From the guy that put the P-U in my comPUter

[Mikie G]

Hi,

I booted up, and before going into WINXP HOME, I'm faced with the that
dreaded error message- The following Windows file is missing or corrupt
and that I should re-install it.

<WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll

I put in the WIN XP HOME CD and into R-Recover mode and waited. When
finished I rebooted but the R mode did nothing.

1: Short of reloading WIN XP Home, and the hours it takes to update
antivrus, XP2, drivers, etc, what options do I have??

2: How could I reinstall the file in question if I can't get past that
black screen and white text? Am I missing something?

Thanks for the ALWAYS great help,

Mike
PS: I think I'll try golf, less frustration!

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


| Hi,
|
| I booted up, and before going into WINXP HOME, I'm faced with the that
| dreaded error message- The following Windows file is missing or corrupt
| and that I should re-install it.
|
| <WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll
|
| I put in the WIN XP HOME CD and into R-Recover mode and waited. When
| finished I rebooted but the R mode did nothing.
|
| 1: Short of reloading WIN XP Home, and the hours it takes to update
| antivrus, XP2, drivers, etc, what options do I have??
|
| 2: How could I reinstall the file in question if I can't get past that
| black screen and white text? Am I missing something?
|
| Thanks for the ALWAYS great help,
|
| Mike
| PS: I think I'll try golf, less frustration!

 

[McSpreader]

Hi,

I booted up, and before going into WINXP HOME, I'm faced with
the that dreaded error message- The following Windows file is
missing or corrupt and that I should re-install it.

<WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll

....

Do a repair reinstall:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

 

[Guest]

You'll get that message if you want to run the Recovery Console, but your
CDROM drive is not first boot device in the BIOS.

 

[Mikie G]

Hi..just another little point because I don't quite understand your
message.

I did set the Boot Preference to CD ROM and it began the install of WIN
XP and then from all the choices, I select "R" It went into the seach
or inspecton of the drive and came up with nothing.

So I pulled the CD and restarted with the Hard Drive as Boot
Preference.and back to that dreaded message.

Am I confussed?

Thanks, Scrubber!
Mike

 

[Malke]

Hi,

I booted up, and before going into WINXP HOME, I'm faced with the that
dreaded error message- The following Windows file is missing or
corrupt and that I should re-install it.

<WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll

I put in the WIN XP HOME CD and into R-Recover mode and waited. When
finished I rebooted but the R mode did nothing.

1: Short of reloading WIN XP Home, and the hours it takes to update
antivrus, XP2, drivers, etc, what options do I have??

I'm not quite sure what you mean that you went into "R-Recover mode and
waited". Waited for what? You have to type commands in the Recovery
Console. Here is information from the late MVP Alex Nichol:

That message is rather misleading. It happens because the boot.ini file
that tells the boot where to look for 'Windows' is damaged, so it is
looking for files in the wrong place - hal.dll just happens to be the
first one it looks for. Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot
the XP CD and, instead of Setup, take the immediate R for Repair.
Assume any password requested is blank, and TAB over.

Now you have to *type* these commands:

Attrib -H -R -S C:\boot.ini [enter]
DEL C:\boot.ini [enter]
to delete the bad one
BootCfg /Rebuild [enter]

to search for Windows installations and make a new one.

Now try and reboot into Regular Mode.

Malke

 

[Mikie G]

Does anyone know if the program "PC on Point" is as valuable as claimed
on their website?

 

[Guest]

I received the same message, trying to sort through the many posts to see
what I can do to repair my problem.

This all happened while we were away for a week...I powered off the laptop
and when we returned, this is what we get: The following Windows file is
missing or corrupt, re-install it.

<WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll

- I used the recovery CD, got up to to the R-recovery console
- I have tried the expand, attrib, chkdsk commands, from either the C: or D:
prompts --- all to no avail
All I get when attempting any command is "the path or file specified is not
valid"

To make matters worse, the HD is really cranking...not sounding good at all.

Would it be more beneficial to go to the local BigStoreUSA to try to get
this thing repaired/replaced? Do you think the data could be offloaded to
another HD?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!
* DAVE *