NTLDR is missing...

[Bren McCormick]

Hey what's up. Just downloaded Linux Mint 16 and I'm trying to put it on my laptop, a Dell Latitude D620 (yeah, I know it's beat up but I Frankenstiened that bad boy myself). It used to run on Windows XP but one day after some automatic updates it was a black screen at boot and reading NTLDR is missing. How can I get Linux onto this computer without a Operating system already in place? HELP! Thanks- B

 

[Yesyesloud]

Easiest ways, in my opinion:

Unetbootin, LiLi, Universal USB installer.

You can always burn the ISO into a cd/dvd, too.

 

[arochester]

You need to either burn the ISO to a DVD or install from a USB stick. Change the boot order/BIOS so it boots from the DVD/USB stick first. Reboot.

Burning an ISO is a special operation to create a Linux bootable disk. Look here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

For a USB stick look here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu so you should be OK.

 

[Bren McCormick]

Ok, so far I've downloaded Petra from a couple different mirrors. The md5 was wrong on the first download. The second download the md5 was correct but was wrong after I burned the DVD (several times). And I made sure each time that it was burned with the .iso so I wasn't making a data disk, which would be useless. When I put the DVD in my laptop, it successfully did the 10 seconds jawn and then froze. Help?

 

[arochester]

It's a bit old but you might look at:
http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/2011120600139OSOOUB
the last two posts by cjm and Ronald Trip...

While Linux Mint 12 might be a dog on that DELL Latitude D620, there are a lot of systems that work well with it.

Generally the D620 seems good. http://www.linlap.com/dell_latitude_d620

Try one of the *buntus instead?

 

[pane-free]

. . . How can I get Linux onto this computer without a Operating system already in place? HELP! Thanks- B

"How can I get Linux onto this computer without a Operating system already in place? HELP! Thanks- B" One way to do this is . . .

Use ImgBurn to burn the ISO of a compatible distro (suggest the new Zenwalk) just downloaded using DownThemAll so the MD5sum or SHA256sum can be checked automatically, then burn to CD (BTW, MD5sum will be different after the ISO is burned to CD). Then . . .

SystemRescueCD -- download, burn to CD using ImgBurn @ no more than 8X, boot to it, hit <Enter> a few times (default) until reaching a multi-colored prompt on the page asking user to enter either "startx" or "wizard;" type in the following:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4096 conv=notrunc,sync

Go watch a movie or to work for half a day or enjoy your favorite beverage because it will take a while. When it's done, you will see a few lines saying it ran out of space and saying how many MBs were written. Don't leave this prompt yet. Instead, type in "startx" and when a yellow-colored window box with prompt appears, type in "gparted."

Partition the newly-wiped hard drive and install. See -- http://www.linux.org/threads/hard-disk-partition.5502/

 

[Bren McCormick]

Thanks for your help everyone! I was able to rebuild this hunk of crap laptop with ubuntu 12.04. Everything seems to be running fine. Much appreciated, Slanche!

 

[arochester]

Sláinte

 

[labrat]

The NTLDR error can appear because you're using a bootloader such as lilo or grub and windows is not the first system disk - windows doesn't like that.