[jmkay03]

When I try booting off my fresh CD that XPCreate just made , I get a quick message:
Couldn't load NTDLR

[Alanoll]

your mobo isn't booting to the CD, its trying to go directly to the HDD.

make sure the CD is bootable (which it should be if made by XPCreate) and then your Mobo is set to boot to the CDrom before HDD

[jmkay03]

yes, i have scsi hard-drives, and before i tried booting off of the cd, i changed to boot off of the cdrom

[GreenMachine]

Two tests:

1) Can you boot a different CD?
2) Can you boot the XPCREATE ISO in either Virtual PC, VM Ware, or another PC?

[jmkay03]

I've tried it in two machines, and they both gave me the same NTDLR message,

i'm going to find this virtual pc and vmsoftware and trying it out..

im hoping..

[Alanoll]

you sure that the MOBO is set to boot to CD-ROM before HARDDRIVE?

[jmkay03]

Positive.
I'm a complete newbie when it comes to this Virutal PC thing, I've downloaded it and installed, but could you guide me on how to boot using it?
Thanks, Jeremy

[jmkay03]

This seems inevitable.
I've got my copy of Microsoft Virtual PC installed, and found a quick guide how to run my ISO image from my hard-disk, and got the same NTDLR error..
I'm not understanding what is going wrong, This happens everytime I try to slipstream SP1 into Windows Xp

[Alanoll]

hmmm....not a clue

If its anything like VMware, you have to setup up a virtual system, and sepecify how big the virtual drive is and what not. Then you have to have it use teh ISO as teh CD-ROM, and in the BIOS of the emulated system, have it boot the CD before HDD.

[Alanoll]

I'm tellin you, its because its not BOOTING to the CD.

the NTLDR error is there because of the partition and there not being any sort of system files on it.

you HAVE to boot to the CD. you HAVE to change the BIOS to boot to it

[Aaron]

Try your retail copy of the Windows XP CD, does it boot?

[jmkay03]

of course my original xp cd boots,

I've went into the bios and edited the boot sequence, trust me, its not that.

[GreenMachine]

Perhaps it is not that, but the error your mentioning is from either a floppy disk or hard disk that has been formated by NT/XP. NTLDR is not used to boot a CD, and the CD has not been formatted to the NTFS file system. Perhaps your CD does not boot, but that message suggests that your OS would not boot without the CD.

EDIT:: In fact ... it sure smells of a floppy diskette in the drive ...

[jmkay03]

No floppy in either of the drives..
this is getting really confusing.
The drive has been formatted to ntfs several times, both of the systems i've tested it on have been..

[GreenMachine]

jmkay03, on Feb 27 2004, 02:12 AM, said:

... The drive has been formatted to ntfs several times, both of the systems i've tested it on have been..

Which explains the error message. You will see exactly the same WITHOUT the CD. Now ...

If your Original XP CD boots, the problem is in either the ISO image, or the CD.
If the ISO image boots in Virtual PC, the problem is in the CD.
If the problem is in the ISO, try using an alternate CD creation method from the files in CDROOT. The MSFN Unattended guide can help you with this last step: the slipstreaming has been done.

You have, of course, checked the obvious ... Bad CD, 0 byte ISO image, error messages displayed on the screen ...

[Spike_dus]

GreenMachine, on Feb 26 2004, 07:20 PM, said:

If the ISO image boots in Virtual PC, the problem is in the CD.
If the problem is in the ISO, try using an alternate CD creation method from the files in CDROOT.

I've got exactly the same problem: Couldn't find NTLDR

I tried making the ISO another way > still the same problem. I've successfully created ISOs this way, so I know I do it right.

It does not boot in Virtual PC either. In fact, when it fails, it loads the previously installed windows.

I do think this problem is in XPCREATE, but I have no clue what went wrong.

EDIT: Hmm, looks like the files I copied from the original CD got corrupted. Will try again later...

[klj]

Hi.

Just wanted to propose a thought I had when reading this thread.
Could it be, that your boot image is somehow corrupt?
Seems like your system isn't booting from the cd (like GreenMachine and Allanoll is pointing out).

-----------------
Oh and thanks to GreenMachine for the great work

[Spike_dus]

klj, on Apr 16 2004, 06:41 PM, said:

Hi.

Just wanted to propose a thought I had when reading this thread.
Could it be, that your boot image is somehow corrupt?
Seems like your system isn't booting from the cd (like GreenMachine and Allanoll is pointing out).

-----------------
Oh and thanks to GreenMachine for the great work  :thumbup

Very unlikeley. I built it a couple of times with different programs (from the XPCREATE\CDROOT folder). I don't think that's the problem.

I tried doing XPCREATE all over again with another Windows XP disc > still the same problem. So either one of the hotfixes is causing this problem, or something XPCREATE does, messes things up.

I'll doing it again without Type 1 hotfixes, then Type 2, then etc... to see where the problem lies.

[GreenMachine]

2 Tests ...

1) Do you see the exact same message if you attempt to boot any non-bootable CD, e.g. an audio CD?
2) Do the files SETUPLDR.BIN and BOOTFIX.BIN exist in the I386 directory of the CD?

[Spike_dus]

1) No, then it continues loading from HDD.
2) Yes, both SETUPLDR.BIN and BOOTFIX.BIN are present in the i386 folder

To make it a little clearer: When you boot the image, it asks you to press a key when you want to do windows setup. When you press that key, it gives you the error "Couldn't find NTLDR". If you do not press a key, it loads from HDD after 5(?) seconds.

I tried without Type1 files > same error. I will now try without Type 1 and 2 and without the MDAC update. I also remove DX9NTopk.exe and WMP9MM2.exe

Will report back on my findings...