This file is set up to automatically select the "1ST TRY THIS" choice after 30 seconds. Try it first, if it was the wrong selection, you will likely get one of these four errors:

1. Windows could not start because file "\system32\hal.dll was missing or corrupt

2. Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

3. I/O Error accessing boot sector file multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\BOOTSECT.DOS

4. Immediate reboot

If you get the immediate reboot or some other weird error, try pressing F8 at the "1st Try This" selection screen, it will give you a prompt where you can select Safe Mode, and then try the "1st Try This" option again. Safe Mode is a special "minimal" version of Windows that doesn't load certain parts of the operating system that might have caused the problem.

One of the choices should eventually boot you back into Windows. (What if none of the options worked?) .

Use windows to fix the boot files on the hard drive.

If you got back into Windows, stop whatever you are doing and backup your most important information from this computer.

Now that you are done backing up the most important info, try to change back whatever you were last doing and boot normally, it that doesn't work, put the floppy back into the broken computer and double click the fixntldr.bat file on the floppy drive, if it asks you to overwrite a file, just type in y for yes (the file copies boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com from the floppy to the C:\ drive and removes the read only attributes). That process take a few minutes, then remove the floppy and reboot.

If you are using the cd or usb solution, copy the boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com files to My Computer > Local Disk C:\ > and overwite whatever files might be there, then right click each file, choose properties, uncheck the Read Only attribute, and click OK.

If you get back into Windows again, you can change that "1st Try This" menu by going into Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section, Settings button > System Startup; then change the "Default Operating System:" to the selection that worked for you, and change the box that says "Time to display list of operating systems" to however many seconds you want (usually 1 second). Click OK twice. (What if the bootdisk worked, but I can't get into Windows without it?) .

NTLDR missing, press any key to restart

How to fix: NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart

What happened?

When your computer starts, the BIOS attempts to find the primary hard drive's active partition to read the first sector for the MBR (Master Boot Record), it uses that info to load the rest of the OS. For Windows NT4/2k/XP the NTLDR (New Technology Loader) takes it from there. If you get the "NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart" what's most likely going on is the BIOS either didn't look for the right drive, didn't find the right partition, it wasn't active, didn't find the MBR, or the MBR didn't list NTLDR in the right place, the location of NTLDR changed, or you are looking at a hardware failure situation (memory/cables/drive/motherboard/etc). Windows Vista does not boot this way, you can still use my floppy to boot into an existing installation of 98/nt/xp, but I've not had a chance to test Windows Vista.

If possible, try to change back whatever hardware or software change you just made (this could be as simple as leaving a floppy disk in the drive or you need to recheck the cables). (What if I made new changes that I want to keep?).

Make a NTLDR boot disk to get back into Windows.

The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check your partitions, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation. Here are the instructions to do this:

1. Get a blank floppy (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer (What if the computer doesn't have a floppy drive?).

2. Download fixntldr.exe onto a working computer (fixntldr-winnt if you are using Windows 2000 or Windows NT4) (What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?). (What if my backup system is Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).

3. Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk.

4. Do you remember if the folder you had your Windows installation in was named "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .

5. Put the new floppy (or cd/usb drive) you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.

Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.

remove login password

Direct Bootup Without Typing Password

1. At a command prompt, type "control userpasswords2" and press Enter to open the Windows 2000-style User Accounts
application.
2. On the Users tab, clear the Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer check box and then
click OK.
3. In the Automatically Log On dialog box that appears, type the user name and password for the account you want to be
logged on each time you start your computer.

Remove Login Password

Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Local Security Settings/Minimum Password Length/Reduce it to 0 (No password required). Control Panel/User Account/Your Account/Remove Password.

Cannot Change the Administrator Password in Control Panel

After you log on as an administrator to a computer that is not a member of a domain, when you double-click User Accounts in Control Panel to change the password for the built-in Administrator account, the Administrator account may not appear in the list of user accounts. Consequently, you cannot change its password.

This behavior can occur because the Administrator account logon option appears only in Safe mode if more than one account is created on the system. The Administrator account is available in Normal mode only if there are no other accounts on the system. To work around this behavior:

- If you are running Windows XP Home Edition, restart the computer and then use a power user account to log on to the
computer in Safe mode.

- If you are running Windows XP Professional, reset the password in the Local Users and Groups snap-in in Microsoft
Management Console (MMC):

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type "mmc" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK to start MMC.
3. Start the Local Users and Groups snap-in.
4. Under Console Root, expand "Local Users and Groups", and then click Users.
5. In the right pane, right-click Administrator, and then click Set Password.
6. Click Proceed in the message box that appears.
7. Type and confirm the new password in the appropriate boxes, and then click OK.

How to Restore a Windows XP system to a previous State using System Restore

How to Restore a Windows XP system to a previous State using System Restore

If Windows XP will start:

• Log on to Windows as an Administrator.
• Click Start, point to All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore.
• On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an earlier time, and click Next.
• Or type or paste the following command in the Start - Run box then press Enter.

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

This command can be used at the Safe Mode Command Prompt also.