OK, I just bought two computers. one is a barebones 2600AMD w/512mb ram, and 80gig HD. It came with no software. I also bought a complete system: PII 512MB ram and 8gig, supposed to have XP and all kinds of software. I didnt get any of the disks though :(. so I tried to swap in they HD from the old computer in to my 2600, it gave me the NTDLR is missing message, so I looked it up and found this: use a win98 boot disk and sys.com to change my FAT32 to whatever. In my bios it wasnt set up to run fat32. I since changed that, but now it only boots in 98, and wont open XP, I swapped the HD back and still nothing even on the old machine. when I did the "sys C:" it changed something that I shouldn't have. HELP. I don't have the XP disks to fix this. Here is exactly what I did: except for the MSDOS.sys part. please help thanks. -Clancy ___________________________________________ For a Microsoft Windows 2000 version of this article, see 255220. SYMPTOMS When you attempt to install Windows XP or to upgrade to Windows XP on a computer that runs Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), you may receive the following error message after the first restart during the installation process: NTLDR is missing Press any key to restart This behavior occurs only if Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me is installed on a large-capacity drive that uses the FAT32 file system. CAUSE This behavior can occur if your existing Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me installation was cloned and then applied to a drive that has a different geometry from that of the source drive of the cloned copy. One possible scenario is as follows: You are running Windows 98 on a 4-gigabyte (GB) drive. After you upgrade, for example to a 30-GB hard disk, you use a third-party disk-imaging utility to make a mirror image of your Windows 98 installation and apply the image to the new drive. At a later time, you then upgrade to Windows XP, installing Windows XP over the cloned image of Windows 98. For this behavior to occur, the following conditions must exist: The system/boot partition is formatted with the FAT32 file system. The computer boots by using INT-13 extensions (a partition larger than 7.8 gigabytes with a System-ID type of 0C in the partition table). Because of the cloning procedure, the Heads (sides) value in the FAT32 BIOS Parameter Block (BPB) does not match the geometry of the physical drive. The Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code ignores the Heads value in the BPB and starts those programs even though the value is invalid. However, the boot code in Windows 2000 and Windows XP needs this value, and the boot process does not succeed if the value is invalid. RESOLUTION To resolve this behavior, correct the invalid Heads (sides) value in the FAT32 BPB to enable the Windows XP boot process to continue. The easiest way to update the field is to rewrite the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code by using the following procedure: Restart the computer by using a Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me startup disk that contains the Sys.com file (this file is included by default). Make a backup copy of the msdos.sys file in the root directory of your system drive. To do this, type the following commands from the command prompt: attrib -h -r -s c:\msdos.sys rename msdos.sys *.ysy At a command prompt, type sys c:. This command rewrites the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me boot code with accurate BPB information. If this command runs successfully, skip to step 4. If you are using a Windows Me startup disk and you receive an error message, "Cannot find the system file in the standard locations on drive C:", one or more files in the Windows Me installation have been removed. Use the following steps to place the correct files on the drive so that the sys command can locate them: Start a command prompt by using the following commands (that is, type the commands and press ENTER after each command): c: cd\windows If Windows is installed in a folder other than the Windows folder, adjust the commands accordingly. Try to switch to the Command folder by using the following command: cd command If an error message indicates that the path is not found, use the following command to create the Command folder, and then run cd command again: md command Switch to the EBD folder by using the following command: cd ebd If an error message indicates that the path is not found, use the following command to create the EBD folder, and then repeat the cd ebd command: md ebd In the EBD folder, use the following commands to copy the Io.sys file from the root of the hard drive and to rename the Io.sys file as Winboot.sys: attrib -s -h -r c:\io.sys copy c:\io.sys winboot.sys Winboot.sys is the file that Sys.com needs. Switch back to drive A, and then run the following commands: a: sys c: Type the following commands, and press ENTER after each command, to restore the original msdos.sys: attrib -s -h -r c:\msdos.sys copy c:\msdos.ysy c:\msdos.sys Press Y to overwrite the existing MSDOS.SYS file. You should receive a "1 FILE(S) COPIED" verification that the file was overwritten. Restart the computer to Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me, and then try the Windows XP installation or upgrade procedure again. NOTE: Alternatively, after you run the sys c: command, you can boot to the Recovery Console, and then use the fixboot command to rewrite the Windows XP boot code. This procedure enables the original installation to proceed typically.

Unlike 98,XP cannot be moved from one machine to another on the same hard drive. It only recognizes the machine it was installed on. Rgds.

You need to undertake a repair install of XP and probably a re-activation. It is illegal to use M$ software without license.....

This was covered recently in: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/85778.html Perhaps see it if the solutions offered there can work for you (the latter responses #6 onwards)?