My husband's computer is a VAIO PCV-RZ24G. He had just saved a game when he began to have trouble. When he tried to reboot he got a message that hal.dll is missing or corrupt. We don't have a Win XP installation CD as it came preinstalled. We only have Recovery CD's. I did some research and found out how to download bootable diskettes from Microsoft. I loaded those with GREAT difficulty (I suspect the floppy drive is dirty, since it hasn't been used in years.) I entered the recovery console. I had found instructions on the Web on how to use BOOTCFG to rebuild the boot.ini, which apparently is a common cause of that error message. Unfortunately, BOOTCFG reported that it could not find a Windows installation. It recommended using CHKDSK. That didn't work because autochk.exe was not found.

Using DIR I can see all the directoryand subdirectory names, but that is about all we can do. Every file I try to access comes back "access denied". Is there a way to retrieve data from his "My Documents" or other files? IS there any recourse except to reformat and reinstall from the Recovery CD's? I have the certificate of authenticity for WinXP. Is there a way to get the installation CD and would it do me any good? Does this seem to be a hardware glitch, or just a corrupted file? Any assistance will be much appreciated. Thanks
KLW

You can borrow a same version XP CD to run this

Boot the PC using the XP CD and look for a prompt to 'Press any key to boot from CD' (some systems may not ask).

Press any key on the keyboard and Windows Setup will launch

After a few minutes you will be presented with the following choices:

To setup Windows® XP now. press Enter

To Repair a Windows® XP installation using Recovery Console, press R

To quit setup without installing XP, press F3

Press R to repair the Windows® XP installation

The next screen will ask you which Windows® installation you would like to log on to. Normally the following will be listed:

1: C:\WINDOWS

Press 1 and then Enter to continue.

You may now be asked for the Administrator password. If you know this type it and press Enter. If you don't know the Administrators password it may be blank. Just press Enter

At the command prompt type:

chkdsk /r

Press Enter

Chkdsk will now check the hard drive for errors, and will attempt to repair any it finds.

This process may take a while, but when finished will go back to the same command prompt as before.

Turn off and restart the computer.

I'm sorry - I didn't make myself clear in my post. The diskettes I downloaded were "Setup" disks. I entered the Recovery console through them. The report came back that no valid Windows installations were found. CHKDSK was recommended, but autochk.exe was not found... Would an actual Win XP installation CD have more tools on it ? I'm trying to borrow one, but everyone I've asked has OEM ... Is there any way to save the data in My Docs, etc at this point? Is there a way to determine whether this is just a software issue or is the hard drive going bad? I saw a reference somewhere to removing the hard drive and mounting it as slave in another system to recover it. Is that feasible?

Thanks
KLW

That would let you see what is on the drive

http://www.askbobrankin.com/add_a_second_hard_drive.html

Ok, I've found a friend who will loan me an XP CD. As we know the recovery console did not find a valid XP installation. What would I do next? I'm thinking a parallel install? How much HD space will that take? Hubby thinks his C drive is pretty full. Would it be better to just expand and copy hal.dll from my friend's CD? This is all new to me so I appreciate your help.
Thanks
Karen

See if it reacts differently with an XP CD, if not run the repair install using the product key for the PC, not the borrowed disc. The 25 character alpha numeric product key should be on a sticker attached to the PC

1. Configure the computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

2. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.

3. When you receive the Press any key to boot from CD message, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD-ROM.

4. When you receive the Welcome to Setup message, press R to start the Recovery Console.

5. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you have to use from the Recovery Console.

6. When you are prompted, type the administrator password, and then press ENTER.

7. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /list, and then press ENTER. The entries in your current Boot.ini file appear on the screen.

8. At the command prompt, type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER. This command scans the hard disks of the computer for Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000, or Microsoft Windows NT installations, and then displays the results.

Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to add the Windows installations to the Boot.ini file. For example, follow these steps to add a Windows XP installation to the Boot.ini file:

a. When you receive a message that is similar to the following message, press Y: Total Identified Windows Installs: 1

[1] C:\Windows

Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All)

b. You receive a message that is similar to the following message: Enter Load Identifier

This is the name of the operating system. When you receive this message, type the name of your operating system, and then press ENTER.

This is either Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.

c. You receive a message that is similar to the following: Enter OS Load options

When you receive this message, type /fastdetect, and then press ENTER.

Note The instructions that appear on your screen may be different, depending on the configuration of your computer.

9. Type exit, and then press ENTER to quit Recovery Console.

Your computer restarts, and the updated boot list appears when you receive the "Please select the operating system to start" message.


You can use this guide to repair XP

Possibly, you will need to press the power button and keep tapping the delete key, (possibly F2) until the PC enters set up. Change the boot order to CD ROM Drive then hard drive, press F10 then press enter, load the XP CD then type Y then press enter, as it reboots, look for press any key to load from CD, press enter

You will need your XP product key to complete this

The XP Product Key is a 25 character alpha numerical code, which does not include the sequence OEM

If you have audio / video files which are subject to DRM you should check with the provider for known issues with performing an XP repair install

Click this to view the XP Repair Install Guide

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

The XP repair install will look and run as a normal install, however, you must not see a request to format the drive

After running XP Repair you will need to install all Windows Updates

Microsoft Update