The most common reason is when your computer is trying to boot from a hard drive or flash drive that isn’t properly configured to be booted from. In other words, it’s trying to boot from a non-bootable source. This also would apply to media on an optical drive or floppy drive that you’re trying to boot from. Other possible causes include corrupt and misconfigured files, hard drive and operating system upgrade issues, corrupt hard drive sectors, an outdated BIOS, and damaged or loose IDE cables.
NTLDR Errors
There are a few ways the error may present itself, with this first one being the most common:
NTLDR is missingPress any key to restartNTLDR is missingPress Ctrl Alt Del to restartBoot: Couldn’t find NTLDRPlease insert another disk
The error message displays very shortly after the computer is first started, immediately after the Power On Self Test (POST) is complete, when Windows has only initially begun to load.
How to Fix ‘NTLDR Is Missing’ Errors
Follow these steps in the order they’re presented, which starts with the easier-to-complete tips:
Need More Help?
If you’re not interested in fixing this problem yourself, see How Do I Get My Computer Fixed? for a full list of your support options, plus help with everything along the way like figuring out repair costs, getting your files off, choosing a repair service, and a lot more. Try replacing the IDE cable if you suspect it might be faulty.
