wrote in news:490b01c49feb$cf51c4f0
:

Thanks for the reply. What is Real Mode mapper?

It's the vxd which runs all dos device drivers.

Was able to get it to finally boot in Normal mode by
playing with msconfig. But now have everything back like
it was and booting up fine. However, it is extremely
slow after desktop appears and before icons loaded. Long
pause with no activity.

Maybe the drive is running in 'dos compatibility mode'?
Rightclick 'My Computer', choose properties.
tab performance(?)

Are you loading strange programs/drivers in config.sys or autoexec.bat?