Well, I thought I sloved the issue with the SATA drive and using it as a MAIN drives, but it failed. Last night I was able to boot Windows (After cleaning the baby finger prints off of disk) and I update XP to the max. Installed all my games, drivers, software, virus scan, emial account, etc, etc. Took it to work and installed my Jobs MS Office 2007 and u.torrent (didnt download any movies) and everything work well. Got home and I got the NTLDR error
Tried to repair the drive with Windows disk, but it brung me to black screen that told me to type Exit. And now I've Installed XP on the 160 Seagate HDD IDE drive on a old computer. I'm quite finished yet (currently installing SP2 as I type), but I'm worried if I will be able to retrieve my data files off the SATA drive once I plug the IDE back into the new computer. What is it that I'm installing thats corrupting my NTLDR files and not allowing Windows to boot.

Thinking that the ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe is the issue, but not really sure.


please help

am i reading this right... it sounds like you are boot the drive in different machines all the time. By booting i mean running the OS install on multiple machines?

This is so not a good idea, driver inconsistancies and all sorts this is why youll be getting errors

Another is, are you transporting this drive all the time? knocks bumps static kill drives.

Have you also done a Check on the drive to make sure there are no bad sectors? if there are bad sectors on the drive a clean install aint going to fix anything.

the only reason y i install the IDE on my old PC is because I bought a OEM ASUS (which dont come with driver disk). I could just install windows, but will not be able to get online to download the drivers from ASUStek.com. So i install the IDE on my old PC, install windows and download drivers, then update Windows XP to SP2. Then I will install it back on my ASUS and hope I will be able to see the SATA drive and use it as a backup.

I primary was using a 80 GB IDE as my main and the 160 IDE as a backup til last Saturday when it crash and I couldnt get into Windows. No error screen, it just keep rebooting once the Windows Logo screen came up, then reboots. Bought a SATA, installed Windows on it, keep the 160 IDE as a backup, took the PC to work to completely install all my programs, like MS Office 03. When i brought it back home the NTLRD was missing and once again couldnt boot into Windows.
Installed my 160 as the MAIN, and hoping this will stop. I keep the Drive in a Static bag, and I ground myself to the metal part of the PC b4 I touch it, but I wouldn't be able to type this post if the IDE was damage. However I don't know about the SATA, bout to install this IDE into the ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe now.......just wish I knew what I'm doing wrong. (No more taking PC to the Office.)

Thank You for the reply Chook

And the test was a failure. Once again when I install my freshly installed Windows XP one the 160 GB IDE, it can't boot into Windows. Its working fine on the old PC, however I cant get pass the Black Window Loading Screen. A quick blue screen flashes, but I can make out the errors because the PC reboots on its own.
The SATA drive still awaits me to Erase all of my data, just to reinstall Windows on it again. I'm really thinking that this is an defective ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe OEM MoBo. The Maxtor SATA/300 was working fine last night, at work (all day) but when I got home the NTLDR showed up on the SATA.
I can reinstall Windows and prolly use the IDE has a backup, but maybe thats was causing all the errors. Can SATA and IDE work together on a ASUS MoBo?? Could a Licienced Program like MS Office 2007 (Jobs Program) or share programs like Uturrent is deleting my boot files?? Maybe the IDE port is damage on the Mobo?? (Does the same reboot thing on the Siig Ultra 133 Raid IDE Controller) Memory and CPU both reads ok on the BIOS and board/CPU temps are at 42oC.
Need feedback, anything would be great

installing windows on a hard disk then moving that hard disk to another machine and expecting it to boot is... not usually the done thing

it can be done in an emergency to get access to files or such, but I wouldn't recommend it as your main method of setting a machine up

I'd be willing to bet that the problem you're having is when you move the drive around it's getting assigned different logical drive numbers, hence the "NTLDR" problem, it's not corrupt, it just isn't where your PC is expecting it to be

you need to do a clean install of windows with the hard disks in the machine you intend to run them in so that the logical drive numbers are consistent

if it's a downloading drivers issue, download the drivers and put them on CD using another computer

I think we need a bit more clarity before anybody can help you.

what i think you're saying is that your keeping you're IDE drive as a backup, just with data on it, no OS. And you're SATA drive as the dive with the OS.

Are you installing XP onto the SATA at home, then taking the drive out the computer, sticking it into a computer at work and then trying to put drivers on it? Then taking it home and putting it back into you're home machine, booting it up and fining the Master Boot Record (MBR) is not working, which gives you NTLDR errors?

If you're doing this there are so many problems you could be running into.

