I recently ran the manufacturer's Restore Disks on a 5 year old WinXP desktop then updated to WinXP SP3 and reinstalled the same programs I had been running. On reboot, I now sometimes, but not always, receive this error "Load Error. Press a key to reboot". Pressing a key only regenerates the message. This occurs on the 4th boot screen which is the one which normally shows Windows starting. The first screen is mem check. The 2nd screen is black with various messages as usual. The 3rd screen is the Norton Goback screen. The 4th is where Windows normally starts but that is where the error message comes up. I am able to use GoBack to restore to an earlier point and get the machine running. It will then sometimes reboot normally, sometimes not. I have read the related posts with similar problems but my use of Norton GoBack is new to this issue. Also, the posts on this topic are locked and a new post is requested. I have noticed, circumstantially, that I can go the boot screen which offers Safe Mode by hitting F5, not F8, during boot up BUT only on those occasions when the machine will boot normally. Once I am in the "Load Error. Press a key to reboot" situation, F5 no longer takes me to that screen, nor does F8. In short, that screen seems inaccesssible to me when the machine is not booting normally which, in turn, makes Norton GoBack essential to me at this time. My system is fully backed up. I am hoping to find someone who can say, with assurance, that this very likely IS or IS NOT an issue with a failing hard drive. If I can be reasonably sure it is, I will put in a new drive and start over. OTOH if this may be a software issue, perhaps I can find a way around it. Last choice is to buy a new PC which I am willing to do given that this one is 5 years old, but I'm intrigued by the problem and would like to solve it first. I do have the Win XP install disk if it is needed. Also have Win XP SP3 on disk. I will appreciate any and all help. Thank you.

I Googled that error. There were 123,000 hits, including posts on this site. Perhaps some will be helpful to you. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

What was the reason for the restore in the first place? I wouldn't recommend Go Back with WinXP as System restore is similar and they can conflict with each other. Go Back is a storage hog anyway. Better to make occasional stand alone images of your partitions. Download and run a drive fitness test from the manufacturer's site for you particular brand. That should settle the issue of a failing hard drive.

Thank you for your input. I understand that GoBack can be problematic and has been outdated by Windows itself yet I've had great good luck with it for many years and am reluctant to give it up, particularly since it is my way out of this fix, at least for now.OTOH, I understand that GoBack may be the source of the problem, a possibility I will check out. As for disk drive utilites, I have a Seagate drive and downloaded Seatools but it didn't recognize my hard drive. It did recognize a Maxtor external, but not the Seagate internal. This probably means I need to change something in the CMOS but that is beyond my skill level, at least for now. If you can point me to a tutorial, that would be terrific. Thanks again for your help.

Further to my earlier response, I forgot to mention that the reason for running the restore disks was simply that after 5 years of accumulated sludge, the system was sluggish and needed to be cleaned up. That mission was accomplished. Regrettably, the Load Error then cropped up.

There is no reason to change any settings in the BIOS. Below is a link for instructions on running Seatools for Windows. You may have downloaded the wrong version of Seatools. http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/c...

Terrific! Thank you VERY much! You are greatly appreciated.