Ntldr

i formatted my dell laptop and when i go 2 boot it from the disk 2 install 98 (did have xp but the laptop didnt meet the required specifacation) but it comes up saying NTLDR is missing press ctrl alt del 2 restart


plz help i nd this laptop really bad

by the way before u say boot it from floppy disk, the laptop dont have a floppy drive so i cant

There are a few essential files that you need to boot up your NT windows OS - one is NTLDR. Now I am confused. You say you reformatted with windows 98? That isnt an NT os. What does the XP have to do with your laptop? Are you trying to install windows 98 and it is coming up with that error? Did you have XP on there before?

If that is the case - if you are trying to install windows 98 and you are getting that error, then you need to go into BIOS (hit the -del- key when booting up.) Go to Boot and make sure you are booting from the disk drive that you are trying to install from - as first drive. Then cntrl-alt-del to restart. It should boot into fdisk. Which you can set up your partitions, etc....

Just for future reference. When you finish loading your OS, go to control panel and file preferences and make sure you uncheck 'hide essential system files' or something like that. Go to the root of your C drive and see all those half visible files? Copy those to a floppy or cd Rom. Make the cd Rom bootable - ie. make it act as an image of a floppy, for instance. Those are system boot loading files. If your OS ever crashes then you can boot into your OS with that disk to recover any files before reformatting.... Although I never get around to doing that myself, its a good idea -lol.

i had xp on there but i formatted it and i want 2 put 98 on

Ok, so you formatted the drive, it shouldnt have any OS on there at all and it shouldnt ask you for NTLDR. Did you use fdisk to format for windows 98? or did you format using the XP disk and then try to install windows 98 on an NTFS partition?

What is the laptop you have? I am trying to figure out why you would want to use windows 98 when you have XP?

** edit... to finish what I was saying, Win98 is not an NT OS, so you cant format with a WinXP disk and try and install 98 on it. You have to boot up with win98, at the command prompt type fdisk You will start the fdisk program and via a simple menu you will create a partition(s) and format it. I think you have to designate which partition is the "bootable" one - been a while since I had to fdisk.... Then start loading the OS. If this is what you tried to do (justa hunch - I could be wrong.) you are getting that error message because it is looking for that file, which wont exist on the Win98 disk....

the laptop is a dell latitude cpx 450

Processcor: 450 mhz
RAM: 64mb
HDD: NTFS Partition 5.9GB
Video: ATI Rage Mobility 16MB
Audio: ESS Tech 2E

Originally posted by kilrart

HDD: NTFS Partition 5.9GB

If you still have it partitioned with NTFS then that is your problem. You need to fdisk it and reformat it into Fat32.....

NTFS is for NT files systems only. Win98 won't install on it. It doesnt recognize NTFS.

Oh and to add to what I was saying eariler, you can use the winXP disk and choose "format with Fat32" if that is an option, just not NTFS. That should save you having to use fdisk to format. Its less confusing.

like i said i dont have a floppy disk so i need windows nt right?

Read my post a bit. You cant put windows 98 on NTFS... So, you need to boot with your windows xp disk and format it into Fat32. Windows 98 only recognizes Fat16 and Fat32 files systems.... But use Fat32. Its ony looking for the floppy because with windows 98 you needed to fdisk using a boot floppy. Whereas with the newer OS's its all done on a disk.