Another Hal.dll problem

M

mmb

This problem happened after a short power-outage while my computer was on so
I'm guessing files were corrupted. First I used my original CD repair disk
to copy two files that the error message resported as required. (i386\ntldr
and i386\ntdetect) Then when I rebooted I got the missing or corrupted
Hal.dll error. I've carefully tried everything in Article 314477 - "Windows
could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
and have encountered several problems doing so.
Using Method 2, when I entered <bootcfg /rebuild> it started, then I got
the following error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk
errors. I did run chkdsk /f and after a long while it said errors were found
and, presumably, repaired. I then used the recovery disk again with the same
results.
Next I tried Method 3 (expand d:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_
c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)and got the error message "Access is denied"
Then, I used the method recommended by Malke to Enid. i.e. attrib -h-r-s
c:\boot.ini. When I got down to the command to del c:\boot.ini I got a
message saying "The system can't find the file or directory specified." I
checked drive c: and the file is definitely there.
Here's how my boot.ini appears when I type msconfig:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[OPERATING SYSTEMS]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I haven't tried to edit the boot.ini because I hae no idea how it should
look if the above is incorrect.
My OS is XP service pack 3. Computer has dual processors. I also have
two hard drives. When I use the F8 key to choose different boot options, one
of the two hard drives allows me to successfully boot.
I apologize for the lengthy message but seems like I've run into walls
with everything I've tried. I'd be very grateful for any and all suggestions.
 
M

mmb

mmb said:
This problem happened after a short power-outage while my computer was on so
I'm guessing files were corrupted. First I used my original CD repair disk
to copy two files that the error message resported as required. (i386\ntldr
and i386\ntdetect) Then when I rebooted I got the missing or corrupted
Hal.dll error. I've carefully tried everything in Article 314477 - "Windows
could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
and have encountered several problems doing so.
Using Method 2, when I entered <bootcfg /rebuild> it started, then I got
the following error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk
errors. I did run chkdsk /f and after a long while it said errors were found
and, presumably, repaired. I then used the recovery disk again with the same
results.
Next I tried Method 3 (expand d:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_
c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)and got the error message "Access is denied"
Then, I used the method recommended by Malke to Enid. i.e. attrib -h-r-s
c:\boot.ini. When I got down to the command to del c:\boot.ini I got a
message saying "The system can't find the file or directory specified." I
checked drive c: and the file is definitely there.
Here's how my boot.ini appears when I type msconfig:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[OPERATING SYSTEMS]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I haven't tried to edit the boot.ini because I hae no idea how it should
look if the above is incorrect.
My OS is XP service pack 3. Computer has dual processors. I also have
two hard drives. When I use the F8 key to choose different boot options, one
of the two hard drives allows me to successfully boot.
I apologize for the lengthy message but seems like I've run into walls
with everything I've tried. I'd be very grateful for any and all suggestions.



Follow up: In the recovery console my only choice offered for the windows
logon is D:\windows. Drive D is a CD rom drive, and the windows installation
is on Drive C. It doesn't seem to recognize C. How do I get it to do that?
Probably that's why I've had all of the above issues.
 
M

mmb

Peter, thank you for the link, however, unless I'm missing something (quite
possible) most of the suggestions don't apply to my situation. For example,
in the first instance it refers to a situation in which two operating systems
are present. I have only Windows XP Home Edition. Another suggestion for
repair would entail removing the hard drive and putting into another computer
to attempt a repair. I have only a laptop so this wouldn't be possible.
Also, I believe my hard drives have only 1 partition so it wouldn't appear
that editing the boot.ini would solve anything.

As I mentioned previously, after the repair console disk completes its
search, I have only the option of D:\windows. Why wouldn't it give me
c:\windows as an option, and can this be modified? In my computer, Drives D
and E are, respectively, CD Rom and DVD drives. Drive F is also a hard
drive used as backup. All were working as they should until a brief power
outage.

Given my level of non-expertise it's beginnign to look like a trip to the
repair shop might be my only option but I appreciate any further advice from
you and others.

Thanks for your response.

