NTLDR is compressed

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unclejoey_ct

I recently added a 40GB hard drive to my system -
formatted as a single NTFS partition to avoid the 32GB
limit for FAT32 and gain the benefits (??) of the new file
system. My intent was to xcopy all of the information
from my original hard drive and then swap to make the new
drive the master.

All seemed to go according to plan until I tried to boot
off the new drive. I get an "NTLDR is compressed" error
on start-up. My guess is that this is due to the fact
that the version of the file copied from the original
drive was a boot file for a FAT32 drive, and it is not
compatible with the NTFS drive it is now on.

Ar my suspicions correct? Is there any way to work around
this? I would still like to use NTFS if possible. This
would save me from having to reformat as FAT32 and recopy
all the files.

Thanks!!
 
I recently added a 40GB hard drive to my system -
formatted as a single NTFS partition to avoid the 32GB
limit for FAT32 and gain the benefits (??) of the new file
system. My intent was to xcopy all of the information
from my original hard drive and then swap to make the new
drive the master.

All seemed to go according to plan until I tried to boot
off the new drive. I get an "NTLDR is compressed" error
on start-up. My guess is that this is due to the fact
that the version of the file copied from the original
drive was a boot file for a FAT32 drive, and it is not
compatible with the NTFS drive it is now on.

Ar my suspicions correct? Is there any way to work around
this? I would still like to use NTFS if possible. This
would save me from having to reformat as FAT32 and recopy
all the files.

Thanks!!
Click to expand...

This is no different than the NTLDR is missing error that can occur
for various reasons. A repair with the emergency repair disk will
correct it.

Warren
 
-----Original Message-----


This is no different than the NTLDR is missing error that can occur
for various reasons. A repair with the emergency repair disk will
correct it.

Warren
.
Click to expand...

Warren,

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, I've tried using the
Windows setup disks and the recovery console. I've tried
both using FIXBOOT and manually copying original versions
of ntldr and ntdetect.com from the \i386 directory to the
root directory of the drive. Neither method has corrected
the problem.

Any further ideas or suggestions?

Thanks again!
 
Warren,

Thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, I've tried using the
Windows setup disks and the recovery console. I've tried
both using FIXBOOT and manually copying original versions
of ntldr and ntdetect.com from the \i386 directory to the
root directory of the drive. Neither method has corrected
the problem.

Any further ideas or suggestions?

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

If what your saying is that you booted form the W2K CD and choose to
repair the installation using the recovery console to copy NTLDR from
the CD-ROM to the system root didn't work, perhaps a reinstall/upgrade
of the OS?

Warren
 
-----Original Message-----


If what your saying is that you booted form the W2K CD and choose to
repair the installation using the recovery console to copy NTLDR from
the CD-ROM to the system root didn't work, perhaps a reinstall/upgrade
of the OS?

Warren
.
Click to expand...
Actually, I booted from a set of W2K setup floppies and
used the recovery console from there. I imagine that's
the same thing.

Sounds like I will need to reformat the new hard drive as
FAT32 and try starting over. Hopefully that will square
things away.

Thanks for your help!
 
Actually, I booted from a set of W2K setup floppies and
used the recovery console from there. I imagine that's
the same thing.

Sounds like I will need to reformat the new hard drive as
FAT32 and try starting over. Hopefully that will square
things away.

Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

Hi, UncleJoey.

Not likely that FAT32 vs. NTFS had anything to do with your problem - or
that using FAT32 will fix it. There is only a single version of NTLDR for
Win2K, and it is the same whether you are running NTFS or FAT16 or FAT32 -
or mixing them in any combination.

If you plan to start over, why not just do it the easy way: boot from the
Win2K CD-ROM and accept Setup's invitation to partition (optional) and/or
reformat the drive. And use NTFS unless you know WHY you still need FAT32.

From now on, the only reason to keep FAT32 is if you plan to install
Win9x/ME on this computer. Win2K/XP/2K3/Longhorn will all be happy with
NTFS. FAT32 may have been slightly faster back when 20 GB was a BIG drive,
but nowadays, even that slight advantage has disappeared. NTFS is much more
secure, both in the sense of secure from unauthorized access and in the
sense of secure from disk errors.

Xcopy does not care if your HD is formatted FAT32 or FAT16 or NTFS. But it
can't copy the Registry files that are in use at the time, and it can't copy
the boot sector, which is not a file. So, even after Xcopy has done all it
can, you still need to create the bootup environment on the new drive.
Usually this can be done with the commands in the Recovery Console; if not,
then, as Warren said, you may have to do the in-place upgrade as described
here:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q292175&

As it says, "Note that the time required to complete the following procedure
is equal to the time that it takes to reinstall the operating system." It
does usually preserve your installed applications, but if you don't have a
lot of applications already installed, you might want to just start over
with a clean install.

RC
 
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