NTLDR (abbreviation of NTloader) is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT operating system from 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1 up until Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. From Windows Vista onwards it was replaced by the BOOTMGR bootloader. NTLDR is typically run from the primary storage device, but it can also run from portable storage devices such as a CD-ROM, USB flash drive, or floppy disk. NTLDR can also load a non NT-based operating system given the appropriate boot sector in a file.
NTLDR requires, at the minimum, the following two files to be on the system volume:
ntldr, the main boot loader itself
NTDETECT.COM, required for booting an NT-based OS, detects basic hardware information needed for successful boot
An additional important file is boot.ini, which contains boot configuration (if missing, NTLDR will default to \Windows on the first partition of the first hard drive).
NTLDR is launched by the volume boot record of system partition, which is typically written to the disk by the Windows FORMAT or SYS command.
NTLDR (abbreviation of NT loader) is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT operating system from 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1 up until...
bootloader, NTLDR. Starting with Vista, the booting process begins with either the BIOS or UEFI loading the Windows Boot Manager, which replaces NTLDR as the...
computer and is responsible for loading the rest of Windows. It replaced the NTLDR present in older versions of Windows. The boot sector or UEFI loads the...
by handing off the control of boot to either NTLDR or the EasyBCD-specific EasyLDR, which bypasses NTLDR and boots directly into the OS. MS-DOS, Windows...
NTLDR menu. However, the latter option is much more risky than the former one because it requires that the computer can boot to the point that NTLDR loads...
all exist in kernel mode. The booting process of Windows NT begins with NTLDR in versions before Vista and the Windows Boot Manager in Vista and later...
loadlin GPL-2.0-or-later MasterBooter GPL-2.0-only No cost Source repository NTLDR Microsoft July 27, 1993 (Windows NT 3.1) Proprietary bundled with Windows...
check and repair the hard drive(s), repair boot information (including NTLDR), replace corrupted system files with fresh copies from the CD, or enable/disable...
available in any 64-bit edition of Windows. System startup (Windows NT) NTLDR, IA64ldr, Winload The boot loader; performs basic system initialization...
BIOS-reported drive geometry include Solaris, DOS and Windows NT family, where NTLDR (NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003) or WINLOAD (Vista, Server 2008, Windows 7 and...
wished to boot from. Other software with similar functionality includes NTLDR, LILO, GRUB, and Graphical Boot Manager. One of its components was named...
boot manager is known as chain loading. Some dual-boot systems, such as NTLDR (the boot loader for all releases of Microsoft's Windows NT-derived operating...
GRLDR config in one image file. It can be loaded directly from DOS, or by NTLDR or Windows Boot Manager. GRUB4DOS is under active development and as of...
penalty. If system files that are needed at boot time (such as drivers, NTLDR, winload.exe, or BOOTMGR) are compressed, the system may fail to boot correctly...
located on (almost) any partition, but the boot files (io.sys, bootmgr, ntldr, etc.) must reside on a primary partition. However, other factors, such...
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not maintain a System.alt hive because NTLDR on those versions of Windows can process the System.log file to bring up...
Windows 11, this nomenclature is still used by the "Disk Management" utility. NTLDR Windows startup process Windows NT startup process Windows Vista startup...
Second-stage boot loaders, such as GNU GRUB, rEFInd, BOOTMGR, Syslinux, NTLDR or iBoot, are not themselves operating systems, but are able to load an...
stage) boot loaders, such as shim, GNU GRUB, rEFInd, BOOTMGR, Syslinux, NTLDR and iBoot, are not themselves operating systems, but are able to load an...
kernel, or via hardware virtualization. The boot sequence is initiated by NTLDR in versions before Vista and the Windows Boot Manager in Vista and later...
analogous to the boot sector of a hard disk. Load BLOB This typically contains NTLDR and is launched by the boot BLOB. Part BLOB This contains the actual boot...
default until Windows 3.1. In Windows NT, the booting process is initiated by NTLDR in versions before Vista and the Windows Boot Manager in Vista and later...
4.0, a defragmentation helper (DEFRAG) was added. Microsoft's original NTLDR was coded for loading the NT kernel from FAT, HPFS or NTFS, but subsequent...