[FCCAGut]

Today when I restarted my moms Laptop, after it loaded BIOS it said something like "Can't read hal.DLL, file is either missing or corrupt. Windows root>System32>hal.DLL.

What is this and how do I fix it, the only thing I can think of is totally wipe out the whole system clean then start new.

[Advertisements]

Hey FCCAgut.

Do you have your windows XP CD? If you do, I want you to put it in and turn on your computer. When you are given the message press any key to boot from cd..., press a key and Windows Setup will start. At the first screen where you have to enter input, hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then you will have to hit 1 to log into your windows installation and then just hit Enter for the Administrator password because it is normally blank unless you changed it. Once you are at the command prompt C:\WINDOWS I want you to type each of the following, hitting enter after each line:

• attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini
• del c:\boot.ini
• bootcfg /rebuild
• fixboot

Now type Exit and take your XP CD out. Your computer will reboot itself. Post back how things are going.

[ultimateslacker2]

Hey FCCAgut.

Do you have your windows XP CD? If you do, I want you to put it in and turn on your computer. When you are given the message press any key to boot from cd..., press a key and Windows Setup will start. At the first screen where you have to enter input, hit R to enter the Recovery Console. Then you will have to hit 1 to log into your windows installation and then just hit Enter for the Administrator password because it is normally blank unless you changed it. Once you are at the command prompt C:\WINDOWS I want you to type each of the following, hitting enter after each line:

• attrib -s -h -r c:\boot.ini
• del c:\boot.ini
• bootcfg /rebuild
• fixboot

Now type Exit and take your XP CD out. Your computer will reboot itself. Post back how things are going.

[Major Payne]

Here's a good site to go to on this subject at the Micro$oft Community. Seems a lot of people have this similar problem.

Ron

Edited by Major Payne, 26 February 2007 - 08:29 PM.

[FCCAGut]

How can I check if it's my hard drive? I mean how can I test if it's a hard drive problem by any chance?

[ultimateslacker2]

Let's try rebuilding the boot.ini file first. It sounds like corrupted. Windows just may of gotten corrupted somehow.

[FCCAGut]

How do I put fix Boot.ini file if it can't boot up?

[ultimateslacker2]

Can't you boot past the BIOS?

Is the BIOS set to boot from the CD-R first?

[SRX660]

This may help.

How Do I Repair A Missing Or Corrupt HAL.DLL

There may be an occasion when you boot up your PC that you receive an error message such as HAL.DLL file is corrupt or missing. In many cases this can simply be a misconfiguration in the Boot.Ini file and can easily be corrected by instigating a suitable repair.

1. Place your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and Reboot your PC
2. XP's setup program will automatically start and files will be loaded to memory
3. When you reach the Welcome to Setup screen choose the Repair option by pressing R
4. This will start the Recovery console and the list of Windows installations will appear
5. As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1
6. Type in your Administrator password. If you are using Windows XP Home edition the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter
7. Now type bootcfg /list
8. A list will now appear of all the entries in your boot.ini file
9. Next type bootcfg /rebuild
10. Your boot.ini file should now be repaired
11. Finally remove your XP CD from the CD-ROM and then type Exit
12. Reboot your machine to see if the the problem has been cured

SRX660

[FCCAGut]

I fixed the problem, the hard drive crashed and I bought another one.

[Major Payne]

That'll do 'er sometimes. Thanks for posting back and letting us know.

Ron

[ultimateslacker2]

Well they weren't built to last forever

Glad you got it fixed

-slacker