Windows 7: NTLDR is missing (I deleted the Win XP partition)

This thread doesn't really match any of the forums but this seems the closest. I wanted to get rid of my old Windows XP partition, because I needed that space for my full Windows 7 partition. I tried to delete the partition in Windows 7 Disk Management but it wouldn't allow me to delete an active partition. Thus, I decided as a short-term solution, to delete as much as I could from the Windows XP partition, in order to allow it to be shrunk, freeing up space for expansion of the Windows 7 partition. I deleted most of the files in Program Files, Documents and Settings and the Windows folder. Then I went back to the Windows 7 Disk Management and noticed that I could make the Windows 7 partition the 'active partition'. I did this, and then tried again to delete the Windows XP partition. I think it said that I needed to restart the computer. After finishing what I was doing, I tried to restart and go the error:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Delete to restart.

The recovery options on the Windows 7 disc appear to be ineffective. It doesn't find a Windows installation to repair (clearly, it isn't looking hard enough...). Is there a way that I can recover my Windows 7 installation?

I personally blame MS for not being more straight forward in their assignment of locations for boot files. They should create a very small partition especially for this purpose, and not hijack other partitions which the user is then unable to alter without borking their installation. Am I not correct?

No problem. First, mark your Windows 7 partition as active: Partition - Mark as Active

Then, force delete your XP partition. Follow these instructions, but replace the 100MB partition number with the XP number. System Reserved Partition - Delete

Finally, run a startup repair. Your installation should be detected, and you'll be good to go.

Let us know how is works out.

Does not compute! How do I perform the first two steps if I can't get into Windows (boot error: NTLDR is missing)?

Boot from the repair disc.

Read the tutorials I linked to; they should answer your questions.

You need to copy boot files from XP drive to your Windows 7 drive, before deleting the XP drive.
Than do a startup repair.

Startup Repair
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.

Sorry - I see now, that I didn't scroll down enough.

Now, although selecting 'repair' after running the Windows 7 installation disk does not list any Windows installations (including after specifying my chipset driver (since the installation is on a SATA drive)), it is able to attempt repair. The problem is that it's the same repair every time.

If I click the link for 'diagnostic and repair details' and scroll to the bottom, it says:


In my opinion, the repair utility interface hasn't been written properly. It says:

This is nonsense. If the Windows 7 installation CD is in my computer, I will be given the option to install or repair an existing installation of Windows as always. If the CD is not in the CD drive, I'll get the original NTDLR error. The interface does not tell me to remove the CD from my drive and if it did, and I followed it, how would the Startup Repair run again? If it doesn't tell me to remove the disc and I don't, how will Windows ever start correctly? Only one option is possible and it depends on whether or not the disc is in the drive.

Is it not possible to recreate the boot files instead? The XP drive has already been deleted. It's not as though they were one-of-a-kind boot files - they were based on my hardware and Windows installation, surely? I don't know how this stuff works, but surely the software just needs to look at my hardware and where stuff is written on my HD and write whatever it needs to write, wherever it needs to write it.

I've done my fourth system repair already but every time, it's the same repair?

Boot into your Windows 7 DVD Repair console or REpair CD, press Shift F10 at bootup or click through to Recovery Tools list to open a Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with disk # for XP HD)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (replace # with XP partition #)
INACTIVE
DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE
SELECT PARTITION # (replace # with Windows 7 partition #)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now return to DVD Repair console/Repair CD Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write MBR to Windows 7 partition. This will always work if Windows 7 is marked active and not damaged, as long as you run Startup Repair repeatedly with reboots.

The above can also be accomplished using free Partition Wizard bootable CD, which can also Resize your Windows 7 to recover into it the deleted XP space, in addition to marking Windows 7 active so you can recover the MBR using Windows 7 DVD/CD.

Have a read:

Repair Install

I don't understand; how can I repair an installation of Windows 7, which wont boot, from within that installation? I can't boot unless I repair it and I can't repair it unless I boot??


I tried to follow your instructions but it was not possible to do so entirely, because the Windows XP partition had already been deleted while following previous procedures. I followed the step in which I marked the Windows 7 partition as active (although, if I include the time shortly before restarting, while my installation was still functional, that would be the fourth time it's been marked as active).

The system repair continually gives the same output, every time (the only thing that varies slightly is the number of milliseconds taken):

Root cause found:
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The partition table does not have a valid System Partition.

Repair action: Partition table repair
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 6208 ms

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