PC Doctor Error HD521-2W

[jmm58]

I have a Presario SR1820NX computer and when I booted it the other morning I got a message on the screen:

NTLDR is missing

Press Ctrl Alt Delete to restart.

Several restart attempts produced the same message, so I pressed F10 to bring up System Recovery. When I did a hardware check the HD (ST3160021A) failed the Short Self Test and PC Doctor displayed the following error:

Error Code HD521-2W

It said it did not recommend running System Recovery and to contact Tech Support. I have browsed the forum in hopes of finding an answer but didn't see anything related to this problem. Does anyone know what is causing this error and how to resolve it?

[eljomydi]

that error code means that your hard drive has gone bad and you need to replace it

[jmm58]

Thanks for the reply. I am not convinced that the HD is bad, PC Doctor is on the HD and runs fine. I'm thinking the problem has something to do with the C partition of the HD .On the HP site they discuss the 'NTLDR is missing' error and state it may be due to a corrupt file (ntdlr or ntdetect.com) or possibly a corrupt boot sector\master boot record. On the Microsoft web site they say this issue was resolved with SP-2 but I have SP-3 installed so that leads me back to the possibilty of a corrupt file or boot sector. I followed the procedure to boot from the System Recovery CD on the HP site, but the  drive tray would not open, I removed the front of the computer to access the manual eject hole and opened it that way, inserted the System Recovery disc then closed the tray. I changed the boot up order (boot from CD first) but it doesn't load the system recovery utility. The light on the CD flickers but then it moves on to the HD and tries to boot but comes up with the 'NTLDR is missing' error every time. If I could get it to boot from the CD I think I could format the HD C partition and reinstall XP but I'm not understanding why it won't boot from the CD. Any other ideas? Thanks again for the input - it's appreciated.

[Big_Dave]

Do you have a Windows installation disk?  If yes, then boot it up and run repair 2-3 times to ensure the boot loader is fixed.  If you have VISTA or Windows 7, then download the torrent file using uTorrect file and then burn it to a CD using Imgburn.  The boot it up and follow the above repair instructions. 

I'm not sure the above will work if you can't get the recovery disk to load but you give it try.

[eljomydi]

with "NTLDR is missing", yes the only way you can fix it is to perform system recovery. have you tried the recovery partition aside from the recovery cd? but again, if you have the hd521-2w error code, it really means that the hard drive needs to be replaced.

[Big_Dave]

Read this article.