Missing or corrupted HAL.DLL - solutions don't work

G

Guest

I recently completely reformatted my computer and reinstalled everything. I
used to have my Windows installation on my C Drive (40GB), but when I did
this re-install, I put it on my D Drive (250GB). It all worked perfectly
fine, for about a month. I have been suffering from a missing or corrupted
hal.dll file for about a week now, and none of the proposed solutions are
working. Here is what I have done:

* Boot onto d:\windows in Safe Mode with or without a command prompt. This
does not work. I get the hal.dll error before it can load Windows.
* From the XP cd, boot into the Recovery Console. I was able to do this. The
Recovery Console can log onto the D installation. So I tried replacing the
file with the one on the disk, with the following command "expand
f:\i386\hal.dl_ d:\windows\system23\hal.dll" It tells me something along the
lines of "Cannot expand file."
* Also from the Recovery Console, I used "bootcfg /rebuild" and "fixboot" to
no avail. I still get the hal.dll error.
* Eventually, booting from the XP cd, I put a clean installation onto my C
drive. I can now boot into that one with no problems.
* I have replaced d:\windows\system32\hal.dll with
c:\windows\system32\hal.dll multiple times, all to no avail. I still get the
same error when I try to boot onto the d installation. I have done this in
and out of Safe Mode.
* Booting into the c installation, I have deleted and rebuilt boot.ini.
Still get the same problem.
* Booting from the XP cd, I have tried to "Repair" my d installation. It
does all the preliminary copying of files, then after the first reboot, I get
the hal.dll error.

I can't seem to kill this bug, and it's really bothering me! I have even had
a few more tech-savvy friends look at it, and they can't even figure out
what's wrong. I am informed that it's not a hardware problem, as my c
installation loads just fine.

Ideally, I would like to get my d installation working as it was before
(without loss of data or personal settings). My second choice of solution
would be to copy all the settings from the d installation to the c
installation, so I would be running Windows from my c drive and everything
else from my d drive. What I really want to avoid is having to re-install all
my programs and re-set all my personal settings, rebuild my iTunes music
library, re-download and customize all my Firefox extensions, etc.

Although the cause of this problem is secondary to the solution, I would be
interested in knowing what would cause such a thing. The only thing I can
come up with is a MS Hotfix I installed recently. I was having troubles
running a program, and the tech support of that program told me to download
this Hotfix, which apparently corrects errors introduced in an earlier
security update. However, I'm not really sure that it was caused by the
Hotfix, since the computer restarted after installing the Hotfix and that
restart went just fine. I didn't experience this problem at all until I
hibernated my computer after the Hotfix, and then turned it back on the next
day.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! As you can see, I have done
everything one would normally do to fix this problem. It's time to start
breaking out the high-end fixes!

Thanks in advance.
 
R

Rock

Kyle S said:
I recently completely reformatted my computer and reinstalled everything. I
used to have my Windows installation on my C Drive (40GB), but when I did
this re-install, I put it on my D Drive (250GB). It all worked perfectly
fine, for about a month. I have been suffering from a missing or corrupted
hal.dll file for about a week now, and none of the proposed solutions are
working. Here is what I have done:

* Boot onto d:\windows in Safe Mode with or without a command prompt. This
does not work. I get the hal.dll error before it can load Windows.
* From the XP cd, boot into the Recovery Console. I was able to do this.
The
Recovery Console can log onto the D installation. So I tried replacing the
file with the one on the disk, with the following command "expand
f:\i386\hal.dl_ d:\windows\system23\hal.dll" It tells me something along
the
lines of "Cannot expand file."
* Also from the Recovery Console, I used "bootcfg /rebuild" and "fixboot"
to
no avail. I still get the hal.dll error.
* Eventually, booting from the XP cd, I put a clean installation onto my C
drive. I can now boot into that one with no problems.
* I have replaced d:\windows\system32\hal.dll with
c:\windows\system32\hal.dll multiple times, all to no avail. I still get
the
same error when I try to boot onto the d installation. I have done this in
and out of Safe Mode.
* Booting into the c installation, I have deleted and rebuilt boot.ini.
Still get the same problem.
* Booting from the XP cd, I have tried to "Repair" my d installation. It
does all the preliminary copying of files, then after the first reboot, I
get
the hal.dll error.

I can't seem to kill this bug, and it's really bothering me! I have even
had
a few more tech-savvy friends look at it, and they can't even figure out
what's wrong. I am informed that it's not a hardware problem, as my c
installation loads just fine.

Ideally, I would like to get my d installation working as it was before
(without loss of data or personal settings). My second choice of solution
would be to copy all the settings from the d installation to the c
installation, so I would be running Windows from my c drive and everything
else from my d drive. What I really want to avoid is having to re-install
all
my programs and re-set all my personal settings, rebuild my iTunes music
library, re-download and customize all my Firefox extensions, etc.

Although the cause of this problem is secondary to the solution, I would
be
interested in knowing what would cause such a thing. The only thing I can
come up with is a MS Hotfix I installed recently. I was having troubles
running a program, and the tech support of that program told me to
download
this Hotfix, which apparently corrects errors introduced in an earlier
security update. However, I'm not really sure that it was caused by the
Hotfix, since the computer restarted after installing the Hotfix and that
restart went just fine. I didn't experience this problem at all until I
hibernated my computer after the Hotfix, and then turned it back on the
next
day.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! As you can see, I have
done
everything one would normally do to fix this problem. It's time to start
breaking out the high-end fixes!

Thanks in advance.

Sorry Kyle I don't have a solution for this problem, but will offer a
suggestion in how you can put some protection in place to quickly recover
from such issues.

Get a drive imaging program such as Acronis True Image Home and regularly
image the system to an external hard drive. Then when a problem like this
arises, which can't be quickly solved, restore the most recent image and in
less than an hour your back in business.

I do a full image weekly, with an incremental image every night. I rotate
between two external drives so one can be stored off site. This guards
against catastrophic loss as well.

It's also a good idea to keep a log of system changes to you can back track
more easily.
 
G

Guest

Thanks for the tip, Rock, but I am more concerned with the present than the
future right now.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do? Is there any way to somehow make
the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (or some other such thing -
suggestions?) work on a Windows installation that you can't boot into?

I _really_ don't want to have to re-format drive d and re-install Windows on
that drive again.
 
R

Rock

Thanks for the tip, Rock, but I am more concerned with the present than
the
future right now.

Does anyone have any idea what I can do? Is there any way to somehow make
the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (or some other such thing -
suggestions?) work on a Windows installation that you can't boot into?

I _really_ don't want to have to re-format drive d and re-install Windows
on
that drive again.

Sorry Kyle, I know of no way to use FAST on a system that is not bootable.
Also FAST will not migrate programs. You can certainly backup the data from
the installation that won't boot and manually move it to a new installation,
but I know of no way to transfer the settings.

Looking at the list of things you have tried, you have covered the bases so
I don't know what else to suggest to fix it.
 

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