Win XP partitions swapped, xp wont boot....

**airbone** · 19th May, 2010, 05:28 PM

Have strange problem with my PC.... Used to work fine, but one morning it stopped to boot from strange reason. I got message NTLDR missing, press CTRL+ALT+DEL.
After checked boot order in bios etc... I have ran xp recovery console to see what was going on, and have found out that partitions on my HD are swapped. What was partition C: is now D: and vice versa. Offcourse I had my xp at c: so now it wont boot after it considers my formerm D: as C: now......
I cannot google anything how to fix that thing. Found many instructions how to swap drive letters in windows, but I cannot get to win. I need to use recovery console etc. swap my drives back and repair windows so it can boot again.
I do not want to loose any data from harddrive, as data are still there and can be seen via recovery console.
Many thanks

**dasteph** · 19th May, 2010, 10:26 PM

can you go into the bios and switch the drive letter from c to d.

**airbone** · 19th May, 2010, 11:00 PM

no, i do not have any options like this in bios....I only can change boot order, nothing else. I am wondering why computer had swapped letters for these partitions itself......

**crazyslot** · 20th May, 2010, 12:40 AM

just unplug the drive you dont want and try, or if you?r drive e Sata try to configure on bios the frist sata.
Sorry my bad english but i?m portugues.

**airbone** · 20th May, 2010, 03:22 PM

I only have one harddrive, but it is divided into two partitions c: and d:
So there is no further configuration possible in BIOS, as BIOS recognizes only one disk drive.

**dasteph** · 20th May, 2010, 04:22 PM

the following link will tell you how to change the drive letters using a floppy boot disk if you have a floppy drive.

The computer does not start after you change the active partition by using the Disk Management tool

this is the only solution i can find hope it is of some use.

**airbone** · 21st May, 2010, 12:57 AM

Many thanks,
I will try it and report back.

**cloudnineuk54** · 21st May, 2010, 01:10 AM

ntldr is missing,its a file thats been deleted and untill you put it back it wont boot,i had same problem,i managed to find and download a file to a cd/and usb which then booted windows ok,but couldnot manage to get this back onto the hard drive,so just booted from usb all the time.cant remember what site i obtained it from but all the info and instructions was on there.i still have the ntldr is missing file on a cd i think,if i have your quite welcome to have a copy...of to see if i still have it