Fixing Windows error "NTLDR is missing"

My friend rang this morning and asked if I had a Windows XP install
CD. His girlfriend's laptop wasn't booting up and she had an
assignment due this week. They were getting the message "NTLDR is
missing". Initially, we booted up using the Bootable XP rescue disk
(see Bart PE Loader) but didn't really know what to do once we got in.
Then tried booting with Windows XP install CD and selecting "Repair
Windows" option. It eventually got to command-prompt but again, we
didn't know what to fix.

Then finally, I went to google, entered the error message and in about
30 seconds I had the solution:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm

Windows XP users

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and
pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter
that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard
disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM
drive letter "E". This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the
CD from the computer and reboot.

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Makes you wonder why the hell these files constantly get corrupted!