[Tony Biker]

Emachine E4086 - I had the need to use the systems recovery disc today due to some application error. I did not use the destructive option.
Once it had completed and restarted it firstly gives an option of F11 or after a few seconds states NTLDR is compressed. Looking through google, those that have had the same problem are told when the Welcome To Setup appears to press R to take you to the recovery console and then click 1 using the supplied disc. But it does not give me that option no matter what I do. All it does it to take me to a screen to give the option to either do a to full or partial recovery. I cant get to the Welcome To Setup screen. No matter what I do, it does the same circle. What I can find on the internet is suggesting the following, but this machine just wont do it.

Help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Tony

Try this:
Insert the Windows CD (the oryginal one) into the CDrom drive, and restart tyour PC. When the compter bootsagain select an option that are required to start the computer from the CD if you are asked to do so. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console. When prompted type "1" or if you have a multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the Recovery Console. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER. Now you should be at the comman prompt and ready to repair the ntldr file. Now all you need to do is enter the following commands (in order) and each command on a new line just like you see them here:
cd \
attrib -c ntldr
exit
The PC should reboot now and everything should work just fine.

[Rik]

Have you attempted to boot into safe mode by pressing F8 just before windows begins to load and selecting safe mode from the menu?
You should then be able to go into command prompt by typing cmd in the run box then type the "attrib -c ntldr" there.

That may or may not work, let me know and i will see if i can help further. :)

[Tony Biker]

Thanks for the help Rik. It wont go to safe mode. The only keys working are R, F2 and F11 which sends me round the same circle.

[Rik]

What options do you get exactly?

[Tony Biker]

Thanks again Rik. On boot up the black screen gives me Press F11 otherwise the 'NTLDR is compressed press crtl, alt and delete to restart' message comes up. F11 just takes me to the recovery option of either partial or full recovery which I have tried. The only other option is R and does the same. F2 bios and F10 are the only others working. F10 again just sends me round the same circle. No other keys function.

Much appreciated.

Tony

[Rik]

Ok, looks like you are going to need a boot disk of some kind to sort this out. Have a look here - http://www.bootdisk.com/. You need to ensure that you get one that states that it supports NTFS. I suggest you try the second one down.

[Tony Biker]

Hi Nik.

I have purchased this:
http://www.user-guides.co.uk/asp/pro...rchFor=&PT_ID=

In the hope this does the trick. However, I have tried to use it on the PC but it wont run the software so waiting for advice from those I bought I from. Failing that I will download your suggestion.

Thanks again.

[Rik]

Let me know how you get on. :)

[Tony Biker]

Hi. The software worked OK and it boots up but it seems to look like a fresh copy of XP. I however went to C drive and clicked off the arrow which said 'compress disc to save space' and about 4 hours later the drive no longer compressed. But the same problem exists, without the boot disc it still states "NTLDR is compressed", so the only positive is that i can get it booted up but run into a brick wall after.

The insturctions given on the software said to copy all of the contents in its NTLDR folder to windows to replace and fix. Did it but did not work.

I looked at a microsoft note which said:
RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, decompress the Bootstat.dat file in the Windows folder. To do so: 1.Right-click the Bootstat.dat file, and then click Properties. 2.Click to clear the Compress contents to save disk space check box, and then click OK. After you decompress the Bootstat.dat file, the automatic recovery feature works, even if the NTFS partition is still compressed.


I found the file but the box which said 'compress' was unclicked anyway.

On the boot recovery disc I bought, it does have a function to recover files and data and the stuff I need is still there. I have not done anything with that data, just needed to know it was there.

I have been in touch with emachine who are sending me around the avenues from the USA back to the UK and this morning I had an email saying it was Gateway who support the product, but been in touch and they say its not a listed product with them! So looks like its down to me to sort it.

Is it time to take it to a Tech to sort?

Many thanks in advance.

[Puckers]

Dont know if u are still having this problem but my son recently had same on his gateway laptop. Even after doing a complete new install from gateway disk it would just say NTLDR is compressed press ctrl alt del to restart. I had tried all the solutions on various sites none of which were succesful. In the end I thought I would try using a copy of linux (OpenSuse10) I had to see if that would install and guess what it did!!! On installation of Linux I told it to delete windows and do a full format of hard drive. After Linux was installed I then reinstalled XP (As my son wanted this back on) from original gateway disk without any problems(other than having to download all drivers from gateway site and reinstall). I know its a long way round but it fixed the problem.

Hope this helps

Puckers