again onto the laptop. If I do this every few months it renews the Norton Subscription I have and automatically gives me 90 days free use of Norton.

 

when it goes to reboot without ram disk (back up) it just says on black screen the NTLDR is missing press any key to restart and nothing agian.

Before I rebooted a while back Norton did detect a trojan and quarantined it. Do you think the malware may have deleted key files in the bios or in start up prompts to do a system recover? Have you heard of this at all? Just curious?

 

Acerdown, please edit your previous posts if you're not replying to anyone. That way, you aren't creating more posts than needed.

So we can rule out the hardware, at least.
I do question your use of the recovery DVD to simply renew the Norton free trial, especially when there are great free anti-virus programs like AVG, Avast, and Microsoft Security Essentials (which I use).

See if you can get a hold of an actual Windows XP setup CD, just to use the Recovery Console. That might help fix things.

Do you have any other backups, like on an external hard drive or something?

 

I found an xp pro boot dvd with operating system, it is loading from DVD Drive.

It saysWindows set up is loading files, with blue background.

Now it says welcome to setup:

to set up Windows XP now press ENTER

to repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console press R

to quit setup without installing Windows XP, press F3

 

update: back up recovery no good. Repair no good. But laptop will load the bootleg copy of XP Pro. Odd, very odd. Thanks for all your help. Hard drive does work with bootleg copy of XP. But will not recover legal copy that came with computer when it was purchased.

 

Acerdown, as I said before, edit your previous posts if you want to add info and no one else has posted yet. It prevents the topic from getting cluttered up.

Did you try the Recovery Console?

 

I tried lots of stuff nothing worked except to load the other bootleg version of XP Pro. Acer will not recover from back up dvd or eternal recovery, still giving me same errors as before but loads bootleg version fine. I am so unhappy with acer it is not even funny. I will never, ever buy another acer again.

 

Well, it's not exactly Acer's fault that you abused its recovery DVDs to refresh your Norton trial every three months. Those things are meant to be used in emergencies when you absolutely need to get your system up and running.