Peter Foldes said:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

mmb said:
This problem happened after a short power-outage while my computer was on so
I'm guessing files were corrupted. First I used my original CD repair disk
to copy two files that the error message resported as required. (i386\ntldr
and i386\ntdetect) Then when I rebooted I got the missing or corrupted
Hal.dll error. I've carefully tried everything in Article 314477 - "Windows
could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
and have encountered several problems doing so.
Using Method 2, when I entered <bootcfg /rebuild> it started, then I got
the following error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk
errors. I did run chkdsk /f and after a long while it said errors were found
and, presumably, repaired. I then used the recovery disk again with the same
results.
Next I tried Method 3 (expand d:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_
c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)and got the error message "Access is denied"
Then, I used the method recommended by Malke to Enid. i.e. attrib -h-r-s
c:\boot.ini. When I got down to the command to del c:\boot.ini I got a
message saying "The system can't find the file or directory specified." I
checked drive c: and the file is definitely there.
Here's how my boot.ini appears when I type msconfig:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[OPERATING SYSTEMS]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I haven't tried to edit the boot.ini because I hae no idea how it should
look if the above is incorrect.
My OS is XP service pack 3. Computer has dual processors. I also have
two hard drives. When I use the F8 key to choose different boot options, one
of the two hard drives allows me to successfully boot.
I apologize for the lengthy message but seems like I've run into walls
with everything I've tried. I'd be very grateful for any and all suggestions.

.
 
P

Paul

mmb said:
Peter, thank you for the link, however, unless I'm missing something (quite
possible) most of the suggestions don't apply to my situation. For example,
in the first instance it refers to a situation in which two operating systems
are present. I have only Windows XP Home Edition. Another suggestion for
repair would entail removing the hard drive and putting into another computer
to attempt a repair. I have only a laptop so this wouldn't be possible.
Also, I believe my hard drives have only 1 partition so it wouldn't appear
that editing the boot.ini would solve anything.

As I mentioned previously, after the repair console disk completes its
search, I have only the option of D:\windows. Why wouldn't it give me
c:\windows as an option, and can this be modified? In my computer, Drives D
and E are, respectively, CD Rom and DVD drives. Drive F is also a hard
drive used as backup. All were working as they should until a brief power
outage.

Given my level of non-expertise it's beginnign to look like a trip to the
repair shop might be my only option but I appreciate any further advice from
you and others.

Thanks for your response.

But the drive letter shown in the Recovery Console, might not be the
same as the drive letter of the "real" system. The order of letters,
will be the order of enumeration in the Recovery Console OS, rather than
the order of enumeration seen when the real OS is booting. At least,
that's what I think I've seen here.

As an example of what might happen, I have two disk drives, one with
Win2K on it, one with WinXP. When I start the Recovery Console, it sees
two partitions with OSes. They both can't be C: at this point. So at least
one of them has a nonsensical "drive letter". It really depends which
one was detected first, as to how they're lettered. (I also have a
different password for Administrator on each OS, so I can tell from
that, whether I'm in the right place.)

You could start by logging into the partition, and then try and figure
out whether you're in the right partition or not. For example, I'd
use the "dir" command, and verify whether a few GIFs I have on
the root level of C: are present or not. Even if the Recovery Console
was calling it D:, I'd know I was logged to the correct partition.

There is also this "map" command, that might help reassure you that
you're working in the correct partition (based on size of partition
perhaps).

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsm/p/map.htm

If you need to do maintenance on a computer, there are any number of
other alternatives. I use Linux LiveCDs, as they don't install any
software, and the CD gives me access to NTFS or FAT32 partitions.
At least I can poke around the directories, and see whether there
is major damage or not. There are other, Windows-centric methods
of access. Of which, the Recovery Console is only one. The Recovery
Console has some useful commands, which is why it can't be discounted
entirely from your bag of tricks.

