[JamesS]

Hello All,

So i turned on my computer (Win XP PRo SP2) and i got the missing or corrupt hal.dll. So i spent hours researching it and attempted everything*** in the windows recovery consol. I have received errors such as:

"Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning."

"access denied" for an attemted copy.

***Everything consists of bootcfg, chkdsk, del boot.ini, copy hal.dll and so on. Also, when attempting to do a repair (not in the recovery consol) i get an error saying that i must format because the partition is corrupt.

I am at a loss, and i am assuming im going to have to format my hd but if ANYONE has ANY suggestions or things i can attempt first that would be wonderful!!!

Thanks,
James

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Hi JamesS...

You should be able to do a parallel installation and recover your data.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. When asked for the product key, use the one for the machine you are working on. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi JamesS...

You should be able to do a parallel installation and recover your data.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. When asked for the product key, use the one for the machine you are working on. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

wannabe1

[JamesS]

Hello wannabe1,

thanks for your reply...

I followed what you said and when i get to the part where it lists my partitions:
C: Partition1 [unkown] 131062 MB
Unpartitioned space 19556 MB

theres no option to hit esc and it doesnt do anything. i have:

To setup win on the selected item, Pree ENTER
To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C
To delete the selected partition, press D

If i create a new partition and install it on that will i be able to still access my data?


Thanks for you help,
James

[wannabe1]

With C: Partition1 [unkown] 131062 MB selected, press Enter

You'll be asked if you know what you're doing...press C

Then the formatting options...choose to "Leave the current one intact" and press Enter

Press Esc for a new folder

Name the folder WINDOWS0 and let it install...

[JamesS]

From there i get:

The partition is either too full, damaged, not formatted, or formatted with an incompatible file system. To continue installing Windows, Setup must format this partition.

and i can select from:

Format partition NTFS - Quick
Format partition NTFS

James

[wannabe1]

This is not good...it indicated that the partition itself is corrupt. The data on the drive may still be accessible by slaving the drive in another machine, but in order to salvage this drive, it will have to be formatted.

[JamesS]

I was affraid of that...

If i used a USB 2.0 to IDE Adapter Cable

and switched the pin on the back of the hd to slave, could i plug it into my laptop and access it as a storage device? Would that even recognize it as a storage device?

Thanks for your time...
James

[wannabe1]

Yes...that should work just fine.

You may have to Take Ownership of the files to recover them.

[JamesS]

So i did the UBD to IDE and i can here the HD spinning and i plugged the USB in and it just flat out does not recognize it or pick it up....no external hd no storage device...

Is there anything im missing

Thanks
James

[wannabe1]

Hmmmm...it should have detected unless it's completely messed.

Try rebooting with the drive connected and see if it's detected as a drive that way.

[JamesS]

OK no go on that...I dont know if i got a bad part or what but heres my next attemp, let me know what you think lol

Im going to try and install windows on whats left of my unpartitioned space and go from there...i dunno what else to do

thanks for all your help.. ill post back with the results...

James

[wannabe1]

It appears you have enough room there to try that...this is not usually the case. Do it just as you would a normal install, but choose the unpartitioned space to format.

[JamesS]

ALRIGHT... I GIVE UP!!!

Microsoft wins again..... i cant even format the unpartitioned space.

You know...mac is looking better every day!

Thanks for all your help anyways


James

[wannabe1]

Sounds more like a HDD failure than a Microsoft issue. It happens...