NTLDR missing error when booting Windows from Grub

[rvs070]

Hello,

Can anyone help me fix my dual boot machine? I set up the windows entry in the menu as follows (thanks ubuntu forums :) ):

title Windows XP
root (hd1,0)
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

With the drive on which XP is installed being the slave on IDE channel 0. Everything worked great for little while. Then something happened, and now instead of loading windows, I get an "NTLDR missing" message. I'm pretty sure this is not an issue with the windows drive or the windows installation, since windows loads fine when I make the windows drive master and the ubuntu drive slave (by switching jumpers). Also, the "NTLDR missing" message appears pretty much instantly after I select the "Windows XP" menu entry. I don't hear any drives being spun, making me think that the windows drive is not even being accessed.

Any suggestions?

[caljohnsmith]

Did you possibly make any BIOS changes around the time you started having problems booting Windows?

Also, try this menu entry in you menu.lst and let me know what happens:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd1)
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1
Can you think of any other events that occurred around the time that Grub stopped booting Windows?

[rvs070]

I tried 'rootnoverify', but got the same result.

Here's exactly what happened. Just prior to setting up the dual boot machine I cloned my windows drive and put the clone in the dual boot. That drive looks to have been defective, as I first got BSOD a couple of times and then windows stopped loading with that "NTLDR missing" error. Ubuntu was and is loading fine this entire time.

When the windows drive crapped out, I swapped it out for the original drive from which it was cloned. Again, the cloning was done just prior to building the dual boot, so the two installations are identical. This process, of course, involved some adjustment of the BIOS, but everything is back to the same arrangement that worked previously (Ubuntu drive is Master on IDE 0 and Windows drive is Slave on IDE 0).

Now, even with the new windows drive, I'm getting the same "NTLDR missing" error, despite the fact that Windows loads fine when the windows drive is Master. This is why I'm now convinced that the problem is on the Ubuntu drive, not the Windows drive.

Does that make sense?

[caljohnsmith]

OK, that makes sense I think based on what you've said so far. When you start up, does your BIOS give you the option to press F12 or F10 or some other key to temporarily change which drive you boot from? If you can, try doing that to boot your Windows slave drive and see if it works; I suspect it won't, but let me know what happens.

[rvs070]

I didn't see a way to temporarily change the boot drive, so I just went into the bios and changed the priority of hd booting so that the primary slave is at the top. To my surprise, Windows booted fine. Now I'm even more convinced that the problem is somewhere on the ubuntu disk (probably in Grub).

[caljohnsmith]

OK, give the following a try in your menu.lst:

title Windows XP (hd2)
rootnoverify (hd2)
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
chainloader +1
And you are opening the menu.lst file as root and saving it that way? Just want to make sure, or let me know if you need help with that.

Also, please post:

sudo fdisk -lu

[rvs070]

Changing hd1 to hd2 didn't help - NTLDR is still missing. Here is the output of fdisk -lu. Now that I think about it, I remember something about aliasing hd's as sd's during ubuntu intallation. Could it be that the file where the aliasing information was stored has been corrupted or destroyed?

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders, total 156368016 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1eb91eb8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 136713149 68356543+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 136713150 156360644 9823747+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 136713213 148424534 5855661 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 148424598 156360644 3968023+ b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdb: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders, total 39102336 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x765ea672

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 39070079 19535008+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders, total 398297088 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9665ab6c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 63 81915434 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2 81915435 398283479 158184022+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 81915498 398283479 158183991 7 HPFS/NTFS

[meierfra.]

Could you also post the output of


cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[rvs070]

Here is the menu.lst file:


# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
# hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=244a6273-8f1e-44d6-9c0d-b51ba2eaab1e ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd0,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=244a6273-8f1e-44d6-9c0d-b51ba2eaab1e ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=244a6273-8f1e-44d6-9c0d-b51ba2eaab1e ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

title Windows XP
root (hd1,0)
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

And here is the boot.ini:


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

[rvs070]

And yes, I'm editing menu.lst as root.

[meierfra.]

Every looks fine, so I don't really see what the problem could be.

Did you notice that caljohnsmith had recommended
"rootnoverify (hd1)" and not "rootnoverify (hd1,0)" ?

and did you try both: "rootnoverify (hd2)" and "rootnoverify (hd2,0)" ?

You also might try reinstalling grub:


sudo grub
and at the grub prompt:


root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

If none of this works, I suggest to add Ubuntu to the Windows Boot loader. (I'm on my way to bed, so you will have to wait until tomorrow for further instruction from either me or caljohnsmith)

[rvs070]

Reinstalling grub fixed it. Thanks!

[prongs_386]

I thought I'd post my experience and solution to this problem.

I had a drive on ide and 2 sata drives as well.
Now windows was on my 1st sata drive and linux on my second.

By using fdisk -l it would show that my IDE drive was sda, and my 1st and second sata were sdb and sdc.

Now I noticed that within grub, my IDE drive was actually hd2, not hd0 as I would have expected based on the fdisk output.

So I think for anyone who has a combination of IDE and sata drives... this is a possible problem.

I was able to boot by using


title Windows XP
root (hd2,0)
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)
chainloader +1


So now I was actually pointing to hd2 which was sda under fdisk.
This then booted correctly... It did not work unless I used the map directive.

Hope I've helped.

[skozzy]

I am not sure if this relates to your problem you had, but on my computer regardless of the drive order I set in bios Grub will also use its own drive list order. If I reset bios (removing the battery or setting the blank bios jumper), the default order of drives then equals that of Grub.

I had the same problem as you a long time back with NTLDR missing, Windows seems to follow the Bios Drive Order the user sets, but Grub seems to use a real Drive order list from first to last drive regardless of any settings in bios.

As I said, this is on my computer. Might not be what your problem was.