Difficulty: Easy Time Required: Restoring the NTLDR and Ntdetect.

com files from the Windows XP CD usually takes less than 15 minutes Here's How: Enter Windows XP Recovery Console. The Recovery Console is an advanced diagnosti c mode of Windows XP with special tools that will allow you to restore the NTLDR and Ntdetect.com files. When you reach the command prompt (detailed in Step 6 in the link above), type t he following two commands, pressing Enter after each one: copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\ copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ In the command listed above, d represents the drive letter assigned to the optic al drive that your Windows XP CD is currently in. While this is most often d, yo ur system could assign a different letter. Also, c:\ represents the root folder of the primary hard drive that Windows XP is currently installed on. Again, this is most often the case but your system could be different. If you're prompted to overwrite either of the two files, press Y. Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC. Assuming that missing or corrupt versions of the NTLDR and/or Ntdetect.com files were your only issues, Windows XP should now start normally.

BOOTCFG - Should the Windows startup file, Boot.ini become corrupt, use bootcfg /rebuild to automatically replace the existing Boot.ini file. Alternatively, use bootcfg /add to append a Windows installation to Boot.ini without changing exis ting entries. COPY - Use the copy command (including source and destination) to restore damage d or missing system files such as Ntldr, and Ntdetect. Compressed files will be expanded automatically. If the file is stored inside a .cab file then use the ex pand command. FIXBOOT Use the fixboot command to re-write the boot sector code. For this optio n to work, you ll need to start the Recovery Console from the Windows CD. Senior Service