Windows XP .bin used as bootable drive?

[Jaye1984]

Long story short, an internal HDD failed. I sent the drive to a data recovery service and they retrieved the data. They also created a .bin file that would allow me to boot the machine. I also received an internal HDD with a clone of the old HDD. I installed the cloned drive but I get "NTLDR missing" when I attempt to boot the machine. I have a stand alone .bin file-do I just copy it onto a empty HDD and booth from there??

I've googled that error and have tried to fix it to no avail. The machine originally ran Windows NT 4.0 and the original install and recovery disks are nowhere to be found. Can anyone help me to get this machine bootable??

 

[Neemobeer]

Well if the drive failed there's a good chance part of it was corrupted, so the cloned drive is most likely just data and can't be directly booted to. A bin file is simply binary 0's and 1's or basically an exact replica of data and they're not really bootable unless it was just an MBR record which is about 512 bytes (very small). If it's a bin file accompanied by a cue file it's probably a mountable image but not really bootable on it's own.

 

[Jaye1984]

Wow, thanks.

If i have a copy of all of the files that were on the HDD what are my options to being able to boot to Windows NT? My only guess it to find a copy and registration key for NT and install from scratch then copy over the data...?

 

[Neemobeer]

That would probably be the best idea. Your computer may have the license key on a sticker on the computer itself, in the documentation that came with it, or if it's a newer computer the license can be embedded in the motherboard so you should only need to download the correct Windows version from another computer and install.