Editing NTLDR (section)

{{Short description|Boot loader for Microsoft Windows}}
'''NTLDR''' ([[abbreviation]] of '''''NT''' '''l'''oa'''d'''e'''r''''') is the [[Booting|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 (computing)|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 partition and boot partition|system volume]]:

* {{Mono|ntldr}}, the main boot loader itself
* {{Mono|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 {{Mono|[[Format (command)|FORMAT]]}} or {{Mono|[[SYS (command)|SYS]]}} command.