Editing Boot.ini

[Charlie Bress]

The PC is running XP Pro. On startup, Windows fails to load with the message
that the file hal.dll is the culprit.

KB314477 provides several methods to resolve this by using the XP CD. All
attempts at loading the CD have failed. I have changed the boot order to
make the CD prime and have tried inserting the CD when the box is hung up to
see if it would autostart. It doesn't.
One method calls for editing the boot.ini file. The problem is getting to
it.

Here's the question. If I were to pull the harddrive out and put it into
another machine as an external drive (I can do this), is it possible and
feasible to manually edit the boot.ini file as described in KB289022?

Are there any other solutions rather than format and reload?

 

[Rich Barry]

Charlie, was there anything you did prior to the problem that would
cause the hal.dll to fail to load. I have found that when
adding or removing a partition the boot.ini is not updated and you will
get a similar error message. That's when editing
can be of value. Also, using the Recovery Console and the Bootcfg
command will also attempt to repair the boot.ini
but that requires you boot with the WinXP CD. Do you have a Retail
Version of WinXP?

 

[Anna]

The PC is running XP Pro. On startup, Windows fails to load with the
message that the file hal.dll is the culprit.

KB314477 provides several methods to resolve this by using the XP CD. All
attempts at loading the CD have failed. I have changed the boot order to
make the CD prime and have tried inserting the CD when the box is hung up
to see if it would autostart. It doesn't.
One method calls for editing the boot.ini file. The problem is getting to
it.

Here's the question. If I were to pull the harddrive out and put it into
another machine as an external drive (I can do this), is it possible and
feasible to manually edit the boot.ini file as described in KB289022?

Are there any other solutions rather than format and reload?

Charlie:
As you apparently know, you need to use the XP installation CD to access the
Recovery Console per the instructions in that KB314477 article.

When you say "all attempts at loading the CD have failed." what exactly
happens when you boot with the CD inserted in your optical drive? You don't
get the "Press any key..." message to boot from the CD? Or you do but it
still won't boot? Error messages? A black screen? What?

Do you have any clue as to how & why this problem arose? Any
hardware/software changes you made that might have triggered the problem?
Did it occur "out of the blue"? Working perfectly one day but not the next?

I'm not sure "editing" your boot.ini file is the answer to your problem.
What makes you think so?

First things first...you *must* boot to the XP installation CD. Something is
wrong (presumably) hardware-wise if you can't. The problem must be found &
corrected. This has nothing to do with the boot.ini file. Carefully
re:review your motherboard's BIOS to ensure the boot priority order is OK
and there's nothing in the other BIOS elements that might be impacting on
this problem.

You're reasonably sure there's no problem with the CD itself or your optical
drive? Do you have any other bootable CD, e.g., a motherboard's bootable
installation CD or a DOS bootable CD at your disposal to see if it will
boot?

Anyway, in the meantime... if there are any important files on the HDD that
you will need in the future you can, as you suggest, connect it one way or
another to a PC and (hopefully) access its contents through that means.
Again, I don't think a corrupted boot.ini file is at the root of your
problem based on your description of your problem.
Anna

 

[Charlie Bress]

Charlie:
As you apparently know, you need to use the XP installation CD to access
the Recovery Console per the instructions in that KB314477 article.

When you say "all attempts at loading the CD have failed." what exactly
happens when you boot with the CD inserted in your optical drive? You
don't get the "Press any key..." message to boot from the CD? Or you do
but it still won't boot? Error messages? A black screen? What?

Do you have any clue as to how & why this problem arose? Any
hardware/software changes you made that might have triggered the problem?
Did it occur "out of the blue"? Working perfectly one day but not the
next?

I'm not sure "editing" your boot.ini file is the answer to your problem.
What makes you think so?

First things first...you *must* boot to the XP installation CD. Something
is wrong (presumably) hardware-wise if you can't. The problem must be
found & corrected. This has nothing to do with the boot.ini file.
Carefully re:review your motherboard's BIOS to ensure the boot priority
order is OK and there's nothing in the other BIOS elements that might be
impacting on this problem.

You're reasonably sure there's no problem with the CD itself or your
optical drive? Do you have any other bootable CD, e.g., a motherboard's
bootable installation CD or a DOS bootable CD at your disposal to see if
it will boot?

Anyway, in the meantime... if there are any important files on the HDD
that you will need in the future you can, as you suggest, connect it one
way or another to a PC and (hopefully) access its contents through that
means. Again, I don't think a corrupted boot.ini file is at the root of
your problem based on your description of your problem.
Anna

I have tried all the combinations of boot sequence. Nothing got any
response fronm the CD.
There was more screwed up with this system than the simple failure to get a
good hal.dll file.
In the end, after a long discussion with tech service in India the bullet
was bitten and the drive was reformatted and restored to out-of- the- box
condition.

The pain will go away. the loss of data was minimal but less than zero

Thanks to all on this group that offered advice and counsel.

Charlie (licking my wounds)