Hi everyone,
I'm a newbie with a sad problem. I use easy cleaner on my lap top, and while running it I checked for duplicate copies, I have over 7000, so i started deleting them. I figured if I had two of each then I can make my computer run faster if I delete the copy. WRONG THING TO DO, it wouldn't respond to anything. I manually shut it down, and when I restarted it here's what it says, 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.

I didn't get a back up copy of anything when I bought this computer, but I do have an old gateway cd with Operating System windows xp home edition, version 1.3 I've tried several times to run this CD each time it stops at this: The file sparrow.sys is corrupted press any key to continue. When I press any key it goes off. I've tried it several times with no luck. Can you help me get back this file please?
Capp

Hi Capp, welcome to G2G.

You really shot yourself in the foot on this one . There is no way to know how many critical system files you deleted, so there is very little you can do except do a Repair Install or a recovery to factory installed state.

For this you are going to need a XP Install CD that will work on your computer, around $80 or order a recovery CD from the computer manufacturer, $20 to $30. You can usually do this from their web site.

If you need help finding this, please post the make and model of your computer and I'll see what I can locate for you.

This post has been edited by Ztruker: May 9 2008, 07:56 PM

Thanks Ztruker,
I've got a friend that has the CD, I'm going to get it and try it. If not I'll email Microsoft and get one from them.
Thanks for the help.
Capp

Capp, a recovery CD from the computer manufacturer would be considerably cheaper than buying XP from MS. If you really want a retail copy of XP, buy it from a local computer store, not form MS.