I'd suggest that you install XP onto you're SATA drive, on the machine that you want to keep it in and leave it there, do not take that drive out of that machine. Also when you install XP onto it, only have the SATA drive plugged in, no ATA drive. Once you have XP on that drive then plug you're ATA drive in, but the first time you boot up after putting the ATA drive in, make sure to set the boot order for you're dives in the BIOS, set the SATA drive as the primary boot drive, this way if you have XP installed on both drives it'll look in the SATA drive for the MBR, so even if you have an old MBR on the old ATA drive it wont try boot into the XP installed on the ATA drive, this is also why you only have one drive plugged in when you install XP onto a drive, it's just an extra way of making sure you know what's installed on what drive, it's a bit excessive i know, but it's always better to be on the safe side.

OK, then leave those dives in that machine, don't take them out. Get a flash disk and take that to work and copy the drivers onto that, take that home, copy the drivers to you're computer and install them there.

If you were to take you're SATA drive out of your home machine, and plug it into you're office machine, it'd probably boot off what ever drive it has in it already or off a network, i have no idea how that's set up, but then when XP boots up may be checking for MBR's on other drives, and re-wright them to be secondary drives, so you may see your SATA drive with everything on it, but when you plug it back into you're home machine you no longer have a MBR on that drive, you still have the OS and all you're files, but with no MBR you're computer wont boot into that windows, which is I'm guessing why you keep getting these NTLDR errors.

Another problem is when you install XP onto a drive it configures a bunch of settings to that computer, so if i have an AMD, it'll set a bunch of AMD specific things in that install of windows, then if i take that drive and plug it into an Intel machine it wont boot, because that windows installed to be used on an AMD machine, real life is a bit more complex but i'm simplifying for the sake of clarity. What may be happening to you is that you install on you're home machine, then stick the drive into another machine, and Windows gets far enough into booting to realize that the system is configured differently and then change its self to work on your work machine. Then you stick it back into you're original machine and it tries to boot you're work machine configuration but doesn't get far enough to realize that the systems configured differently and just hangs somewhere in the process of loading windows.

I had a very similar problem with a fresh XP install and Asus MB, on first reboot during install I would get NTLDR errors and after trying to fix MBR was about to give up when I remembered some obscure thread regading MBR fixes to try changing HDD size in Bios from auto to large, and guess what? It worked!!! I have no idea why it worked but it did..
Give it a go, hope it helps.

Negative, I installed XP onto the SATA drive at home, using the 160 IDE as a backup storage for all my data (installed ASUS drivers from this drive to the SATA). Once I get Windows Updated and ready to go, I went to bed and took my WHOLE PC to work with me. Installed more software and updates while Playing CoH (I work for a PC rental company, and this is the slow season). Transfered all my data from the IDE to the SATA (thinking everything was be alright) and reformatted the IDE. All day my PC was working fine, brought it home and I got the NTLDR error and not one time have I removed the SATA into another PC (stayed in mines since I booted XP).

I didnt want to reload XP onto the SATA, cuz all my important files are on it. Tried to repair Windows and it took me to a black screen telling me to type Exit and some Keyboard format BS. THE drivers was not on the IDE, so I installed it as a NEW master drive in my OLD PC. Installed Windows and downloaded drivers for ASUS, XP SP2, and other software and prgrams like MS Money 03. Shut it down, and installed it into the ASUS MoBo (NEW PC) and it wouldnt boot into Windows. The IDE would show in the BIOS (SATA disconnected), memory, CPU, DVD drivers, etc, etc but would still boot to the Window Logo screen, do a Quick blue screen flash and reboots. Repeats this process until I cut the damn thing off.

So no, I DID not take the SATA drive out while I was at work, not the IDE. Took out the IDE and installed into Older PC just so I could use the Internet to D/L drivers and to retrieve my important files from the SATA. If I can do this, I will either use the IDE as a MAIN, or reinstalled XP onto the SATA. But I will Download the ASUS drivers at work and make my own driver disk today. However Im still at a lost on how to save my files on the Missing NTLDR Sata drive

Still need help

Didn't work thanks for the input though

Should've thought of that a long time a go, lol. Will download the drivers at work today, but still can't do anything to SATA drive until i get my files off

Well seems as if I really have to choice, but loose all my info, music, family pictures, etc inorder to get this SATA drive online. Gonna take my NEW PC to work and see if i can connect the SATA drive to another PC with an extra SATA port and try to burn my files on a DVD or something. This will be the FRIST time installing my SATA onto another PC, but I really have no choice. I need my data

Thinking I should buy the retail ASUS M2N SLI Deluxe and send the OEM version back for a refund, lol.

Come on.......don't act like you guys haven't tried it.....or still do rather.

If you disconnect the IDE drive and ONLY have the SATA drive connected does the PC Boot?

When troubleshooting these kinds of problems, always always always make sure your main HDD is the ONLY HDD installed! Unplug all others. It is easy to set something wrong in the BIOS. Also, some BIOS's will change their boot config whenever you add or remove a HDD.