Here we can see, “NTLDR is compressed: Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart”
Symptoms and Description
This mistake is linked to the error messages, alerts, warnings, and symptoms listed below.
Symptom 1: On previous versions of Windows, the NTLDR is corrupt error screen appears.
When a computer is powered on, the BIOS selects a bootable hard drive and then executes code stored in the MBR at the hard drive’s beginning. The bootsector is loaded from the active partition by the MBR code. This bootsector code in Windows XP is responsible for loading NTLDR (the Windows XP bootloader) and its dependencies required to load the operating system kernel and start Windows. The NTLDR file is usually found in the active partition’s root directory on the first boot drive. The boot process is halted, and the “NTLDR is compressed” error screen is displayed if the bootsector detects that the NTLDR file is compressed using built-in Windows file compression.
NTLDR is compressed Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart
This Error’s Causes
One of the following causes has been identified as a possible cause of this error:
Cause 1: NTLDR is compressed
File compression is a feature in Windows XP that allows users to minimize the size of files, folders, and programs and the amount of space they take up on hard drives. The NTLDR file, which is an important aspect of the booting process, should not be compressed because the system bootsector code cannot decompress files independently.
The error “NTLDR is missing” on Windows can be fixed
Fix 1: Use Easy Recovery Essentials to rebuild NTLDR
For Windows XP, 2000, and 2003 Server, Easy Recovery Essentials’ one-click automated system repair fixes issues caused by compressed NTLDR bootloader files by reconstructing them from scratch on the active bootable partition. This is done automatically as part of the automated repair procedure and does not involve any user interaction or manual action.
Easy Recovery Essentials’ built-in Automated Repair tool is guaranteed to fix the “NTLDR automatically is compressed” issue. EasyRE can be downloaded and produced on any PC and is presently available for Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8.
- Easy Recovery Essentials is a free download. Before you download EasyRE, make a note of your Windows version (XP, Vista, 7, or 8).
- The image should be burned.
- Start your computer with the Easy Recovery Essentials CD or USB you made.
- After EasyRE has started, select “Automated Repair” and click Continue.
- After EasyRE has finished scanning your computer’s disks, find and pick the drive letter for your Windows installation from the list, and then click the Automated Repair option to start the repair process.
- Easy Recovery Essentials will begin looking for faults on the selected drive. EasyRE will scan the disk, partition, bootsector, filesystem, bootloader, and registry for faults and attempt to rectify them automatically. EasyRE’s repair is totally automated; thus no interaction is required:
- EasyRE will provide its findings after the process is completed. To reboot your PC and test the changes, click the Restart option.
Fix 2: Manually decompress the NTLDR file
Because a compressed NTLDR file causes this problem, you can manually decompress it with the Windows XP Recovery Console.
To decompress this file, follow these steps:
- Place the Windows XP installation CD in the drive.
- Restart the machine and select the CD drive to boot from.
- To boot from the CD, press any key.
- When the Windows Options menu appears, press R to open Repair Console.
- After that, hit 1 to log into Windows and enter the Administrator password.
- To decompress the NTLDR file, run the following command:
attrib -c C:\ntldr
Where C: is the drive letter for the Windows XP partition.
7. Remove the Windows installation CD from the disc drive once NTLDR decompresses.
8. Restart your computer.
Fix 3: Delete the NTLDR file and reinstall it.
Users of Windows XP can replace the NTLDR file with a fresh copy obtained from a Windows XP installation CD.
The steps to replace that file are as follows:
- Place the Windows XP installation CD in the drive.
- Restart the machine and select the CD drive to boot from.
- To boot from the CD, press any key.
- When the Windows Options menu appears, press R to open Repair Console.
- After that, hit 1 to log into Windows and enter the Administrator password.
- To copy the NTLDR and file from the Windows installation disk to the hard disk, run the following commands:
copy D:\i386\ntldr C:\
Where D: is the drive letter for the installation CD and C: is the drive letter for the Windows XP partition.
7. Answer “Y” when asked if the existing file should be rewritten (Yes)
8. Remove the Windows installation CD from the disc drive once that file has been changed.
9. Restart your computer.
Conclusion
I hope you found this information helpful. Please fill out the form below if you have any questions or comments.
User Questions
1. What does it mean when you say Ntldr compressed?
If any of the NTLDR files are corrupted or missing, the NTLDR is compressed, or a missing error will appear. Even though Windows Vista introduced a new boot loader called BOOTMGR, if you manually assign the older NTLDR boot code to the bootable Windows partition, you will still get the NTLDR is missing error.
2. What does ntldr stand for in Windows 7?
Instead, Windows 7 used the BootMgr boot component file, which improved. If you receive the notice “ntdlr is missing” when booting Windows 7, you may have an erroneous dual boot setup or issues that happened during the upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7.
3. Is NTLDR supported by Windows 7?
In truth, NTLDR is no longer present in Windows 7, having been superseded by BOOTMGR and winload.exe. Thus, if you start Windows 7 after upgrading from Windows XP or if Windows 7 is in a dual boot environment with Windows XP or Windows 2003, you may get the “NTLDR is missing, press ctrl+alt+delete to restart” problem.
4. Windows 7 NTLDR is Missing? : techsupport – Reddit
5. “Missing NTLDR” when trying to format PC. : techsupport – Reddit
