Hi I'm an educated novice at computer problems.
I'm having a problem booting to safe mode.
Hard drive started not recognizing boot file-NTLDR- now I can't get safe mode to initialize.
All help greatly welcome.
Thanks D4100

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Does that happen only in safe mode or do you get the same error when booting in regular mode? .. 'coz NTLDR is crucial systm file that must be in root folder and must not be compressed. If it is either corrupt, compressed or missing/renamed, then your system will not boot. Period.

Hi Chaky,
Yes, it happens at regular start-up. I've tried several attempts to boot from Windows disc, Safe mode. I have swaped hard drives and did get a normal start-up to old drive.
I've got a Dell 4100, intel pentium 3, lots of ram, and a super fast proccessor.
Could someone access this drive at all and retrieve the files so that I could transfer to a new drive?

Accesing the drive is not a problem. The problem is booting from that drive. You can copy NTLDR from ex. Windows Setup CD using recovery console, or boot from other HD and simply copy the file.

.. and remeber: it MUST NOT be compressed.

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