Paul
Peter Foldes said:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

mmb said:
This problem happened after a short power-outage while my computer was on so
I'm guessing files were corrupted. First I used my original CD repair disk
to copy two files that the error message resported as required. (i386\ntldr
and i386\ntdetect) Then when I rebooted I got the missing or corrupted
Hal.dll error. I've carefully tried everything in Article 314477 - "Windows
could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
and have encountered several problems doing so.
Using Method 2, when I entered <bootcfg /rebuild> it started, then I got
the following error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk
errors. I did run chkdsk /f and after a long while it said errors were found
and, presumably, repaired. I then used the recovery disk again with the same
results.
Next I tried Method 3 (expand d:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_
c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)and got the error message "Access is denied"
Then, I used the method recommended by Malke to Enid. i.e. attrib -h-r-s
c:\boot.ini. When I got down to the command to del c:\boot.ini I got a
message saying "The system can't find the file or directory specified." I
checked drive c: and the file is definitely there.
Here's how my boot.ini appears when I type msconfig:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[OPERATING SYSTEMS]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I haven't tried to edit the boot.ini because I hae no idea how it should
look if the above is incorrect.
My OS is XP service pack 3. Computer has dual processors. I also have
two hard drives. When I use the F8 key to choose different boot options, one
of the two hard drives allows me to successfully boot.
I apologize for the lengthy message but seems like I've run into walls
with everything I've tried. I'd be very grateful for any and all suggestions.
.
 
M

mmb

Thanks Paul. I did verify that the root directory was my c:\ rather than D:
as shown so that little issue is resolved. I also followed your link and
tried the fixmbr from the recovery console and this is the message I got:
"This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
Fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause
all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you
are not having problems accessing your drive do not continue. Are you sure
you want a new MBR?"

Eeeek! Of course I exited for fear of really messing up. I can still get
to my desktop by F8 and selecting the alternate hard drive, but this doesn't
make sense to me how it's booting up. When I look at the drive properties,
the drive that currently works is disabled, and the one that doesn't boot as
it used to is the one that is enabled. Seems like the more I learn, the
more "confuseder" I get. Any more helpful advice? Thanks so much.

Paul said:
mmb said:
Peter, thank you for the link, however, unless I'm missing something (quite
possible) most of the suggestions don't apply to my situation. For example,
in the first instance it refers to a situation in which two operating systems
are present. I have only Windows XP Home Edition. Another suggestion for
repair would entail removing the hard drive and putting into another computer
to attempt a repair. I have only a laptop so this wouldn't be possible.
Also, I believe my hard drives have only 1 partition so it wouldn't appear
that editing the boot.ini would solve anything.

As I mentioned previously, after the repair console disk completes its
search, I have only the option of D:\windows. Why wouldn't it give me
c:\windows as an option, and can this be modified? In my computer, Drives D
and E are, respectively, CD Rom and DVD drives. Drive F is also a hard
drive used as backup. All were working as they should until a brief power
outage.

Given my level of non-expertise it's beginnign to look like a trip to the
repair shop might be my only option but I appreciate any further advice from
you and others.

Thanks for your response.

But the drive letter shown in the Recovery Console, might not be the
same as the drive letter of the "real" system. The order of letters,
will be the order of enumeration in the Recovery Console OS, rather than
the order of enumeration seen when the real OS is booting. At least,
that's what I think I've seen here.

As an example of what might happen, I have two disk drives, one with
Win2K on it, one with WinXP. When I start the Recovery Console, it sees
two partitions with OSes. They both can't be C: at this point. So at least
one of them has a nonsensical "drive letter". It really depends which
one was detected first, as to how they're lettered. (I also have a
different password for Administrator on each OS, so I can tell from
that, whether I'm in the right place.)

You could start by logging into the partition, and then try and figure
out whether you're in the right partition or not. For example, I'd
use the "dir" command, and verify whether a few GIFs I have on
the root level of C: are present or not. Even if the Recovery Console
was calling it D:, I'd know I was logged to the correct partition.

There is also this "map" command, that might help reassure you that
you're working in the correct partition (based on size of partition
perhaps).

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsm/p/map.htm

If you need to do maintenance on a computer, there are any number of
other alternatives. I use Linux LiveCDs, as they don't install any
software, and the CD gives me access to NTFS or FAT32 partitions.
At least I can poke around the directories, and see whether there
is major damage or not. There are other, Windows-centric methods
of access. Of which, the Recovery Console is only one. The Recovery
Console has some useful commands, which is why it can't be discounted
entirely from your bag of tricks.

