ntldr is compressed

Okay... I ran my Gateway OS disk to re-install XP and when it was finished I got a "Ntldr is compressed press Press CRTL-ALT-DEL to restart". The problem is that I cannot get into the DOS prompt after running my XP disk recovery option. My BIOS doesn't even reconize the drive. After 4 days my DOS PROMPT appeared but I forgot to plug in my laptop so the battery died before I could make any changes. That was two das ago and I have yet to make it to the Dos Prompt again. When I go to run the recovery on the XP disk, It says, "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer. Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer. ect ect... I know that the hard drive is good because the operating system is there, but the NTLDR FILE IS COMPRESSED. Please help!!! Is there any was to get back into the dos prompt to fix this? my computer is a Gateway laptop. BIOS VERSION 77.05. Thanks.

 

Why doesn't your BIOS recognize the drive..Have you manually installed it?

 

It does, but I cannot scroll below the time and date under the main menue in bios. I just don't understand why I cannot access my dos.