ntoskrnl.exe and hal.dll error on startup

[Guest]

My Sony Vaio has Windows XP. When I tried to start it Friday afternoon, the
cursor appeared, then went away, leaving nothing but a black screen. I then
pressed F8 to attempt to skip past the problem into Safe Mode. The menu
comes up to choose the various methods of starting windows, and if I choose
any of the Safe Mode options, I get the following error:

mutli(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
mutli(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll

and the computer sits there with the error and does nothing. I can't
CTRL-ALT-DEL to shut down or do anything. To shut down the computer, I have
to remove the battery. Even closing the computer does not shut it down.

Unfortunately, Sony does not send boot disks with their computers. I made a
Startup and Recovery set but it wants to immediately restore my hard drive to
the factory settings. I have no problem doing that but need to remove files
from the hard drive first. My plan was to use a start up disk to repair
these files (based on what I've read online that's what I need to do). I
have access to two computers with Windows NT and had hoped to create a boot
disk from one of those to use to just get in, dump the stuff off my Vaio
harddrive and the reformat the disk, but I am not having much luck. All the
instructions say to get to a Command Prompt and I can't find any way to do
that on these computers

I tried downloading the Windows Utility program, but neither computer will
allow me to download it...it tells me the program is blocked and I have to
use some registry software but when I click to go to that page, both
computers tell me the page is not available (both of the other computers are
Dell and I wonder if there is an issue between Dell and this file).

I REALLY do not want to pay someone to try to get this information off the
computer before I have to reformat the drive, and I REALLY cannot lose these
files. Any suggestions? Is there a way to download the files somewhere from
Microsoft and just re-load them in my system?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My Sony Vaio has Windows XP. When I tried to start it Friday afternoon,
the
cursor appeared, then went away, leaving nothing but a black screen. I
then
pressed F8 to attempt to skip past the problem into Safe Mode. The menu
comes up to choose the various methods of starting windows, and if I
choose
any of the Safe Mode options, I get the following error:

mutli(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
mutli(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll

and the computer sits there with the error and does nothing. I can't
CTRL-ALT-DEL to shut down or do anything. To shut down the computer, I
have
to remove the battery. Even closing the computer does not shut it down.

Unfortunately, Sony does not send boot disks with their computers. I made
a
Startup and Recovery set but it wants to immediately restore my hard drive
to
the factory settings. I have no problem doing that but need to remove
files
from the hard drive first. My plan was to use a start up disk to repair
these files (based on what I've read online that's what I need to do). I
have access to two computers with Windows NT and had hoped to create a
boot
disk from one of those to use to just get in, dump the stuff off my Vaio
harddrive and the reformat the disk, but I am not having much luck. All
the
instructions say to get to a Command Prompt and I can't find any way to do
that on these computers

I tried downloading the Windows Utility program, but neither computer will
allow me to download it...it tells me the program is blocked and I have to
use some registry software but when I click to go to that page, both
computers tell me the page is not available (both of the other computers
are
Dell and I wonder if there is an issue between Dell and this file).

I REALLY do not want to pay someone to try to get this information off the
computer before I have to reformat the drive, and I REALLY cannot lose
these
files. Any suggestions? Is there a way to download the files somewhere
from
Microsoft and just re-load them in my system?

It's been a quiet week - I do not recall another post with the
usual question "Please help - I never got around to backing
up my important files and now it's too late." Time to review
your backup policy.

It would be useful to know the events that led to the failure
on Friday afternoon. Hardware modification? Software
installation? Virus attack?

You can ckeck the existence of the "missing" files by
booting the machine with a Bart PE boot CD. This is a
CD that you can burn yourself but it takes a few hours
to get it right. Try www.bootdisk.com. This ***may***
enable you to copy your files to a flash disk, to an external
USB disk or to a networked PC.

Another option is to remove your disk and install it in
an external USB case so that you can read its contents
on any PC. If I recall correctly then you need to remove
the keyboard of your Vaio laptop in order to get at the hard
disk. This can be a major challenge.

After you have saved your important files, buy an 80 GByte
2.5" disk and an external USB case (the same as above),
then use it ***every week*** as your backup medium.
This would cost around US$100.00 and it would turn
your current nightmare into a minor inconvenience.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, I know...I just said to myself earlier this week "I really need to back
up this hard drive" but didn't take the time....I already own an external
hard drive...just didn't use it.

I will attempt these suggestions. I know that it can be done because my
tech guy who works on all my computers did it for me before...I just would
like to learn how to handle some of this on my own without having to pay him
to correct my own stupidity.

I don't know what caused the problem to begin with. I know that I was
having some problems with my DVD reader, so I installed some microsoft
updates. I have pretty good virus protection that runs regularly, so I don't
think that's it although I know this is not definite. I've had a few issues
with some programs (graphics issues with Sims 2 for one), so not a clue. I
did get a strange error message last week, but figured it was a fluke error
as it only occured once (and have no idea now what it was)...yeah...you'd
have thought I'd back my stuff up then, but noooo....

Thanks for thie tips...I'll let you know if it works!

 

[Guest]

Okay. I got the Bart PE to load on my laptop. I can get to the files I need
to copy but now have no idea how to copy them. I do not have a floppy drive
in the laptop. I have the CD Rom with the Bart floppy in it. I have a flash
drive and I have an external hard drive. How do I get the files to save to
one of the two drives? The computer does not seem to recognize any drive
except the CD and the hard drive.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

You would need to load the USB drivers when creating the
Bart PE disk. On the other hand it might be easier to start
the network while running under Bart. If it recognises the
laptop's network adapter then you can make a connection
to any networked PC and copy your files across.

 

[Guest]

Okay...back I go to creat another Bart CD...this is driving me nuts. I'm so
close and yet so far! I really promise to be better at backing up....

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My Bart PE boot CD recognises at least some USB devices,
provided that I connect them prior to booting the machine.

 

[Guest]

WOOHOO! Success! I re-created the Bart PE disk including my external hard
drive driver and was able to transfer all the important files to the hard
drive with no problem at all. I connected the drive to a different computer
and verified that i could open the files after transfer and they were fine!

I am in the process of reformattng the drive now and it is working fine.

Thank you, thank you, thank you....you just saved me $50-$150 since I did
this without going to my tech guy!!!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the feedback.

WOOHOO! Success! I re-created the Bart PE disk including my external
hard
drive driver and was able to transfer all the important files to the hard
drive with no problem at all. I connected the drive to a different
computer
and verified that i could open the files after transfer and they were
fine!

I am in the process of reformattng the drive now and it is working fine.

Thank you, thank you, thank you....you just saved me $50-$150 since I did
this without going to my tech guy!!!

 

[Lil' Dave]

Am glad you were successful. Congratulations.

Now, maybe the MVP will be kind enough to educate us why the files failed to
begin with, what the purpose of these files are, and the possibility of this
occurring again.
Dave

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The files ntoskrnl.exe and hal.dll are key files used by
Windows during its initial startup process. We do not
know if they "failed" or were missing - the OP's initial
post did not report sufficient details and he never reported
if the files were in fact there or not.

Windows XP is an operating system that comprises
several million lines of code. To diagnose the cause of
the IP's problem based on the small amount of information
available is impossible. Here are a few possible causes:
- Malware
- Virus infection
- Rogue software
- File corruption
- Hardware failure (e.g. RAM, hard disk)

If I had the machine on my bench and if I could spend
a few hours poking about then I might be able to tell you
more. In most cases it is much quicker to reload Windows
from scratch, which is what the OP will probably do. And
the really important message is, of course, that important
files must always be stored on at least two independent
media. Not doing so is courting disaster.