To any and all interested parties:

Load Error! Press any key to reboot...

You may have a problem with the master boot record. Try running FDISK
/MBR from a Win98 boot disk.

The Story........

I was getting this error at just after POST on a XP Compaq Laptop
(1720us). It would still boot from the other drives, when booted from
another drive I could access the HDD. The machine would not boot from it.

The Ghost image didn't change anything.
The situation remained after I ran the recovery set.

I got on the Compaq/Hp tech support chat line. I did try what was
suggested (reset the BIOS and replace the CMOS battery). Not much real
value there for anybody with significant experience.

I just happen to run across a note about someone having non-specific
boot trouble and a responder suggested running FDISK /MBR to rewrite the
master boot record. Well, after the last week FDISK and I were on a
first name basis, but I had never heard of the /mbr switch before.

Apparently XP has a built in virus protection that will crash the load
routine if it detects any trouble with the master boot record. This is
not recorded by a Ghost image and it is not rewitten by the recovery
set. The /mbr function (does not show up in /?) will repair the boot
record.

I hope I can help someone here.

Matt Colie (about to end 4 decades of messing with computers)