Solved: computer can't boot to desktop

there is this friends computer that is having a problem. he rebooted the computer and now the computer give this message "BOOTMGR is compressed, press ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

when i follow the command, it restart and comes back with the same error message. i really need someone to help me out.

 

Does he remember compressing the drive?
Some people do this to try and save space on thier hard drives and ends up causing all sorts of issues.

haven't had this happen on a windows 7 computer to fix yet but have fixed a few Vista machines with same problem by doing the following

Boot from the Vista DVD.
Click 'Repair my Computer'
At the prompt to select your OS installation, click the button that says 'Load Drivers'. This should bring up a explorer-style drive browser.

Then just right-click on the drive you tried to compress, and deselect 'Compress this Drive', which should still be ticked on. Hit apply, and apply to subfolders/files.

Reboot

 

DO you have the W7 disc?

 

i have tried to boot from both vista and windows 7 and none seem to be reading could it be as a result of faulty dvd drive?

 

Try the Discs in another PC as a test also you may have to set the CDRom in Bios as first boot device

 

Check when booting your machine for boot menu key - top right corner will normally make you aware to press an "F" key for boot menu (e.g.f12)
after pressing when gives you this option, select boot from cd/dvd

OR

Change your boot order from BIOS.

Either way once picked, will usually ask you to press any key to boot from cd/dvd
then will allow for you to run through windows setup.

If you are unable to do either of these, then your drive may have problems.

 

i have removed the hard disk and and formated it on another pc, this time it is telling me "BOOTMGR is missing, press ctrl+Alt+Del to restart ". can someone help me out since i have tried alot of bootable cd and and all is not working.

 

the computer is Dell