This is a Windows problem and not a Linux one. You will need your Windows CD
to fix it. The file in question is used as part of the Windows boot process.
It goes missing in many different ways, so it is hard to know which one
caused it to happen for you. It likely happened when you used the partition
manager. If you adjusted the Windows drive size or moved it then it could be
the cause..

The fix can be found here: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

There is no problem with grub. You need to fix Windows first. All grub does
is point to Windows. Once Windows is restored then grub shoudl work as
intended.

Further on the NTLDR is missing problem I came here with last weekend. I
ended up
using GPARTED to look at my partitions again and confirmed that is was as
expected.
So I dug out the Windows install disks and tried the repair step which
didn't work so I
did a whole new install. A side note, this installation was an upgrade from
W98 to XP,
which kept the Fat32 file system. I was able to use the same disk to upgrade
to NTFS
on this install, and got it reloaded on the first half of the disk. I
couldn't get the drivers disk
to work that I have, I think it was from the W98 set. So I downloaded from
Intel a driver set
and got everything reworking.

However it destroyed the boot section or something of my Linux section. Not
a big thing
again as this is a learning session for me. There is a change I wanted to
incorporate into
this next load. I may have asked this question before, but here goes again.
I have about
14 Gig available for the Linux section. I want to experiment with creating
seperate file systems
or partitions for the Root and what is needed there and then a /Home
partition. If I can remember
my old Unix days we allowed some amount of space for /root and then had
seperate file systems
for other sections of the operating system. This will be a single user
system so I shouldn't need
much but was wondering what would be a good size for the OS and /home for my
stuff.

If there is a web site that I can be directed to for this I would be
interested, but I must say
I have looked at some of the forums on Ubuntu and I can't seem to get the
hang of using them.

Sorry for the bandwidth but I do like some of this leaning stuff.

You need only two Linux partitions, / (root) and /home (home). 14 GBs isn't
much to work with. Fragmentation is not a problem with Linux. Usually. It
can be a problem if you fill disks past 80% of capacity. There aren't any
good defrag tools for Linux because it isn't usually a problem. Most won't
work with ext3 or ext4. Just keep this in mind. Fragmentation will slow you
down and can even crash your system. Been there; done that!

What is unclear from this is if you are moving an existing installation to
have its own home partition or are starting from scratch. If the former,
look here:
www.ubuntugeek.com/...ome-partition-in-ubuntu.html
or www.go2linux.org/how-to-move-home-directory-to-another-partition

If the latter, there is not much help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot#Manual%20partitioning
and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition

Basically you need to know three things when manually partitioning during an
installation. You need to know about devices and partitions (which device,
how many partitions, how big etc.), formatting (ext2, ext3, ext4, Reiser.
etc. and swap) and mount point (it will be / for root and /home for home).
Once your partitions are made then for subsequent installations you can
forget about the first one. On subsequent installations you will choose to
format /, but NOT /home. That way you preserve data and settings. This is
the big advantage of a separate home. A swap partition is optional. too much
is worse than not enough, as disk caching is slower than RAM.

Ask specific questions if you need further help. Many of us have done this
so many times that we forget what the first time was like.

I Kbuntu set up with a 17 GB / partition an a large /home. After several
months of use, installing lots of software etc., and all the updates I
suddenly noticed it wouldn't install the latest updates. Reason: root
partition full! Moral of the story: your 14 GB partition may only be enough
for light duty.

Try cleaning out your/tmp directory and emptying the trash. I have a LOT of
stuff installed on my computer, and am only using about 4 GB in / I can't
imagine installing and using 17 GB of applications.

Same here, but one of the first things taught to me as a new Unix
system admin, back in the dark ages of Unix was that you never
have enough memory nor disk space. I don't think ever changes,
especially ove time.

You obviously have not tried Sabayon which installs about 15 GBs before you
add anything to it. It is one large distribution!

In Kubuntu, I have only installed 11 Gbs on my very full root partition. I
have just about every desktop environment installed and lots of
applications.

My advice is that with 14 GBs I would keep it lean. If he is doing lots of
installing the cache fills up quickly and multimedia can chew up lots of
space with temp files. I would take advantage of the Computer Janitor and
Kleansweep. I also like Filelight which shows you where space is being used
the most.

As this is only a test platform for my experimentation I don't think
it will get too full. If I really decide to go with the Linux, I can
repartition
to the whole 30 Gig drive.
I have another disk I could install in the PC and use it as the /home drive
and I may consider that too. I may wish to use this PC with Ubuntu as a
print/file server for my network, after more playing around.
Ubuntu 9.10 I think has Samba in so I could use that for the server duties
I think.

When you installed Windows, it removed Grub, which lets you select what system
you want to boot. There are two versions of Grub, so there are two answers.
Google "recoveringubuntuafterinstallingwindows" (that's all one word) and the
first result will point to the community documentation, which contains both
answers, and how to tell which one applies to you.

It's too late for clearing the /tmp directory as I reinstalled a couple of
weeks ago but I'll keep that in mind if the situation arises again.
Just checked my 2 desktop machines and both were under 6 GB in the root. I
wonder what went wrong on my laptop? Mind you, the laptop is on Lucid beta
while the desktops are on Karmic.

That was one of my questions, or should have been if it wasn't clear. I am
old enough to suffer from that malady these days. What is a good size
of file system for /root. I believe we used in Unix some small size for
/root
but then we had extra filesystems for /var, /bin, /usr, and several others.
These
were on disk arrays which on this PC I don't have. Really, hard to believe I
know,
but it seems like there should be some rule of thumb. Like say the 6 GB
/root
and lots other for /home, and of course /swap. Then have your downloads in a
folder in your /home directory. I expect /root would expand some as you
loaded
applications, so any ideas?

The rule of thumb for Swap is 2 times memory. You need at least as big as memory
if you expect to use "hibernate." I have 4 GB of memory, and swap is hardly ever
used.

I went overboard with root, allocating 37 GB of my 640 GB hard drive. After nine
months, root is using 7 GB. (I install lots of stuff.) I expect within two years
I will do a "clean" install where I format root, so 37 GB will be plenty. If it
were smaller, it wouldn't make much difference to the size of my /home
partition. (I also gave Windows 7 60 GB, and I basically don't use that at all.)

With a "modern" (large) hard drive, I think 12 GB for root is a reasonable
compromise. If you fill it, that becomes a disaster, so better to have a bit
more than you will actually need.