CDBOOT: can't find ntldr, bartpe CD won't boot Options

[darkfoon]

I build the ISO from the XPSP2 cd, and then I burned the image to a cd-rw (good quality) it informs me while booting from CD: "CDBOOT: can't find ntldr" and then boots from the os on my harddrive (windows ME)

so, I take the ntldr file from the "i386" folder on my xpsp2 cd, and I place it in the same folder in the build (<build folder>\i386\NTLDR)and then make the iso again, burn it, yadda, yadda and I get the same problem.

Then I get a little mad (in both meanings of the word) and I put a copy of that very same ntldr in every folder (except plugins, that would be silly) and then I make the iso, rinse, lather and repeat... the same error.

so, am I using the wrong ntldr, is it another problem masked by this one, or is my CD burner retarded?

I am actually making the build on an xp machine and then testing the CD in an ME machine. The ME machine also happenes to have the CD burner, so, I burn the iso image to disc on the ME machine using BurnAtOnce.
I am following the instructions from this article.

Help is appreciated. if this has been answered elsewhere, just point me to the place where I can get the answer.

and thank you in advance; I've been working on this for over a month now, and still haven't gotten a working PE CD (for various other reasons).

[cdob]

File \I386\SETUPLDR.BIN is missing.
Case is importand.

[darkfoon]

File \I386\SETUPLDR.BIN is missing.
Case is importand.

that file is already present in \I386, and its all caps.

are there any other possibilities?


+++++++EDIT++++++++

I just got it to work. Apparently something was messed up in the ISO making process, and now I got it to work.

[theodin]

that file is already present in \I386, and its all caps.

are there any other possibilities?
+++++++EDIT++++++++

I just got it to work. Apparently something was messed up in the ISO making process, and now I got it to work.

I know the post is old - but if you are still out there, can you give us the benefit of your findings?
Thanks and muchly appreciated!

[darkfoon]

I know the post is old - but if you are still out there, can you give us the benefit of your findings?
Thanks and muchly appreciated!

Good thing I have email notification turned on!

Well, I think the problem was that I was using bad CD-RWs. I bought a pack just to test making Bart-PE cds, and all of them are good for about the 1st burn, then when I erase them and write another bit of data on them, it's useless for booting. I can burn other data on them, but bootable OSes will not work on them. One chunk of some critical file will not load properly, and that's that.
So the cause of the problem was crappy memorex CD-RWs!

The funniest thing about this, though, is that the CD that finally worked with my part-PE, was the Verbatim CD-RW that came with my Dell 6 years ago and has been written and re-written many many times. Hah! Verbatim makes good media. (I had to burn it twice to get the data really burnt into the disc, but it boots like a charm now).

The part about a mess up in the ISO making process was... well, I was using a custom version of mkisofs.exe trying to get some feature out of it. I think I was trying to get it to do that thing where it won't write duplicate data more than once. It was also the problem, but I was also being stupid and not considering the CD-RWs. That is, of course, until I tried installing linuxes and other such with those garbage CD-RWs and then I realized it was the disc, not the software, that was causing the problem.

I fried my XP computer, so now I can't really make any more bart-PE cds, but I don't have to, I just got the one and that's all I need. In the future, I may pick it back up and make a more elaborate CD with maybe newer plugins (I'd really like to get AVG free to work on it some day, the AVG plugin that existed at the time was only for the pay version, and it was in german.)
I used Bart-PE 1.3.1.
Have a good day!

[cdob]

I fried my XP computer, so now I can't really make any more bart-PE cds

At least you know the only one reliable CD-RW manufacturer now, and won't call another 'cd-rw (good quality)' anymore.
I'm using Verbatim CD-RW too and they last years, re-written many many times.

[paraglider]

I also use Verbatim media ( both DVD+RW, DVD+R, CD, CD+RW ) and have always found it to be highly reliable.

[waynec]

Good thing I have email notification turned on!

Well, I think the problem was that I was using bad CD-RWs. I

I am having the same problem today with "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR". I, too, am using the WinXP Pro with sp2 installation cd as the source. I am very frustrated!

I do not seem to be having a problem with bad cd's, at least no errors are shown during the pebuilder write. I have ensured that the file is named NTLDR rather than ntldr (even renamed the one which was lower-case on my hard drive). I also put a copy of NTLDR in a "custom" folder that I specified in the PE Builder window. I can see the NTLDR file in the root of the bootable cd using File Explorer, and the machine DOES try to boot the cd, thus the "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR" error message.

I could try putting NTLDR into some of the other directories on the hard drive file images that PE Builder creates before it writes the cdrom, but I can't figure out how to invoke PE Builder to write the cdrom without PE Builder first re-writing those files from the WinXP cdrom onto the hard drive... and since NTLDR is in the root of the cd, I don't know why it isn't found.

Anybody have any ideas for me? I have now wasted a half-dozen cd's and I'm losing patience (no point in repeating the same thing and expecting different results).

Wayne

[hilander999]

Try booting the ISO with an emultator..VMware, MS virtual pc, bochs,ect...

This will rule out he build as being the source of errors.

