Laptop boots past BIOS but fails immediately after with "NTLDR is missing" error. Tried to run Windows recovery, but it says there's no disk located, even though the disk shows up in BIOS. Sounds like a hardware error, but I've tried re-seating the HD to no avail. Tried booting a system rescue CD (linux) but although it boots fine, I don't know how to use it except for basics. Wizard boots to a X windowing system but freezes there. Well, not a full freeze, but it won't let me use it (no mouse, most keys simply enter text into the terminal window, etc.). Haven't been able to even place a copy of ntldr on the HD. Help!!! Thanks!

One choice might be to borrow an xp cd and try repair. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10