NTLDR missing

[mimseridge]

I have just installed a second hard drive a 400GB Sata-150 and intended it to be my main drive. I installed windows xp sp2 as per normal and started the computer. At the POST screen it gets to "Verifying DMA Pool" and then says "NTLDR missing. press ctl - alt -del to restart".
If I start the PC with the the the xp disk in and select 1st boot device as CD ROM in BIOS windows starts and I can logon and use windows as normal.
What is NTLDR and how can I get my pc to boot from the new sata drive.
Specs
ABit KN8 Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200
512ram
ATI Radeon X300
400GB Sata 150 HDD
20GB IDE HDD witn win xp installed (not currently plugged in)

[kilgoretrout]

NTLDR is the bootloader for winxp and other NT based windows OSes. For starters, do you have your new 400GB drive listed first in the bios boot order above any other hard drives?

[mimseridge]

yes my new drive is listed first in BIOS.

[mimseridge]

Ok I copied 2 files NTLDR and NTLCONNECT from the XP Startup disk and copied them to my root folder F:\ and now windows boots from the new HDD.
However although it boots just after the POST screen a msg flashes "Invalid boot.ini booting windows from C:\" or something similar. Windows boots fine but always shows this msg. This still strikes me as still being wrong?

[rave]

try going to Start --> Run --> type "msconfig" --> boot.ini tab --> click on Check All Boot Paths
it might do something it might not. hope this helps

[kilgoretrout]

Boot with the XP installation CD.

When prompted, press R to repair a Windows XP installation.

If repairing a host with multiple operating systems, select the appropriate one (XP) from the menu. If you have only one operating system, enter 1 to select it.

Enter the administrator password if prompted .

To fix the MBR, use the following command:

fixmbr

That will reinstall the bootloader, assuming you have winxp installed on the C:\ drive.

If you have multiple OSes installed, this could get more tricky.