Windows XP Won't Start - Corrupted hal.dll File

[Drew Wilson]

Hey all,

I booted my XP machine this morning and it showed this message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Is this a simple matter of inserting the Windows XP CD or is there more I need to know about this particular problem?

Thanks.

[Mels_Smileys45]

I don't actually know but I would try inserting the XP disc and using the "repair" option. It surely won't hurt to try this first

[mountain_rage]

Wow gold and wedding invitations!!! Oh my I feel like a princess!!!

For those confused, there was a wow gold + wedding invitation spam post just above this one.






No, really there was...

[Drew Wilson]

I was wondering why I couldn't get the repair program running. Seems like I need an additional CD for the repair thing. Currently working my way around getting one.

[Excrement_Cranium]

hal.dll?


What are you doing Drew? This is highly irregular.


*edit*

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findby...singhaldll.htm

[RACKnRAIL]

My ex had this same problem once with the exact same .dll in her computer.

I used the XP disk, as suggested, but I copied the file in DOS and pasted it in the sys32 folder. It worked for me.

Edit: I remember what I did now. I used a win98 CD to boot into dos and from there I copied/pasted the hal.dll into the sys32 folder. Like I said, it worked flawlessly.

It's beyond me as to how it became corrupted though.

[mountain_rage]

My ex had this same problem once with the exact same .dll in her computer.

I used the XP disk, as suggested, but I copied the file in DOS and pasted it in the sys32 folder. It worked for me.

Edit: I remember what I did now. I used a win98 CD to boot into dos and from there I copied/pasted the hal.dll into the sys32 folder. Like I said, it worked flawlessly.

It's beyond me as to how it became corrupted though.

Does 98 read NTFS??? I remember needing a dos variant to copy a file into my xp system. Now if I remember correctly linux still can't write to ntsf? If it can then you could use a linux boot disc. There's also a command prompt in xp but I cant remember for the life of me whether its a alternate boot or if its found on the xp pro install disc.

[RACKnRAIL]

Does 98 read NTFS??? I remember needing a dos variant to copy a file into my xp system. Now if I remember correctly linux still can't write to ntsf? If it can then you could use a linux boot disc. There's also a command prompt in xp but I cant remember for the life of me whether its a alternate boot or if its found on the xp pro install disc.

It doesn't have to read NTFS, since you don't have to install win98, therefore you are not reading NTFS from FAT32. All you are doing is booting into DOS from the Win98 CD, then you can remove the boot CD and insert the XP disk and copy the file from the location then simply paste it into sys32 folder. These are simple DOS commands, if you remember DOS.

Also, if he can't boot XP, as he mentioned, he can't use XP's command prompt.

[mountain_rage]

RnR you lost me, although some people still use fat 32 in XP most don't, so the system is likely NTFS. Unless I'm mistaken here, the version of the dos operating system on the 98 disc cannot read/write to a NTFS file system unless modified. Now if I remember correctly the files on the Xp disc are fat 32 so that fine, but the files system of his harddrive are NTFS, so how does he write to it?

[Drew Wilson]

hal.dll?


What are you doing Drew? This is highly irregular.


*edit*

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findby...singhaldll.htm

The last thing I did on the computer was install the latest version of Java (not deinstalling the previous version)

I'm 99% convinced it was that... exactly how that would cause this particular DLL file to get corrupted is unclear to me though.

[mountain_rage]

Sometimes these errors are unrelated to the user and due to hardware failure, such as a corrupt sector on the h/d.

[Mels_Smileys45]

Sometimes these errors are unrelated to the user and due to hardware failure, such as a corrupt sector on the h/d.

From what ive read this is a likely cause.

[mountain_rage]

Wonder how hard it would be for Microsoft to build some redundancy into these essential system files, if they don't already.

[RACKnRAIL]

RnR you lost me, although some people still use fat 32 in XP most don't, so the system is likely NTFS. Unless I'm mistaken here, the version of the dos operating system on the 98 disc cannot read/write to a NTFS file system unless modified. Now if I remember correctly the files on the Xp disc are fat 32 so that fine, but the files system of his harddrive are NTFS, so how does he write to it?

I am not making this up. I am talking from a real experience. My ex's computer was in fact formatted to NTFS. Like I said, I used a Win98 CD to boot into DOS, but what I think I may have done was, copied the missing file on a floppy first, and then with simple DOS commands copied it into the sys32 folder. I do remember it was as simple as pie and it worked. There are other methods I just read on Google, but this one worked for me.

There is lots of info on how to fix this on google, as it would appear a not so uncommon problem, and not necessarily due to hardware issues.

I just found this method googling. I am not saying to use this method. I am just pointing out that there seems to be several ways of repairing the issue.


Boot from Windows xp CD and choose R to enter the recovery console

at the prompt, type
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot

If that does not work, reboot again and enter the recovery console

type

expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll.

(this assumes you have a single harddrive and your cd-rom drive is D:

Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD if it is different

[Excrement_Cranium]

Bah, you guys suck. I slide in a perfect 2001: A Space Odyssey riff, and it gets completely missed!!!

:)