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BOOTMGR is compressed. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart__But when I do the same message appears and now my netbook won't start up.

Anonymous
2010-08-03T13:14:01+00:00

I am not a computer whizz and now I fear I may have made a big mistake when I thought I was doing something safe.

So, here's the story, I wanted to make a bit more room on my hard drive since I only have a small memory netbook. After doing the usual disk clean up and stuff I also saw a tick box option to compress all the files and folders on the C:/ drive. I ticked this box and all was fine until I shutdown and turned it on again today.

As soon as the first image - the HP logo disappears (with the following key instructions below '<F9>= Change Boot Device Order' and '<F10>=BIOS Setup Options' ) I get a black screen with the following script in the top right hand corner:

'BOOTMGR is compressed'... and underneath, 'Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart'.

However, when I do restart, nothing chages and I come back to the same message over and over. I think its pretty obvious that my 'poking' around has potentially messed things up good and proper and I would be soooo grateful if anyone knows how to solve my problem and what to do. I have tried to look into it already and so far I think I may have to reinstall windows but when I bought this netbook, windows was installd for me so I have no disc. I don't even have a disk drive anyway. I also read on the windows troubleshooting pages that pressing F8 repeatedly would bring up the 'restart from last saved point' etc options however this has not worked either... unless I am doing it wrong.

I hope I have given enough information above so that someone might be able to help. Thanks for your time and I'll look forward to any replies and hopefully the answer.

Kirsty

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Internet and connectivity

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-08-04T09:48:06+00:00

    That is such a popular problem with HP computers that they wrote an article about it (that means it happens a lot):

    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01872275

    Compressing is not a big mistake, but in todays world where disk storage is cheap it is usually not worth it - you just buy more storage or do dome disk maintenance (remove things).  Compressing can actually slow down your system performance too.  I think it is just some kind of leftover from the old days and can have negative consequences today.

    Using the HP article, you can fix your system in a few seconds after getting into the Recovery Console.

    There is a similar problem with non HP systems where the ntldr file can get compressed and resolving it is a little different, but the concept is the same and just takes a few seconds to fix.

    You will not be booting into any kind of Safe Mode either.

    Getting into the Recovery Console could be the biggest challenge.

    Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD?  This is not the same as any System Recovery type CDs that may have come with your system.  If you don't have one, you will have to make a bootable Recovery Console CD using a working system - or physically move your HDD to a working system, fix it and put it back.

    Does your system of unspecified model number have a working CD drive?

    Please vote my posts as helpful so I can get lots of points. I am saving up for a pony! Everybody does not love Raymond.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-07-01T03:09:48+00:00

    my desktop is an Lenovo and it has a recovery program and I can't access and have no boot disk.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-06-26T19:43:42+00:00

    Hello.  I been having the same problem.  I have the Mini 1116NR and had try every instruction in the book yet alone Hp support n downloads from bootable usb.  None of the solution offered from either the Hp or the Window site has been able to fix the problem.

    The Mini doesn't have a cd slot so sadly cannot installed the cd (operating system or the application driver recovery dvd) that came with the Mini.

    I even downloaded the Operating system cd to a usb and follow the instruction but the following show"Error loading operating system". 

    Sadly to buy an external cd drive is more expensed than the Mini.  If u have any other solution please advice, I would hate to actually discard the Mini as it been a good laptop to tag around.

    Again at start up BOOTMGR is compress, try every solution offerd from all the site I have search and none seems to work.

    Thank you

    MIG

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-08-04T20:24:28+00:00

    Yeah - it seems most small things you buy these days are not CD equipped any more, but the manufactures know that and provide other ways to boot.

    If your system is still under warranty, you may want to give HP a call.  Just don't let them talk you into doing a reinstall or anything destructive to your data. That seems to be their solution to things they cannot figure out (sometimes).  Tell them to send you a genuine bootable XP installation CD since you paid for the OS, you should have it.  

    Your system is probably not set up to try to boot from the USB CD device as the first option so you will have to adjust it so it tries the CD first.

    You can get your manuals here:

    http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/manualCategory?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3832488&

    Look at page 76 Boot Options section of the Maintenance and Service Guide manual - you may need to change the boot order to try to boot the system from the external CD first (instead of the HDD which you know does not work right now).  

    The fixboot command is a generic XP Recovery Console command and you can run it from any bootable XP CD and you should use one that matches your system - XP Home, XP Pro, etc. and then you can make yourself a copy.

    Here is a description of how to use the RC and what to expect and a list of the commands:

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

    If you can't come up with a bootable CD, you can make one using a working computer with an Internet connection and a CD burner, but see if you can come up with one from your other resources - you may need it again some other day.

    I have a feeling that there may be a little more to your situation that what that HP article says, but you need to get the Recovery Console working first.

    Please vote my posts as helpful so I can get lots of points. I am saving up for a pony! Everybody does not love Raymond.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-04T18:52:16+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you so much for this information and the link to the article.

    Unfortunately, no my netbook doesn't have a CD drive but, I do have access to a portable USB CD drive. Would this not do the same job?

    I purchased the netbook (an HPmini 1030NR), as an out of box product, i.e. it was on sale and was a display product so windows and all the other software etc was installed for me so it was ready to take and use immediately. Therefore, I don't have an original XP installation CD. Many of my family members also have laptops and we have another desktop all operating with XP I believe, if I were to track down the installation CD that came with either of these would it work and/or change the way my netbook used and/or affect any of the software/files/information I had before the problem occurred?

    Just another bit of info... I bought my netbook in Canada where, as I said everything was set up for me in store. As I am a UK resident and all these other computers I mentioned were bought here and running on UK specifications, would there be any difference in the installation CD's and rebooting info etc?

    Again, many thanks

    Kirsty

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