Paul
Peter Foldes said:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

This problem happened after a short power-outage while my computer was on so
I'm guessing files were corrupted. First I used my original CD repair disk
to copy two files that the error message resported as required. (i386\ntldr
and i386\ntdetect) Then when I rebooted I got the missing or corrupted
Hal.dll error. I've carefully tried everything in Article 314477 - "Windows
could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem"
and have encountered several problems doing so.
Using Method 2, when I entered <bootcfg /rebuild> it started, then I got
the following error message: "Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows
installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would
prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk
errors. I did run chkdsk /f and after a long while it said errors were found
and, presumably, repaired. I then used the recovery disk again with the same
results.
Next I tried Method 3 (expand d:\i386\ntkrnlmp.ex_
c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe)and got the error message "Access is denied"
Then, I used the method recommended by Malke to Enid. i.e. attrib -h-r-s
c:\boot.ini. When I got down to the command to del c:\boot.ini I got a
message saying "The system can't find the file or directory specified." I
checked drive c: and the file is definitely there.
Here's how my boot.ini appears when I type msconfig:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[OPERATING SYSTEMS]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home
Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I haven't tried to edit the boot.ini because I hae no idea how it should
look if the above is incorrect.
My OS is XP service pack 3. Computer has dual processors. I also have
two hard drives. When I use the F8 key to choose different boot options, one
of the two hard drives allows me to successfully boot.
I apologize for the lengthy message but seems like I've run into walls
with everything I've tried. I'd be very grateful for any and all suggestions.

.
.
 
P

Paul

mmb said:
Thanks Paul. I did verify that the root directory was my c:\ rather than D:
as shown so that little issue is resolved. I also followed your link and
tried the fixmbr from the recovery console and this is the message I got:
"This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
Fixmbr may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause
all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If you
are not having problems accessing your drive do not continue. Are you sure
you want a new MBR?"

Eeeek! Of course I exited for fear of really messing up. I can still get
to my desktop by F8 and selecting the alternate hard drive, but this doesn't
make sense to me how it's booting up. When I look at the drive properties,
the drive that currently works is disabled, and the one that doesn't boot as
it used to is the one that is enabled. Seems like the more I learn, the
more "confuseder" I get. Any more helpful advice? Thanks so much.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/266745

"When you attempt to run the fixmbr command in the Microsoft Windows 2000
recovery console, your computer system may display the following error message:

This computer appears to have a non-standard or invalid master boot record.
FIXMBR may damage your partition tables if you proceed. This could cause
all the partitions on the current hard disk to become inaccessible. If
you are not having problems accessing your drive, do not continue. Are
you sure you want to write a new MBR?"

"Ignore the error message described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.
The fixmbr command can safely rewrite the MBR."

I have two disks here, and I get that "helpful warning" for both of them.
It hasn't stopped me from "pushing the button".

I've also noticed, that not all utilities, have identical habits and criterion
when it comes to MBR. Partition Magic complains about my MBRs too. But if
I were to let Partition Magic "fix" the MBR, then I'd end up with some
other utility, complaining in return.

Paul
 
M

mmb

Okay, so I panicked for nothing, huh? I have one more question before
proceeding with fixmbr. The referenced article indicates that it applies to
Microsoft 2000. I have XP, sp3. Is it safe to proceed with fixmbr? Thank
you so much.
 
J

John Wunderlich

Okay, so I panicked for nothing, huh? I have one more question
before proceeding with fixmbr. The referenced article indicates
that it applies to Microsoft 2000. I have XP, sp3. Is it safe to
proceed with fixmbr? Thank you so much.

If you're worried about that, check out the KB article:

"Computer stops responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314503>

.... which applies specifically to Windows XP.
Method 1, Step 3, tells you to use the FIXMBR command and refers
you back to the KB266745 article if you are concerned with the error message.
Therefore, I conclude that KB266745 applies equally well to Windows XP.
It's just that nobody has updated that article in a while.

-- John
 
M

mmb

Thanks John. I used the repair console CD and used the fixmbr command,
ignoring the warning. I then got the message"writing new master boot record
on physical drive\device\harddisk0\partition0" and then very quickly "The new
master boot record has been successfully written."

I removed the repair disk and rebooted and then got the same *&@# message
about a corrupted hal.dll. Any further thoughts from anyone?

Apparently all this started with a power outage while my computer was on.
The first thing I'm gonna do when (if) I get this problem solved is to buy a
battery backup. The laptop has the advantage of having a built-in battery
backup but I really prefer working on a desktop. I really, really hope I
don't have to reinstall Windows. It's SUCH a hassle to reinstall all the
programs.

Thanks for any further advice.
 