Common problems are..
-bad quality burner (wrong speed settings, some brands are picky- try lower speed burn)
-bad quality media
-bad memory installed in system (run memtest to rule out bad module)
-bad capacitors on system board (leaky, bloated - common problem)
-bad ribbon cable on attached CD drive (even if it works on windows, the cable can still be bad.)
--------PE does not have error-correction durring the txtsetup phase of booting, installed OS does.
-Master\Slave not defined - csel (cable select) can cause trouble with BartPE, use master\slave settings.

[cdob]

@waynec

To clarify:
If you get "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR" message, then file \I386\SETUPLDR.BIN was not found.

There is no file ntldr at a boot CD.

No errors at CD write dosn't indicate good writing.

There are reliable CD-RW. Of course, you have to use a reliable writer too.

[waynec]

Try booting the ISO with an emultator..VMware, MS virtual pc, bochs,ect...

This will rule out he build as being the source of errors.

Common problems are..
-bad quality burner (wrong speed settings, some brands are picky- try lower speed burn)
-bad quality media
-bad memory installed in system (run memtest to rule out bad module)
-bad capacitors on system board (leaky, bloated - common problem)
-bad ribbon cable on attached CD drive (even if it works on windows, the cable can still be bad.)
--------PE does not have error-correction durring the txtsetup phase of booting, installed OS does.
-Master\Slave not defined - csel (cable select) can cause trouble with BartPE, use master\slave settings.

Unfortunately, I do not have an emulator to try... kinda wish I did, although I'm not sure I want to spend the time and allocate the HD space for one.

Haven't had any problems with my burner, and the burn speed is low (I think the burn was at 9x, if I recall). I have created other bootable cd's with this cd r/w from the same spindle of cd's, notably the DFsee tool (which is not a WinXP bootable cd, so I did not use BartPE).

Bad media does not seem likely, since I made about 6 attempts at burning this BartPE cd and I doubt all of them would fail with the same symptom (NTLDR not found), and I'm still working off the same spindle of cd's that I used for DFsee. Once in a while I get a bad cd, but it's always been very obvious when that happens, and the burn didn't complete on those occasions.

I will make an attempt to create another DFsee bootable cd, just as a test, since it's been a few months since I've burned a bootable cd, but other cd's I've built seem to be fine.

If you get "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR" message, then file \I386\SETUPLDR.BIN was not found.

There is no file ntldr at a boot CD.

No errors at CD write dosn't indicate good writing.

There are reliable CD-RW. Of course, you have to use a reliable writer too.

I can see that NTLDR is not in the i386 directory, but SETUPLDR.BIN is there. When I boot, I get a message saying a bootable cd was found, but then the "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR" error message.

It appears to me that BartPE reads the cd to verify it after creating it, does it not? No errors were noted there (except on one run, and I discarded that cd), and I am booting from the same cd r/w that I used to build the cd's.

I doubt that a half-dozen attempts to write this cd would have all failed the same way, and I have previously created bootable DFsee tool cd's on the same cd r/w with the same batch of cd's (but not using BartPE, as the bootable DFsee tool is DOS-based, I think... in fact I want this WinXP cd for running a WinXP version of DFsee). As I said above, I will try to build another (dos-based) DFsee bootable cd today as a test of the cd r/w and media.

Thanks for your comments and suggestions,
Wayne

[cdob]

@waynec

As hilander999 already mentioned, there is major difference at OS reading and PE booting.
Your OS use error-correction cd reading. Difficluies at reading, speed may be reduced and a file reading again.

At PE there is no error-correction, you have one try.
One difficult at reading and you get a error message. Booting is not possible.

A DOS boot CD access hardware in another way.
Don't compare that with PE booting.

A cd verify dosn't indicate a good readable cd.
Your OS may read this cd, but PE booting may fail anymway.
Make a C1 scan.

There are other common hardware problems.

Unfortunately, I do not have an emulator to try... kinda wish I did, although I'm not sure I want to spend the time and allocate the HD space for one.

Use a emulator like Qemu or VMware Player. Qemu require about 6 mb HD space.

Once in a while I get a bad cd, but it's always been very obvious when that happens, and the burn didn't complete on those occasions

Which ATIP does your media contain, who did resell this media?
Which writer do you use?
Which boot drive do you use?

First weak points are still:
poor media
poor writer
poor booting drive

[hilander999]

Unfortunately, I do not have an emulator to try... kinda wish I did, although I'm not sure I want to spend the time and allocate the HD space for one.

Although I have not tried it yet, this looks promising...

http://www.911cd.net/forums//index.php?s=&...ndpost&p=103727

[The BlackBull]

@all

I have the same problem. The error appears 2 days ago after hundreds of errorless builds. It happens on the real CD an on the VMware machine too. I cheked the correct case of setuldr.bin on the root and on the i386 folder. The only new thing in my bartpe folder is the postprocessing plugin (I changed from v20 to v22). Maybe there is something different. I will change back to v20 and try again.

[waynec]

Unfortunately, I do not have an emulator to try... kinda wish I did, although I'm not sure I want to spend the time and allocate the HD space for one.

