Missing File No Boot

Hello all Geeks,
It has been almost a year since I visited Major Geeks. I had no troubles with my PC laptop. Problem: When the laptop tries to boot a NTLDR is missing. I must have deleted this file. I am running XP Home on a HP Omnibook 6000. 650 MHg Pentium 3, 10 GB HDD, 256MB RAM. The laptop worked fine until I got to deleting files. Not knowing what I was doing I deleted this NTLDR file that is needed to boot the PC. I cannot use the XP install CD because the PC doesn't load or boot. I must have to install this file but have no clue as to how this is done.
If any Geek can help or if more info is needed please let me know. It is an old laptop but as I said it suited my sons and my own computer needs just fine. I was going to install another 256MB of RAM before this problem started.

Thanks
Michael

 

you should be able to boot from your windows cd....not sure of the exact way, but you should be able to tell your laptop to boot from cd...there shouldbe something in your bios to set the boot order, make sure it's set for cdrom first then hard drive.

once it boots into windows setup, there will be an option for recovery mode/console, once given a prompt type chkdsk /p

to get to recovery console:
1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
2. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.

 

Dear The Smoking Gun,
I had tried to boot from cd rom by changing the boot orderin my bios setup. The PC does not get that far into the loading process or the booting process. Unfortunately, but i will definitly try again and again until the problem is corrected and I am squared away Staff Sargent.

As you were. I went to the bios and instead of just highlighting the boot from cdrom drive I did as you advised and moved the cdrom boot to the top or number one position in the bios and the hard drive as second on list. It is now able to load files but I may need some more advise with the setup.
I chose to reformat the whole 10GB HDD. Do not care about losing files.
I want to thank you again Smoking Gun. If you did not tell me to put the boot options in order I never would have known.

I believe all will be fine and now my son is singing he is so happy. I also want to thank all Geeks. Without help from knowledged people as yourself and your confederates this ol machine would set until I had enough $ to get it fixed, and PC mechanics are like auto mechanics if you get my meaning.
PS, It is a good feeling to learn something new about PCs.
Again I think all is in order now but will let you know if I have any more problems.
How are the Geeks on Apple/mac computers. I have a hard time finding any support for my iBook G4. I am completely ignorant about these beasts but need to learn for I am getting animac G3 via UPS in the mail tomorrow
Again Thanks Sarge
bluesteinm