The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional
For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see
Q255220.
Symptoms
When you attempt to install Windows XP or to upgrade to
Windows XP on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows
Millennium Edition (Me), you may receive the following error
message after the first restart during the installation
process:
NTLDR is missing
Press any key to restart This behavior occurs only if Windows
Me is installed on a large-capacity drive that uses the FAT32
file system.
Cause
This behavior can occur if your existing Windows Me
installation was cloned and then applied to a drive that has a
different geometry from that of the source drive of the cloned
copy.
One possible scenario is as follows: You are running Windows
on a 4-gigabyte (GB) drive. After you upgrade, for example to
a 30-GB hard disk, you use a third-party disk-imaging utility
to make a mirror image of your Windows installation and apply
the image to the new drive. At a later time, you then upgrade
to Windows XP, installing Windows XP over the cloned image of
Windows .
For this behavior to occur, the following conditions must
exist:
- The system/boot partition is formatted with the FAT32
file system.
- The computer boots by using INT-13 extensions (a
partition larger than 7.8 gigabytes with a System-ID type of
0C in the partition table).
- Because of the cloning procedure, the Heads (sides)
value in the FAT32 BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) does not match
the geometry of the physical drive.
The Windows Me boot code ignores the Heads value in the BPB
and starts those programs even though the value is invalid.
However, the boot code in Windows 2000 and Windows XP needs
this value, and the boot process does not succeed if the value
is invalid.
Resolution
To resolve this behavior, correct the invalid Heads (sides)
value in the FAT32 BPB to enable the Windows XP boot process
to continue. The easiest way to update the field is to rewrite
the Windows Me boot code by using the following procedure:
- Restart the computer by using a Windows Me startup disk
that contains the Sys.com file (this file
is included by default).
- Make a backup copy of the msdos.sys file in the root
directory of your system drive. To do this, type the
following commands from the command prompt:
attrib -h -r -s c:msdos.sys
rename msdos.sys *.ysy
- At a command prompt, type sys c:. This command rewrites
the Windows Me boot code with accurate BPB information. If
this command runs successfully, skip to step 4.
If you are using a Windows Me startup disk and you receive
an error message, "Cannot find the system file in the
standard locations on drive C:", one or more files in the
Windows Me installation have been removed. Use the following
steps to place the correct files on the drive so that the
sys command can locate them:
- Start a command prompt by using the following commands
(that is, type the commands and press ENTER after each
command): c:
cdwindowsIf Windows is installed in a folder other than
the Windows folder, adjust the commands accordingly.
- Try to switch to the Command folder
by using the following command: cd command If an error
message indicates that the path is not found, use the
following command to create the Command
folder, and then run cd command again: md
command
- Switch to the EBD folder by using the
following command: cd ebd If an error message indicates
that the path is not found, use the following command to
create the EBD folder, and then repeat
the cd ebd command: md ebd
- In the EBD folder, use the following
commands to copy the Io.sys file from the
root of the hard drive and to rename the Io.sys file as
Winboot.sys: attrib -s -h -r c:io.sys
copy c:io.sys winboot.sysWinboot.sys is the file that
Sys.com needs.
- Switch back to drive A, and then run the following
commands:
a:
sys c:
Type the following commands, and press ENTER after each
command, to restore the original msdos.sys:
attrib -s -h -r c:msdos.sys
copy c:msdos.ysy c:msdos.sys
Press Y to overwrite the existing MSDOS.SYS file. You
should receive a "1 FILE(S) COPIED" verification that the
file was overwritten.
- Restart the computer to Windows Me, and then try the
Windows XP installation or upgrade procedure again.
NOTE: Alternatively, after you run the
sys c: command, you can boot to the
Recovery Console, and then use the fixboot
command to rewrite the Windows XP boot code. This procedure
enables the original installation to proceed typically.
Status
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the
Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this
article.
More Information
For additional information, click the article number below
to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