Haven't had any problems with my burner, and the burn speed is low (I think the burn was at 9x, if I recall). I have created other bootable cd's with this cd r/w from the same spindle of cd's, notably the DFsee tool (which is not a WinXP bootable cd, so I did not use BartPE).

Bad media does not seem likely, since I made about 6 attempts at burning this BartPE cd and I doubt all of them would fail with the same symptom (NTLDR not found), and I'm still working off the same spindle of cd's that I used for DFsee. Once in a while I get a bad cd, but it's always been very obvious when that happens, and the burn didn't complete on those occasions.

<snip>
Wayne

It turned out that my installed WinXP system has a problem, and apparently that problem is interfering with the BartPE-created bootable cdroms, because when I booted one of those cdroms on a neighbor's computer, it worked.

I had originally had problems, when I first installed my computer, getting a boot manager in place to handle booting from several operating systems... ever since when I boot the WinXP partition from the boot manager screen, I get a fleeting message saying "invalid BOOT.INI file", but then WinXP goes ahead and boots up fine, so I've ignored that glitch. I have been able to boot from other bootable cdroms, but they were not WinXP systems. Apparently the minor glitch I'm seeing on my computer while booting WinXP from the HD affects a bootup from the WinXP (BartPE-created) cdrom more severely, resulting in the "NTLDR not found" hard error that prevents bootup.

Wayne

[jdempste]

I build the ISO from the XPSP2 cd, and then I burned the image to a cd-rw (good quality) it informs me while booting from CD: "CDBOOT: can't find ntldr" and then boots from the os on my harddrive (windows ME)

There are a few non-obvious "tricks" that can cause this; generally a "CDBOOT couldn't find NTLDR" "Code 4" or "Code 5" will result.

When the disc is first booting, there is no operating system yet, so things have to be kept very simple.
Things to watch out for:
1) Turn off the ISO delimiters (";1") in your software that makes a bootable CD; an idiosyncrasy of Microsoft loader is that the program is not smart enough to handle the ;1 file suffix that ISO appends as a filename version delimiter, so boot loader can't parse/find the file, even though you can see it just fine in the directory listing after the operating system is up and running.
2) ISO 9660 requires ALL CAPS and 8.3 filenames in the root directory - a common mistake is to name the I386 directory "i386" (i in lower case); the program can't handle the lowercase and can't find the file in the path; moral: make ALL paths and filenames conform to 8.3 for the ISO directory.
3) Use Load Segment "000" or "7C0" ("000" defaults to "7C0"), 4 sectors, No Emulation, ISO delimiter OFF, Turn "Force ISO Level 1 8.3" to OFF (this doesn't affect your NTLDR error or bootability) - just be sure your source files conform to 8.3 format, 8 directory level depth, 255 max character paths to conform with ISO. (I've successfully made a bootable disk with 9 levels deep and ISO 8.3 turned OFF)
4) Not every software that claims to make bootable CD/DVDs will work for PE/Unattended Installs. Roxio and Nero do work; the free/shareware programs I've used that worked were a) CDBurnerXP 3.0 to create an ISO image, then b use IMGBurn to burn the ISO image to disk. CDBurnerXP v3.0.116 could not directly make a bootable DVD with my hardware; an ISO image MUST be created first, then burned to DVD with a separate program. Roxio didn't have this 2 step limitation. Try downloading an older version of the CDBurnerXP program (v2.2.9) from the http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php website. Changing to an older program version allowed burning the files directly to a bootable DVD in one step.

Set the BIOS to boot off the CD drive; I know I'm successful when I see the "Press any key to boot from the CD..." message after a reboot instead of "CDBOOT: Can't find NTLDR"

Dell Dimension 8400
3.0 GHz, 1 Gb RAM, 200Gb
Phillips DVD8701 +-RW

[Lolita]

And did you made it from dell cd with windows, maybe it is dell windows issue again, i made my bart pe from windows xp sp2 en from dell and i have same issue even when i try to boot it on non-dell system.

And maybe you know there was registry hive problem with dell windows ... so maybe there are is problems with dell windows ... Do everyone with this issue made it from dell windows xp or so?

[Kachoperro]

When I have this error, it's because I forget turn off my Avast! antivirus before build the ISO.

I do not believe that the problem is by the quality of the CD. I often use the same CD-RW many times, the surface seems a "highway to hell ", and it works without trouble.

Best regards,

Kachoperro.

[Former_skewltek_post]

When I have this error, it's because I forget turn off my Avast! antivirus before build the ISO.

I do not believe that the problem is by the quality of the CD. I often use the same CD-RW many times, the surface seems a "highway to hell ", and it works without trouble.

Best regards,

Kachoperro.

Yeah, thats because avast! prevents the changing of the case (ntldr to NTLDR) of the system files when it's on. Took me a couple of times to figure that one out. Symantec does the same thing, so check it.

[ewieldra]

HI All

same problem here.

Reinstalled my computer

The Difference
Beforce After
1GB 2GB
nForce Drivers (unknown) nForce Drivers Latest
Deactivated Virusscanning device
Roll Back Plugins to last know good build