J

John Wunderlich

I removed the repair disk and rebooted and then got the same *&@#
message about a corrupted hal.dll. Any further thoughts from
anyone?

Grabbing at straws...
You say you followed the instructions in KB31477.

Did you try the suggestions in KB330184?
""Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows could not start" error messages when
you start your computer"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184>

HTH,
John
 
P

Paul

mmb said:
Thanks John. I used the repair console CD and used the fixmbr command,
ignoring the warning. I then got the message"writing new master boot record
on physical drive\device\harddisk0\partition0" and then very quickly "The new
master boot record has been successfully written."

I removed the repair disk and rebooted and then got the same *&@# message
about a corrupted hal.dll. Any further thoughts from anyone?

Apparently all this started with a power outage while my computer was on.
The first thing I'm gonna do when (if) I get this problem solved is to buy a
battery backup. The laptop has the advantage of having a built-in battery
backup but I really prefer working on a desktop. I really, really hope I
don't have to reinstall Windows. It's SUCH a hassle to reinstall all the
programs.

Thanks for any further advice.

Well, if you look at some web pages with comments from people,
some are trying to "download hal.dll". If I use "search" on my
computer, and search by file size, I can see

hal.dll C:\WINDOWS\system32 "Internal Name" in properties = halmacpi.dll
halapic.dll C:\WINDOWS\driver cache\i386\sp3.cab
halmacpi.dll C:\WINDOWS\driver cache\i386\sp3.cab
halmps.dll C:\WINDOWS\driver cache\i386\sp3.cab

If I click on the hal.dll file, "Internal Name" in the file
properties says the file is halmacpi.dll . In other words,
the OS renames the appropriate file choice to hal.dll and
copies it into C:\WINDOWS\system32 . And that is why,
attempting to download hal.dll is doomed to fail. It
must correspond to the type of hardware abstraction
layer the computer is using at the moment (which you'd see
in Device Manager, by examining the "Computer" entry).

I have a dual core computer (a multiprocessor) and I
have ACPI for power management. Therefore, halmacpi.dll
is the right HAL to be using, for the current state
of my install.

One article suggested checking boot.ini . The Recovery
Console has an option to rebuild the boot.ini . If the ARC
path was wrong (pointing to the wrong partition), apparently
that may give the error. So it's not the file that is missing,
it is the boot process looking on the wrong partition.
(How would that get changed on a power failure ???)

My problem right now is, I can't find any reference that
says exactly when "hal.dll" is loaded. Is it the first file ?
That seems unlikely some how. What are the odds ?

(This article would suggest NTLDR is loaded before that...
This article also explains the boot.ini entries a bit.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTLDR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_startup_process

If I was working on this problem, I'd be booting my Linux
(Ubuntu or Knoppix) CD, for a look. I'd open boot.ini in a
text editor, and have a look at it. Use "fdisk /dev/sda" type
command, to print the partition table. Open the partitions one
at a time, and verify which partition number is the right one.
And check to see if there actually is a HAL file in
C:\WINDOWS\system32 . There are other bootable, Windows-centric
CDs that can allow you to do that as well. Recovery Console
is fun, and may be enough to get the job done, but I like
a "second opinion".

*******

When I was experimenting the other day, with some P2V software
(for transferring a real disk, for usage inside VirtualPC 2007),
I happened to look inside the boot.ini on the resulting virtual
machine. This is the entry that was in there.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Disk2vhd Microsoft
Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
/KERNEL=ntkrpuni.exe /HAL=halacpi.dll

The KERNEL and HAL options, don't exist in a normal boot.ini .
The P2V program added them, to compensate for the fact that
VirtualPC 2007 is a uniprocessor environment (one computing core),
while my real computer is a dual core. Forcing the correct
KERNEL and HAL files, allowed the OS to boot inside VirtualPC 2007.
(That means, I'm running the same copy of Windows twice.) I did this
test, purely to see the Windows Activation message that results.

The experiment is interesting, because it shows if you needed to, you
could point to a particular HAL. That HAL file isn't on the C: file
ready to go - to get a copy, I could get it out of the SP3.cab file.
I think the P2V software, must have done the extraction to do that,
because otherwise it might not be there.

