Windows XP operating system installed on a SATA hard drive becomes unbootable when the Ntdetect.com files saved on the drive get corrupted or damaged. Few main causes for Ntdetect.com file corruption can be improper system shutdown, MBR corruption, faulty hardware, and malicious software like virus. In most of these situations, a Windows XP user encounters an error message that makes the data saved in the SATA hard drive inaccessible.
To surpass such data loss situations, an ideal way is to format the SATA hard drive and restore data from an adequate backup. However, in case, the backup file is unavailable or damaged due to logical or physical crash, then the user needs to use a commercial Hard Drive Recovery utility that can recover data from a formatted SATA hard drive.
The above scenario can be explained with the help of below three error messages:
“NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart”
Or
“Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk”
“NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart”
These three error messages appear when your try to boot your Windows XP system. After any of the above error messages appear, the data saved in your Windows XP-based SATA hard drive becomes inaccessible.
Cause:
The above error messages appear when the Ntdetect.com files are missing or corrupted.
Resolution:
To resolve these boot error messages and to access the data, you will need to follow the below steps:
1.Put in Windows XP installation CD into your system.
2.Press any key when prompted to boot from CD.
3.Press 'R' in windows XP setup menu and start the repair process.
4.Now press '1' to log on to Windows XP installation. Press Enter.
5.Enter the administrator password, if prompted.
6.Copy the below two files and remove the CD from your system:
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
In most cases, the above error messages do not appear after following the above steps. But, if they do, then you are not left with any option, but to format your SATA hard drive. To recover data after formatting, you need to opt for a third-party Hard Drive Recovery application. Such Hard Drive Recovery Software use effective recovery mechanism to recover almost all formatted hard drive data.
