You receive an "NTLDR is missing" error message when you start your computer (320397)

SYMPTOMS

After you copy many files to the root folder of a boot volume that uses the NTFS file system, you may receive the following error message the next time that you restart the computer:

NTLDR is missing
Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.

If you remove the files that you copied to the root folder, the master file table (MFT) allocation index does not reduce to its original size.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the MFT root folder is severely fragmented. If the MFT root folder contains many files, the MFT may become so fragmented that an additional allocation index is created. Because files are mapped alphabetically in the allocation indexes, the NTLDR file may be pushed to the second allocation index. When this occurs, you receive the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.

Typically, files are not written to the root folder. This condition may occur if a program regularly creates and removes temporary files in the root folder, or if many files are copied to the root folder by mistake.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the Bcupdate2 utility. For more information about how to contact Microsoft Product Support Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, create a boot disk for starting your computer.
For more information about how to create a boot disk for a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

305595 How to create a boot disk for an NTFS or FAT partition in Windows XP

For more information about how to create a boot disk for a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119467 How to create a bootable disk for an NTFS or FAT partition

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2.
This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.
Note If you install the Windows XP service pack or the Windows 2000 service pack, you will not resolve problems with an existing volume. You must run the utility to update the bootcode separately. The service pack will only write the correct bootcode for new volumes.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about a related topic, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

318728 How to troubleshoot the "NTLDR Is Missing" error message in Windows 2000