This doesn't really help you, except to point out how powerful and
critical the boot.ini is to get corrected. For example, if I was
to change the ARC to multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3) instead
of partition(2), the boot process would fall on its face. I happen
to know, my WinXP is the second partition on the disk, so I can
tell by looking at it, that the ARC is reasonable for the task.

"Description of the BOOTCFG Command and Its Uses"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317521

Reading that description, you can see some of the silly questions
it is going to ask you, while you're in the Recovery Console.
You'd be prepared to answer those questions, if you already had
a copy of the boot.ini. Personally, I find it easier, to just
boot a Ubuntu CD, open boot.ini on that partition, and edit the
arguments that need changing. For example, if I could see

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

then I'd know what to type in when bootcfg prompts. The only
advantage I see, from using the command, is it is going to
figure out the ARC for you ( "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)" ).

Paul
 
M

mmb

Paul, thanks for your reply and especially for the obvious thought and time
you've given to my problem. I'll look at all your references and suggestions
a little later today when I have more time, but in the meantime I'll tell you
something else that occurred when I was putzing around, which may or may not
be relevant.

Yesterday I searched for Hal.dll and verified that it was, in fact, in the
System 32 subdirectory. There was another in the cab file, among other
locations, which I extracted and copied into the System32 subdirectory,
overwriting the one that was there. When I attempted to boot I again got the
missing or corrupted Hal.dll message. Then I rebooted and used the F8 method
to select the hard drive that had previously worked. This tme it bounced me
to the safe mode but when I chose boot from last good configuration, it
wouldn't load (I can't remember what it did next other than the fact that it
wouldn't load) but the next I chose the option to boot in safe mode and again
it wouldn't load. Obviously the hal.dll I put in Syhstem 32 caused this
result. Again I used the recovery console to access my c:\ in which I had,
fortunately, saved a copy of the hal.dll before overwriting it. When I wrote
it back into System32 I again was able to boot using the F8 key to choose
hard drive that previously worked.

Thanks again, and I'll report later..
 
J

Jose

Paul, thanks for your reply and especially for the obvious thought and time
you've given to my problem.  I'll look at all your references and suggestions
a little later today when I have more time, but in the meantime I'll tellyou
something else that occurred when I was putzing around, which may or may not
be relevant.

Yesterday I searched for Hal.dll and verified that it was, in fact, in the
System 32 subdirectory.  There was another in the cab file, among other
locations, which I extracted and copied into the System32 subdirectory,
overwriting the one that was there.  When I attempted to boot I again got the
missing or corrupted Hal.dll message.  Then I rebooted and used the F8 method
to select the hard drive that had previously worked.  This tme it bounced me
to the safe mode but when I chose boot from last good configuration, it
wouldn't load (I can't remember what it did next other than the fact thatit
wouldn't load) but the next I chose the option to boot in safe mode and again
it wouldn't load.  Obviously the hal.dll I put in Syhstem 32 caused this
result.  Again I used the recovery console to access my c:\ in which I had,
fortunately, saved a copy of the hal.dll before overwriting it.  When Iwrote
it back into System32 I again was able to boot using the F8 key to choose
hard drive that previously worked.  

Thanks again, and I'll report later..

You cannot usually just replace a hal.dll file and I have never had a
reason to. I don't know why it is so picked on.

When XP installs, it picks one of 7 possible hal.dlls from the
installation CD to match your hardware and THAT becomes your hal.dll.

If you start fooling around and copying in "replacements", you have a
one in seven chance of getting the right one. Are you feeling lucky?

If you understand enough about your hardware, you can determine
exactly which one of the seven is the correct one, but in my life I
have never found a need to replace it, there is always some other
simple problem that is being overlooked.

If you suspect your boot.ini, just rename it out of existence (rename
c:\boot.ini c:\boot.ini.bak).

XP will complain but still boot just fine with no boot.ini at all.

A single partition XP installation doesn't even need a boot.ini
(nonbelievers - try it).
 
M

mmb

Thanks Jose. As you suggested, I renamed my boot.ini file after a search to
make sure there weren't any more. Then I rebooted, but got the same error
message about the boot.ini file and missing or corrupt hall.dll file. As
before I used F8 to choose the hard drive and it did boot, despite a brief
Missing boot.ini message. So, you're right--it boots without the boot.ini,
so obviously my problem lies elsewhere. Just wish I knew where it was
hiding. Thanks for your suggestion.
 

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