Hey guys,

As some of you may know, I have managed to break our computer downstairs. It keeps saying that NVLDA is missing. Does anyone know what it is and how to get it back?

Thanks,

Lizzie

If you mean NTLDR is missing then the computer cannot find a device with a bootable image on it (i.e. the files which tell it how to start Windows XP or whatever OS you are running..)

Common causes are:

You've left a floppy disk in the drive which the computer checks first when booting up, and that floppy is not bootable

Ditto for a CD

The hard disk is corrupted/faulty (worse case scenario) or the cables are loose and it isn't connected fully to the disk controller on the motherboard or the disk isn't powering up.. Is there a disk light which you can see flickering when you start up?

Eeek!

Where is it saying this, before startup or within Windows?

Oops, Mrb beat me to it.

It says it at startup. There is no disk in the floppy drive (my brother didn't fit one when he built the computer) and the only Cd in is the Windows CD which my bro is trying to boot from.

I suppose we could try to reinstall windows, but my brother has already had to activate it twice (it didn't work the first time) and he thinks it would look suspicious to do it again.

My bro doesn't seem to think that the hard drive is faulty, but I don't know how he can assume that!

Thankyou for your help. My bro will keep trying.......

Well, does he want to boot from the CD? He needs to check the BIOS settings to make sure the CD is in the boot list at a higher precendence that the hard disk to ensure it tries the CD before the hard disk.....

Yeah he set that up when he built the computer.

Fixed! He says it was 30% my fault and 70% his. What it looks like happened was when I copied my files onto the computer from my memory stick, I moved the ntldr file by accident and so when the computer wanted to boot it couldn't find it. But Rob said he didn't help matters by doing silly things that didn't work, because he didn't know what exactly was wrong and how to fix it. But everything is now fine, and he's now back to talking to me without using about 5 swear words in each sentence!