microsoft.public.certification - do I have to have a windows OS to start a New pc when the mwssage no ntldr foun

Author

do I have to have a windows OS to start a New pc when the mwssage no ntldr foun

darinsray

2004-04-24, 3:24 am

Please help me load lindows onto a clean hard drive i keep
getting no ntldr and ifso please tell me what are some
easy floppy or disc formating utilities prior to loading
lindows or linux....Please help for what its worth all my
other machine are dedicated windows builds.. thanx

Darin RAy

azimuth40

2004-04-24, 3:48 pm

quote:
Originally posted by darinsray
Please help me load lindows onto a clean hard drive i keep
getting no ntldr and ifso please tell me what are some
easy floppy or disc formating utilities prior to loading
lindows or linux....Please help for what its worth all my
other machine are dedicated windows builds.. thanx

Darin RAy

Whoa I think that you need to do a little reading. ntldr not found is a message that you get if the disk was formatted with an NT based OS, NT, 2K, XP. You will get it even if you have a floppy in the drive that was formatted by an NT based OS. Normally depending on the distribution you just boot the CD.

If your system is not set up for a CD boot then you will need to go into the CMOS set up to configure it. If your system is so old that it can not handle a boot from CD then you will need a boot floppy.

Linux uses a different file system and multiple partitions and its install routines should handle it for you. There are distributions that can co-exist using container logic. That may be your Installable File System Option (IFSO) but who knows with the info that you provided.

How you proceed next really depends on the specific details of what you are trying to do. You could just down load a Knoppix ISO which is a Linux distribution that runs from the CD to see if you even grok Linux.

no one

2004-04-27, 4:27 pm

>-----Original Message-----
>
>darinsray wrote:
keep[color=blue]
loading[color=blue]
my[color=blue]
>
>Whoa I think that you need to do a little reading.
ntldr not found is
>a message that you get if the disk was formatted with an
NT based OS,
>NT, 2K, XP. You will get it even if you have a floppy
in the drive
>that was formatted by an NT based OS. Normally
depending on the
>distribution you just boot the CD.
>
>If your system is not set up for a CD boot then you will
need to go
>into the CMOS set up to configure it. If your system is
so old that it
>can not handle a boot from CD then you will need a boot
floppy.
<snip>
if it is so old that it can't handle a boot from CD then
it's probably too old to run W2K or higher! Ya gotta have
some horsepower(read processor, ram) in order for it to
work. and also a hd big enough to hold the os and your
data (20 GB, minimum)

azimuth40

2004-04-28, 1:50 am

quote:
Originally posted by no one
[color=blue]
<snip>
if it is so old that it can't handle a boot from CD then
it's probably too old to run W2K or higher! Ya gotta have
some horsepower(read processor, ram) in order for it to
work. and also a hd big enough to hold the os and your
data (20 GB, minimum)

Hmmm did you read the original or are you not a Linux person? There are plenty of PII's around that won't boot from CD and run win2k or XP. Through most laptops of that era into that group also. It really has to do with the BIOS and not the hardware. MB makers could buy the BIOS with or without the code saving a few pennies per system. Marketing force from MS eventually made them all fall in line by PIII time.

One should also note that regardless of what you or I think of potential performance, the requirements for 2K and XP are quite frugal by todays standards. Secondly the boot device had to be formatted by an NT based OS to get that message unless they used partition magic.

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