Problems booting XP

[David Lyons]

I am having terrible problems with booting up XP and was wondering if
someone could help.

I foolishly amended the Windows boot.ini file with the intention of removing
a redundant boot reference and now the pc will not let get back into windows
xp - the error message i receive is :-

"windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll"

To get into the pc to repair/fix the file is impossible - it simply won't
let me in - even in safe mode - when i attempt to run the boot up disks for
XP i receive the following message just as the last disk finishes :-

"a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
damage to your computer

page_fault_in_nonpaged_area"

Can anyoen advise id there any way at all I can get into XP from here? Any
help would be wonderful.

I am not bothered about losing data - I just want to get into the computer
even if it means losing files that are on the hard drive.

Thanks in advance.

David Lyons.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Try the following link to MVP Kelly's web page:

"HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer"
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_h.htm

 

[peter]

Try booting up using the XP CD-ROM and choose to repair. Then choose the
Recovery Console Option...
Choose the number corresponding to your XP version and enter your
Administrator Password (then press enter).

After that you'll see a command prompt...enter the following command:

bootcfg /rebuild" command to fix boot.ini.
FIXBOOT will fix the boot sector on the boot drive,
** FIXMBR will fix the master boot record if the NT loader
complains of a missing HAL or unmountable boot volume.



After the process is completed enter the command EXIT to quit (and the
system should auto reboot OK from that point onwards...
the "fixmbr" command should do the trick
peter