Dual-boot - WinXP gives NTLDR error

Hello, I've just completed setting up my PC with dual-boot and it's worked fine for about a week now. Just yesterday I booted from the WinXP side and now today when I try to boot up it says

Code:

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NTLDR is missing. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

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tired the fixboot from the WinXP recovery console and it said (whatever) was written correctly, but I still get the "NTLRDR is missing" message when I select the windows partition from the grub menu.

Just to go through the steps I followed, I first tried to repair-install the current installation on WinXP but it said it would overwrite my current install and I'd lose all my files including my documents, etc.., so I didn't go ahead with it. Instead I went to the recovery console and ran the chkdsk /p command. By now grub had obviously been messed up, so I followed the link: community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245 and easily got grub back to normal.

I then tried the "fixboot" command but drive letters were different in the recovery console - while the WinXP partition shows up as F:/ in WinXP, here it was showing as D:/ so I did fixboot d:
Somehow I still could not boot into WinXP, 'cos of the same NTLDR missing error.

Then I went back to the recovery console and copied ntldr & ntdetect.com from the WinXP setup CD, but ntdetect.com gave the Access Denied error. I then booted up from my Linux Mint 12 and copied ntdetect.com from the WinXP setup CD into the WinXP partition. Then tried to bootup from selecting the WinXP option from the grub menu, but no luck, and here I am.

Any help on how I can go about with this, pls.

Regards.

Is XP installed on the first partition? If so justa guess, it maybe infected or corrupted. If not i know there can be complications trying to boot xp from other partitions.

might as well just start with the first questions. tho the fact that you said it was detected as F: and D: makes me think maybe u dont have it as First? should show as C: if not that maybe ur only prob

you could try fixmbr from the recovery console. Do bear in mind that this will wipe Grub, so that you'll need to fix it afterwards.

Hi!

May I know what linux distro you installed please?
Also did you installed windows side by side as in dual boot or did you install linux "inside" windows.

:)

I have always found Supergrub useful for fixing Windows boot problems. When they happen I find the best approach is to:-
use Supergrub - fix Windows boot option
then if necessary us the Windows install CD to fix the Windows boot (and check Windows boots correctly)
then use Supergrub to reinstall grub to the MBR.

You can fix Windows boot problems with a Linux live CD and a Windows install CD but it's easier to use Supergrub ;)