Recovery Console

[Guest]

I need to run the Recovery Console because while attempting to erradicate a
nasty virus, I accidentally deleted my hal.dll file (possibly others, too)
and the computer won't reboot.

The Recovery Console is requesting my administrator password. The problem
is that this being my young daughter's computer, I didn't enter a password
for the administrator account. Unfortunately, when I just hit return without
entering any characters into the Recovery Console prompt, it tells me that
the password entered is invalid. After 3 times, it exits and reboots the
machine and I start all over.

Any suggestions? I thought about reinstalling Windows from the recovery
disk, but that is a huge hassle. Also, it wants to know if I want to install
the windows in the FAT partition or the NTFS partition. I didn't even
realize that I had the FAT partition and I don't know which it the correct
answer...

Alan

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Please try the following link to Kelly's web site:

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

--


Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link. At least now I understand what that missing file is and
how to reinstall it. However, I still can't get past the password issue.
I've read a ton of other postings and seached the MS Knowledgebase, but there
doesn't seem to be an answer. If I do choose to reinstall windows through
the Recovery Consol, do I intstall it in the FAT partition or the NTFS
partition. My assumption is the NTFS partition, but I'm not certain.

Alan

 

[Guest]

I downloaded files to 6 floppy disks to be able to boot from a disk instead
of the CD. This time I was able to just hit the return key for the
administrator password and it worked. I expanded the hal.dll file to both my
C:\ and my C:\windows\system32 directories, but when I went to reboot
(normally) I got the error message that windows tried to boot from my
\windows directory because my boot.ini file was bad and then I got an error
message saying the my hal.dll file was missing from my <rootdirectory>
\system32. It told me to replace the file. I thought I had replaced the
file. Do I need to expand it to somewhere else or should I copy a boot.ini
file into c:\? What should the boot.ini say?

HELP!

Alan