Guest ciscokid1975 Posted August 25, 2008 Posted August 25, 2008 Hello all, I'd like some help on a Win98 Install. I had win2K on an old PC and formatted the HD then wiped it clean with Windows Washer via my Laptop. I am now trying to install Win98 on the PC but I keep getting a "NTDRL is missing error" when the CD-Rom tried to boot with the win98 CD. Can someone help?
Guest Don Phillipson Posted August 25, 2008 Posted August 25, 2008 Re: NTDRL is missing error on Win98 Install "ciscokid1975" <u45729@uwe> wrote in message news:8932b161f8d7a@uwe... > Hello all, I'd like some help on a Win98 Install. I had win2K on an old PC > and formatted the HD then wiped it clean with Windows Washer via my Laptop. I > am now trying to install Win98 on the PC but I keep getting a "NTDRL is > missing error" when the CD-Rom tried to boot with the win98 CD. Can someone > help? Win98 has no filename beginning with NT, which indicates the different hard drive format (NTSC) used by later MS operating systems, e.g. NTLDR is an essential system file of WinXP and WinNT. You will find it faster to reinstal from scratch beginning with the correct boot floppy (from http://www.bootdisk.com) and advice/checklists from http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/w98_restore.html -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)
Guest John John (MVP) Posted August 25, 2008 Posted August 25, 2008 Re: NTDRL is missing error on Win98 Install The computer is trying to boot from the hard disk, not the CD-ROM. Use a Windows 98 Setup diskette to start the installation process. If your disk is formated NTFS it will not be accessible to Windows 98, you will have to use FDISK to delete and recreate the partition and you will then have to format it, all of that can be done when you boot with the floppy diskette. You can get a Windows 98 startup diskette from Bootdisk.com. John ciscokid1975 wrote: > Hello all, I'd like some help on a Win98 Install. I had win2K on an old PC > and formatted the HD then wiped it clean with Windows Washer via my Laptop. I > am now trying to install Win98 on the PC but I keep getting a "NTDRL is > missing error" when the CD-Rom tried to boot with the win98 CD. Can someone > help? >
Guest Lee Posted August 26, 2008 Posted August 26, 2008 Re: NTDRL is missing error on Win98 Install On Aug 25, 6:48 am, "ciscokid1975" <u45729@uwe> wrote: > Hello all, I'd like some help on a Win98 Install. I had win2K on an old PC > and formatted the HD then wiped it clean with Windows Washer via my Laptop. I > am now trying to install Win98 on the PC but I keep getting a "NTDRL is > missing error" when the CD-Rom tried to boot with the win98 CD. Can someone > help? NTDRL is not a 98 file so obviously your job at wiping was half mast at best. Since NT was on this drive it would best to actually wipe the drive with a zero writing program such as Bart's Disktool which runs nicely from a 98 boot disk. http://www.nu2.nu/utils/ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert.bale4/formatinstall.htm http://freepctech.com/guides.shtml http://www.pcnineoneone.com/howto/ http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm
Guest John John (MVP) Posted August 26, 2008 Posted August 26, 2008 Re: NTDRL is missing error on Win98 Install Lee wrote: > On Aug 25, 6:48 am, "ciscokid1975" <u45729@uwe> wrote: > >>Hello all, I'd like some help on a Win98 Install. I had win2K on an old PC >>and formatted the HD then wiped it clean with Windows Washer via my Laptop. I >>am now trying to install Win98 on the PC but I keep getting a "NTDRL is >>missing error" when the CD-Rom tried to boot with the win98 CD. Can someone >>help? > > > NTDRL is not a 98 file so obviously your job at wiping was half mast > at best. Since NT was on this drive it would best to actually wipe > the drive with a zero writing program such as Bart's Disktool which > runs nicely from a 98 boot disk. > http://www.nu2.nu/utils/ I trust that there are no files left on the disk, there need not be any files left on the disk to receive this NTLDR error. There is no need to go through a lengthy wipe process to fix this, when you format the partition and install Windows 98 the problem will disappear. The error occurs because the partition was formatted by an NT operating system and as such it has an NT boot sector. The partition could be FAT32 or NTFS, it doesn't matter, as long as it was formatted by an NT system it has an NT boot sector. Very quickly condensed this is what happens when you boot a computer: 1- The Power Supply does a self-test, if the power is stable a "Power Good" signal is sent to the processor. 2- The processor loads and executes the ROM BIOS, the BIOS does a Power On Self Test (POST) routine, if the POST completes without errors the BIOS reads the CMOS and determines which device it should boot. 3- When the selected boot device is a hard disk the Master Boot Record (MBR) is read and loaded in the memory. At this point the BIOS passes the boot process to the Master Boot Record. 4- A small piece of code in the MBR locates the Active Partition and loads the first sector of the partition (the Boot Sector) into memory and then in turn the MBR transfers the boot process to the Boot Sector. 5- The Boot Sector loads and executes the program that will in turn start the operating system. This is where the NTLDR is missing error occurs, because the partition has an NT boot sector the code is instructed to find and execute NTLDR and of course as the partition was cleaned of all files it cannot find NTLDR so it returns an error. In the case of DOS/W9x the boot sector looks for the Io.sys file to load the operating system, the boot sector which contains this information is written when the partition is formatted and the operating system doing the formating will write a suitable boot sector for its own use. To write a DOS/W9x boot sector and return the boot process from NTLDR back to Io.sys the partition can be reformatted with the proper operating system or the SYS.COM command (SYS C:) can be used on the partition (providing that the partition is a FAT version and not NTFS). To return the boot process from Io.sys to NTLDR the Recovery Console's Fixboot command can be used. When Windows is installed these details will be looked after and done automatically by the setup program, there is usually no need to do this manually. Finally, this NTLDR error can also occur if an NT formated floppy is in the drive when the computer is booted, one should always check that before anything else. John References: Chapter 19 - What Happens When You Start Your Computer http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windowsnt/4/workstation/reskit/en-us/booting.mspx?mfr=true Description of the Windows 95 Startup Process http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174018 The PC Boot Process http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/unknownreference/articles/12284.aspx
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