ntldr/boot.ini continually missing and corrupt

[Darkspark]

I am on Windows XP Pro SP2. I recently got a new hard drive a Maxtor 250GB diamondmax 10.

I installed my OS onto the new drive and everything was fine for a few weeks.

Now however, at least twice a week for no apparent reason, the NTLDR is either missing or corrupt and needs to be replaced (which I know how to do) or the BOOT.INI file is missing and needs to be replaced by using the fixboot command.

What is really annoying is however many times I fix it, I know in a few days I will have to do the same process all over again.

I contacted Maxtor support thinking it might be a hard drive problem, and they told me to download a utility called Powermax. I follow their instructions and put the program on floppy disk. From what they say, it should work upon bootup, however it does nothing. My floppy drive flashes a bit, then the system loads windows xp as normal. :/

Anyway, I told maxtor this, but they have not replied and I do not see they replying anytime soon. Would be grateful if anyone could tell me the cause of the ntldr and BOOT.INI files continually going missing, and if there is any way to cure it. Plus, how does the Powermax software work?

[vee_ess]

Have you tried re-installing the OS all together? Also, consider what activities you do when you're on, does it happen if you just turn it on, then restart it, or do you have to do other things?

[Darkspark]

Oh, I got the powermax disk working, but no idea how, and ran the drive tests, in which my hard drive passed for all errors.

I simply degraded back to windows xp home, in which the problem is now gone. There really isnt much difference I have to say between the two.

HOME seems to be more stable.

[vee_ess]

On Pro, did you do a clean installation?

[Darkspark]

Didnt bother. The HOME license is stuck to the side of my comp box, so it was the easiest option to install, rather than try to find the xp pro discs and key. Im sticking to HOME now though.

[Jason425]

you can't join a domain with home... that caused me massive grief at work today... (#3 in company brings in his home box and wants to use it... 4 hours later.... )

[Darkspark]

. Problems are starting up again. Im convinced it is some physical problem with the hard drive. If so, I need to get it replaced by the warranty. However checking it with Powermax, it reports not a single problem. If I do need to exchange it, how should I go about explaning the weird fault?

I notice now that when I copy the NTLDR files off the XP CD, they can only be copied into my secord HDD. If I try to copy them into C:/ it says access denied. Is it because these files are not in the Windows folder, that the problem keeps happening?

[Darkspark]

I have now successfully accidentally reformatted my hard drive after it wouldnt start. It kept saying boot disk failure and even inserting a boot disk would lead to it not being recognised. I then tried to install XP onto my second drive but apparently the drive letter had changed. (1st drive was now called D) and managed to successfully delete a 2 years of data, most of it not backed up since I do not have DVD Discs.

I only have 2 music files and 4 pictures files now

Oh well, 2006 new year, new pc to fill.

[Tyler]

Haha, that sucks. A new fresh start!

[vee_ess]

Does that mean that you haven't been doing clean installs? That would be your problem!
I would suggest that you repartition your drive with a small (40 meg or so) partition at the very front of the drive. This will prevent data from being overwritten with the allocation table (a known cause for NTLDR to become missing). You'll have NTLDR and other files that are necessary to boot to Windows XP safely away from the first clusters in the drive.