
Description
After switching on your computer or after restarting Windows XP you receive the error NTLDR is compressed on a black screen with white writing when trying to boot into Windows.
Common Symptoms
- Error appears after performing a System Restore using the Destructive Option
- You receive the following the following error message when starting or rebooting your computer:
NTLDR is compressed. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.
Explanation
The above error is appearing due to a problem with the attributes of the Windows boot files. Continue below for your solution.
Proposed Solutions Below….
Solution 1 – Attrib NTLDR
The NTLDR file must be altered in order to clear this error and correctly boot.
- Boot into the Recovery Console
- When the console asks you to choose a Windows install to work with, enter 1 and press Enter
- When prompted, enter your Administrator password
- At the command prompt, enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each:
cd \
attrib -c c:\ntldr
exit
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those commands one after another look confusing to the average person. It should be:
at the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type cd \
then type attrib -c c:\ntldr
if you just do attrib -c ntldr it won’t work.
Hi, Thanks for pointing that out. It was actually a problem with the formatting of the site since it was redesigned recently. I’ve updated the text now. I must check all my other posts! That could take a while
Cheers
Rosco
[...] Welcome to WindowsBBS Without an XP install CD you are in real trouble – see if you can borrow one and boot to the Recovery Console and try the fix outlined here …. NTLDR is compressed. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart [...]