[shockerboy8]

ok, so this is my problem. my computer will not boot up to windows. and i cant enter safe mode. trust me, i cant. originally my computer stopped at the second screen that checks your drives and stops at "verifying dmi data pool". well and thats all i could get to. so i need the files off the drive so i can recover my hard drive and put the all my files back on. i am pretty sure that a virus caused this. so maybe there is a disk i can run off the start to check that.

now problem two! i know... fun stuff.... so i did a chkdsk under recovery console to see if there was anything even on the drives. There is only 48 Gb out of 160Gb. so yes. there is stuff there. but now when i boot up my comp i get a system error message thing saying
"Windows could not start becasue the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copyu of the above file"

so now what do i do with this?
please help!!!

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do you have your xp disk?

Repair the Windows XP installation.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Make sure that the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is the first priority startup device.
  See your computer documentation for information about how to do this.
• Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
• When the instruction to "Press any key to boot from CD" appears, press a key. Your computer starts from the Windows XP CD.
• When the computer starts from the CD, the system verifies your hardware, and then prompts you to select one of the following options:
  

  • To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.
  • To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
  • To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

• Press ENTER.
• Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.
• A box lists your current Windows XP installation, and then the computer prompts you to select one of the following options:
  

  • To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
  • To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.

• Press R.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards.
NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to Perform A Re-Install Of XP

[dsenette]

do you have your xp disk?

Repair the Windows XP installation.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Make sure that the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive is the first priority startup device.
  See your computer documentation for information about how to do this.
• Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer.
• When the instruction to "Press any key to boot from CD" appears, press a key. Your computer starts from the Windows XP CD.
• When the computer starts from the CD, the system verifies your hardware, and then prompts you to select one of the following options:
  

  • To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER.
  • To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
  • To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

• Press ENTER.
• Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.
• A box lists your current Windows XP installation, and then the computer prompts you to select one of the following options:
  

  • To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
  • To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC.

• Press R.

You'll get to keep your existing apps & settings, but you need to re-install SP2, Windows Updates & any unsigned drivers afterwards.
NOTE: Be aware that you'll lose any protection from Blaster / Sasser type worms. Don't go online without a firewall, whether the built in Windows one or 3rd party.

How to Perform A Re-Install Of XP

[shockerboy8]

alright so i did that. but i dont get that stuff.
" • To repair the selected Windows XP installation, press R.
• To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows XP without repairing, press ESC."

instead when i accept the agreement i come up to Windows XP professional setup.
"The following list shows the existing partions ans unpartitioned space on this computer.
- to set up windows XP on the selected item, press enter
- to create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press c.
- to delete the selected partition, press d."
and then underneath that there is a box that has
"131070 mb disk 0 at Id 1 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]
C: Partition 1 <Disk 4_VOL1> [NTFS] 156328 Mb ( 49171 MB Free)"

so whats up?

[dsenette]

this is an actual xp disk right? not a system recovery disk correct?

[shockerboy8]

yeah its an actual XP disk. i dont have a system recovery disk. what next?

[dsenette]

hmm....it should have given you the repair option...it seems that it's convinced that windows indeed does not exist on that drive...that's pretty annoying...we COULD go through a bunch of really long steps in recovery console to try to get that file back in there (though one set of steps will probably lead to another)...or you could remove the hard drive from the machine...and put it as a slave into the machine you're posting from....copy off all your important data (documents, pictures, music)...then format the drive and reinstall windows and all your programs

[shockerboy8]

ok thats what i was going to figure. but how am i supposed to copy the files? i know that the drive will appear as a slave and will be under my computer... but what do i do from there? what if the files do not show up or anything?

[dsenette]

once you install it as a slave (jumpered as slave on the center connector of the ide cable) and boot up the computer...it SHOULD show up in my computer as a new hard drive with a drive letter and everything....once you see it there...you can just copy the files over to the other HD and you're good to go...you may need to take ownership of the files for them to be accessable

How to take ownership of a folder

Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials. If you are running Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, you must start the computer in safe mode, and then log on with an account that has Administrative rights to have access to the Security tab.
If you are using Windows XP Professional, you must disable Simple File Sharing. By default, Windows XP Professional uses Simple File sharing when it is not joined to a domain.
For additional information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307874 How to disable simplified sharing and set permissions on a shared folder in Windows XP


To take ownership of a folder, follow these steps:

• Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
• Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
• Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
• In the Name list, click your user name, or click Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group. If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.
• Click OK, and then click Yes when you receive the following message:
  
  

  You do not have permission to read the contents of directory <folder name>. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control?
  
  All permissions will be replaced if you press Yes.

  Note <folder name> is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of.
  
  
• Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and its contents.

How to take ownership of a file

Note You must be logged on to the computer with an account that has administrative credentials.

To take ownership of a file, follow these steps:

• Right-click the file that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.
• Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message (if one appears).
• Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.
• In the Name list, click Administrator, or click the Administrators group, and then click OK.
  
  The administrator or the Administrators group now owns the file. To change the permissions on the files and folders under this folder, go to step 5.
  
  
• Click Add.
• In the Enter the object names to select (examples) list, type the user or group account that you want to give access to the file. For example, type Administrator.
• Click OK.
• In the Group or user names list, click the account that you want, and then select the check boxes of the permissions that you want to assign that user.
• When you are finished assigning permissions, click OK.