Something happened and I cannot log onto my computer. I am having to use my old laptop I dug out of storage.

I get the bios/boot screen.

Then goes to the recovery screen Says Hit F11 to recover.

I don't really want to do this, since I will loose all my data. I can't anyway since it generates an error.

It says I somthing CTLR is missing.

I just need a disk that will let me get into my windows program. Then I can do a system restore.

I seriously am in need of help here.

Yikes this could be fun, are you sure its CLTR not NTLDR?

No it is NTLDR.

My buddy said I can get an external hard drive. Use that to boot, then access my drive and do a system restore. Oh what fun.

Which version of Windows are you using?
XP or 2000?
one hard drive or two?
Is there more then one partition on the hard drive?
You can also create a boot disk for 2000 and XP.
It all depends on how the hard drive is setup.
If it is just one hard drive with one partition, you can go to a buddies computer and make the boot disk (floppy) as long as he has only one hard drive with one partition.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305595

Thats right you could do it that way, but your boot.ini should hopefully still be intact.
If it turns out this is your issue, which is quite probable, you dont need to go to a buddies computer.
Put in your XP CD, and when asked press any key to boot from CD. (you might need to sort out your boot order in bios to set the CD as first) When you get in the window xp setup menu press the R key to repair windows, log in to your windows install by pressing "1" then hit enter, I think it will promt you for admin password, enter it. Tehn copy the files from your win xp cd into your root directory...example
copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
This presumes your cd drives is d:\ you can change that to what drive letter your cd drive is recognised on. When you've moved them files take out the CD and reboot.
If that doesnt fix it you can use the same method to edit your boot.ini on the root directory, you can use the article barry posted to assist you with the boot.ini setup.

Also its possible your computers boot secotor has messed up or your MBR. you can repair them in the windows recovery console just run fixboot and fixmbr.

Also... other small things to check make sure you dont have a loose IDE cable to your HD, or maybe a dodgy cable. try a different one. Is it properly setup in the BIOS?

If not of the above work you have a seriosuly messed up XP, and I'd recommend nothing other than a reinstall of XP, because you could have alot of corrupt files and be at it until next year :(


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Morecambe Model Car Club (http://morecamberc.org)

I have a gateway computer. It has one hard drive with a C and D which is the boot area I believe. I don't have a windows disk since it is OEM. I am running XP media edition.

I was thinking of pulling a hard drive out of a buddies computer using that to boot and then accessing my drive and accessing a restore point. Would that work.

I have a gateway computer. It has one hard drive with a C and D which is the boot area I believe. I don't have a windows disk since it is OEM. I am running XP media edition.

I was thinking of pulling a hard drive out of a buddies computer using that to boot and then accessing my drive and accessing a restore point. Would that work.