There are eleven phases of booting process in XP but it has been improved in Vista with only eight phases. And yet both of them are more sophisticated and complicated than starting a space rocket (three phases).

Master Boot Record (MBR) - BIOS examines the MBR and start the booting sequence.

Error: The message “Cannot read from this data carrier” appears

Solutions: Rewriting the MBR
Call up the XP repair console and type “fixmbr” and ENTER

Partition Boot Record (PBR) - Checks whether all the required boot files are present

Error: Partition not detected. The BIOS gives the message “Partition not found”

Solution: Retrieval with test disk. Download and install the TestDisk & PhotoRec application from the internet and select “Fix Partition Table” or “Recover Deleted Partition”

NTLoader - PBR boots the “ntldr.exe” file. This downloads the boot manager “boot.ini”

Error: Missing File - The message “ntldr file missing” is displayed

Solution: Copy file again. Enter “fixboot c:” in the repair console. Then copy the ntloader from the setup CD. For example: copy d:\i386\ntldr c:

Alternative Solutions: NTLDR is missing