NPLR/Partition Issues Won't Boot!

Hi,

I just got a Dell Latitude, and when I turn it on, it says NPLR is missing.

I have the installation disk, and the Windows XP disk, but no utilities/drivers disk.

When I run a test, it says everything passes, but there is a 'missing partition'. The instructions it gives says to insert the disk I don't have to correct it.

I was advised by someone that I could simply burn the drivers/utilities onto a cd, but it is not recognized as such when I reboot. I think it's the kind you have to install through Windows.

Would this even really fix the problem I'm having? I thought I could simply reinstall with the original installation disk instead, but it won't take it. I'm willing to scrap everything on the computer, and reload to make it work, so it doesn't seem like it should be this hard!

Any advice?

 

I don't understand what is preventing you from reinstalling Windows. What do you mean when you say "it won't take" the installation disk?

 

Thanks Commander Wolf!

Sorry, I didn’t realize how little info I gave-

I was given two disks by the woman who sold it to me.

The first was a Windows XP Professional disk, which gave this message:

“File \i386\ntkrnlmp.exe could not be loaded.
The error code is 7
Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit”

The second was the “Ultimate Boot CD for Windows” which gave this one:

“A problem has been detected, and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.” It lists the cause as fastsx.sys, and suggests disabling BIOS options such as caching, or shadowing.

At the bottom is “technical information” which says:
“Stop: 0x00000050 (0x85042444, 0x00000001, 0x00000000)

fastsx.sys - Address F8D73EFF base at F8D56000, DateStamp 40ac1892”

Lol! and *sigh* :confused2:

When I run diagnostics, I get the message that says “No Diagnostic Utility Partition found. To run diagnostics, insert your “Drivers and Utilities” CD, then select OK to restart the system, and boot off the CD."

This is the one I don’t have. I’ve looked online, but could only find "driver updates", and the one that didn’t work.

I'm not sure where I can download it, and don't know how to tell if this is the only problem.

It's a Dell Latitude D500.

Thanks for any help, I'm SO over my head!

 

Is this after you boot from the CD and try to setup? It might be scratched or something.

If you have access to a known-good XP disk (of the same flavor, of course, ie. Home, Pro, etc), you should try installing with that, even if it's not Dell-branded.

The Ultimate Boot CD is useless for reinstalling Windows.

 

Really? The support rep on the phone insisted that while you could swap other computer's disk, that you can't do that with Dell?

Yes, the two messages are after I boot each disk.

The computer seems to be saying only the Driver's disk was needed, I just couldn't figure out why the whole Windows CD wouldn't work instead, but maybe I could just do what it says. But where can I burn the disk?

There are some very fine abrasions on the disk, the kind that don't normally affect it.

I'll ignore the support rep, and look around for another disk, but I would still like to find the right drivers disk, if anyone knows where I can download?

Thanks for the help Commander Wolf!

 

The only "catch" with using a non-Dell branded install disk is that you will have to activate it with the CoA on the bottom of the machine, so I hope yours in intact.

It is probably difficult to find a physical or iso copy of the specific drivers disk, but you can just download the drivers themselves from Dell's support site.

 

That's the problem I mentioned in the first post. Computer will not boot past 'splash' screen, there seems to be no way to load drivers on from 'updates' on Dell's site.

I did download a free copy of Windows XP Pro, but got error message 0x80020063) when I burned, and am still getting ntldr is missing. If I could find a copy of the utilities/drivers cd, that would be worth a try.

I don't think I'm making myself clear about what my issues are...

 

*EDIT*

The boot option for cd (in f12) did say CD R/W, and I had burned it on a CD-R. Is this enough to stall me out? ??