How do I reinstall hal.dll when I can't boot into Windows?

[Bill]

I have Windows XP Home installed on an iMac on a separate partition via
Bootcamp. I can also access this installation via Parallels while running OS
10.5. Overnight when the iMac was in Sleep mode, the power went out. I had
Parallels running Windows.

The next morning when I tried to boot into Windows natively, it stopped and
said that hal.dll was corrupt and that I'd have to reinstall it.

I couldn't figure how to do that, but I could get it to boot by hitting [F8]
and choosing the privious known version that worked selection. I tried
swapping hal.dll with the version off the Windows installation disk after
renaming the currupted version haldll.old, but when I rebooted I got the
same message about hal.dll being corrupted. It does boot in Safe mode but
then I don't have access to the DVD-rewritable drive. (Also, I'm clueless in
DOS.)

And oddly it does boot via Parallels inside of OS 10.5, and I see both the
new hal.dll file and the haldd.old file, so I don't really understand what
is going on.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
AND

 

[David Webb]

That error message can be very deceiving. It's usually just a problem with the
boot.ini file. Look through the contents of the following article for some
clues:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

 

[Unknown]

Try a system restore.

 

[Bill]

Ok for anyone who has this problem in the future:

Apparently, Parallels alters the Boot.ini or something so that when it
crashes, for whatever reason, it leaves your boot.ini saying that the
Parallels configuration is the default "partition" so that, when you try to
boot up natively through Bootcamp, Windows chooses the Parallels
configuration and that doesn't work. See below the boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Parallels configuration"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /kernel=ntkopvs_.exe /hal=halopvs_.dll

This is also why it still boots fine in Parallels under OS 10.5. The real
simple fix is to open boot.ini (and you can do this through Parallels inside
OS 10.5) and manually change the default partition back to 3 and then click
Save.

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]

Parallels will still works and the Bootcamp partition will now default to
the correct partition settings.

That error message can be very deceiving. It's usually just a problem with
the boot.ini file. Look through the contents of the following article for
some clues:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

I have Windows XP Home installed on an iMac on a separate partition via
Bootcamp. I can also access this installation via Parallels while running
OS 10.5. Overnight when the iMac was in Sleep mode, the power went out. I
had Parallels running Windows.

The next morning when I tried to boot into Windows natively, it stopped
and said that hal.dll was corrupt and that I'd have to reinstall it.

I couldn't figure how to do that, but I could get it to boot by hitting
[F8] and choosing the privious known version that worked selection. I
tried swapping hal.dll with the version off the Windows installation disk
after renaming the currupted version haldll.old, but when I rebooted I
got the same message about hal.dll being corrupted. It does boot in Safe
mode but then I don't have access to the DVD-rewritable drive. (Also, I'm
clueless in DOS.)

And oddly it does boot via Parallels inside of OS 10.5, and I see both
the new hal.dll file and the haldd.old file, so I don't really understand
what is going on.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
AND

 

[Ron Badour]

Hi Bill,

You kind of got lucky this time--the fix was pretty easy. I've seen power
outages/surges take out motherboards, power supplies and hard drives. I run
both my PCs off an UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) and I also have two more
UPS's for my HD TV and for computers that I work on. They sure are a good
investment. If you are not familiar with an UPS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply

--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

Ok for anyone who has this problem in the future:

Apparently, Parallels alters the Boot.ini or something so that when it
crashes, for whatever reason, it leaves your boot.ini saying that the
Parallels configuration is the default "partition" so that, when you try
to boot up natively through Bootcamp, Windows chooses the Parallels
configuration and that doesn't work. See below the boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Parallels configuration"
/fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /kernel=ntkopvs_.exe
/hal=halopvs_.dll

This is also why it still boots fine in Parallels under OS 10.5. The real
simple fix is to open boot.ini (and you can do this through Parallels
inside OS 10.5) and manually change the default partition back to 3 and
then click Save.

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]

Parallels will still works and the Bootcamp partition will now default to
the correct partition settings.

That error message can be very deceiving. It's usually just a problem
with
the boot.ini file. Look through the contents of the following article for
some clues:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

I have Windows XP Home installed on an iMac on a separate partition via
Bootcamp. I can also access this installation via Parallels while running
OS 10.5. Overnight when the iMac was in Sleep mode, the power went out. I
had Parallels running Windows.

The next morning when I tried to boot into Windows natively, it stopped
and said that hal.dll was corrupt and that I'd have to reinstall it.

I couldn't figure how to do that, but I could get it to boot by hitting
[F8] and choosing the privious known version that worked selection. I
tried swapping hal.dll with the version off the Windows installation
disk
after renaming the currupted version haldll.old, but when I rebooted I
got the same message about hal.dll being corrupted. It does boot in Safe
mode but then I don't have access to the DVD-rewritable drive. (Also,
I'm
clueless in DOS.)

And oddly it does boot via Parallels inside of OS 10.5, and I see both
the new hal.dll file and the haldd.old file, so I don't really
understand
what is going on.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
AND