[vally]

Here is how the story goes

My friend brought me his computer. He said that a few days ago it said that there is a trogan in the computer so checked it with the antivirus and purchased some program. The threat stopped beaing poasted. Yesterday the computer booted and said that "windows/system32/hal.dll is missing please replace". He called and asked for my help.

This is what I dicovered. The computer that has 2 operating systems Win 98 and WinXP SP2. When booting it shows the booting list as win xp pro or windows. The win xp pro when selected states the error that is above.
I went googled it. In microsoft it has 4 different solutions.
I tried all of them inthe windows repair.
1- bootcfg /rebuild - When asked to add typed 'y' and then gave new name. The booting list did not change or add what I added
2- expand g:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_.... - operaton sucsseful but nothing changed
3- chkdsk /r - opreraton finaly finished but same thing happened
4- to change the boot.ini
I booted to win98 I opened the boot.ini here it is

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partion(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partion(2)\windows="Microsoft Windows Professional" /fastdetect
c:\="Microsoft Windows"

In none of the 1-3 cases above was the windows 98 accessed or mentiond.
I found another forum that said to copy the file via the repair 'expand g:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll' Here it failed to create the file. (g is the cd) then I relized that XP was on d so I tried to coppy the file to d but the access was denied.

I want to try and fix this problem and not repair the windows because there is data on the desktop.

p.s. while in win 98 there is no recognition if any of the other partitions, they are ntfs.

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Your best option now is to buy a new hard disk. Install it as the 'master' with your existing disk as the 'slave'. Install XP on to the new disk and when xp is up and running you can use it to access your data from the old (slave) disk. This is a safer option than to keep trying to repair the missing hal.dll on your existing disk, since you may end up losing your data that way. So fit a new hard disk, install xp on it as I've already advised, and retrieve your data while it's still intact!

Edited by pip22, 11 July 2007 - 07:28 AM.

[pip22]

Your best option now is to buy a new hard disk. Install it as the 'master' with your existing disk as the 'slave'. Install XP on to the new disk and when xp is up and running you can use it to access your data from the old (slave) disk. This is a safer option than to keep trying to repair the missing hal.dll on your existing disk, since you may end up losing your data that way. So fit a new hard disk, install xp on it as I've already advised, and retrieve your data while it's still intact!

Edited by pip22, 11 July 2007 - 07:28 AM.

[vally]

What will happen if I upgrade the win 98 to winxp will it fix the problem or it has no connection to file that I want to access. If I upgrade and copy the dll from one O.S. to another will that work?

I was told that upgrade will not change or erase files that are on the desktop or outlook expres. Ithis true or very risky?

I allso manged to get into safemode command prompt and did sys recover but that did not change anything.

[The Skeptic]

hal.dll is one of the worst critical errors and can be caused by a variety of reasons. First of all, if there are more then one HD in the computer physically disconnect these that do not have the operating system on. I have compiled 2 different solutions to the problem. Here they are:

Repair hal.dll (option 1)

Enter recovery control
Type bootcfg /list > Enter
Mark the installation you want to reapair
Type bootcfg /rebuild > Enter
Type n (no) when asked to add installation
Type exit


Repair hal.dll (option 2)

How to fix error message hal.dll is missing or cannot be found. (Adapted from Shaun Gray, Kelly's Korner).
Remove hard drive from system.Add Hard drive to a 2nd WORKING XP PRO System a s Slave on Cable select.
Note: all references to “D:\” are the Slave Hard drive damaged windows.
Boot system and enable Explorer > tools > folder options > view. Check Show Hidden Files and Folders. UN-check Hide Protected OS Files.
A working copy of hal.dll will be found in C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386. Copy that file and paste it to “D:\WINDOWS\System32” folder; if it asks to overwrite say YES.
You may now un-do the changes made to Explorer > tools > folder options to re-Hide files.
Shut Down the computer.
Remove the 2nd Drive and reinstall it to its own tower as Master. Bootup. If prompted to reinstall some drivers, Just say YES and let it auto detect.
This "FIX" assumes that the computer in question HAS at ther very least service pack1, if not service pack 2.

Edited by The Skeptic, 15 July 2007 - 05:16 AM.

[vally]

Thanx The Skeptic
There is only one HD

option 1 - does not work

option 2 & 3 are the same. I'll try them later today

[vally]

Correction.
There are 2 HD
the first has 2 patitions the first has win 98 and the second one is empty.
The second HD has xp pro on it.
Whan I tried to do option 1 with the first hard drive, it did not recognize the OS that was xp so did nothing.
When I tried option 1 with the second HD then it did not see any boot had no access to any part of the HD.

I tried option 2/3 and it did not help.

Now I copied the second hard drive to another disk and am trying to repair the original one.

[The Skeptic]

I am sorry about my mistake. Solution 2 and 3 are the same. Please ignore no. 3

[vally]

I ignored no.2

But it did not work.


I'm going to try a repair now after I made a bacup of the win XP disk

[vally]

O.K. so far
Here is what I have done.
I made a imge of the original disk.
I put back the original disk and tried to repair the windows. The windows would not give me option. I tried to vary between the different disks/boots but with no luck.
So I left only the HD with win XP that I made a backup of and installed windows leaving "some" of the files in tact.
I noticed after the installation that most of the data was erased I decided to try something.
I found the hal.dll file that the old OS was missing/corrupt and copied it to my usb disk.
Now I took the copy of the HD and copied it back to the original disk. Now I connected this drive as a slave on a different computer. I connected to this computer the usb drive and copied the hal.dll file to the "fresh copy" of the HD.
Now I know that this file has the configuration of the computer.

I now put the first computer back together and booted.

WinXp loaded with out a problem and all the files seem to be in tact This is what seems to me my friend has not seen it yet so I have to wait. What I did not know till now that the win xp was in hebrew so that is probably why I could not even repair.
I noticed that the outlook express lost all its definitions and folders that it had I still need to look at the backup that I made that I did not alter and see if the files are there or they got deleted during the many tried that I did.

The one thing left to do for sure is fix the boot since there is boot yet into win98. I started to play with the boot.ini but I had enough for now. If someone knows how to define it properly rather than playing around it would help.
The HD are set so that the winxp is the master and the win98 is the slave. I might just need to change the boot sequence since the win98 has the boot.ini file that I posted and maybe that will work.

[The Skeptic]

The solution that you found for hal.dll is quite close to solution 2 that I suggested in a previous post. However my solution (it's not mine, actually, I adapted it from kelly's korner) seems to be more straight forward and less traumatic. I suggest that you follow my proposed solution on the file on which you have the image. If you succeed, you can re-image the repaired disk to the one on which you want the OS to be. Maybe you will succeed to save more data.

[vally]

I tried the solution that was posted and it did not work. I understand that the hal.dll has the deffinition of the hardware setup on the specific computer. When I took the file from another computer it did not boot just got the same message. When I used the file from the setup on this computer it did work.

The story is not over.

I gave the computer to my friend cause he needed it for some work. Now he clarifies that the OS that is on the first HD that we fixed that is in hebrew, was not in use so he did not know that there is a problem. On his seccond HD is the win98 and the winxp that is giving troubble. I am glad he knows what his kids are playing with.

So later today I will have another look and try to find out what is happenning.
What joy we have helping friends

[The Skeptic]

What a situation. The only comfort is that hal.dll on a disk with two OS is the more classic occurence. Maybe solution no. 1 which is fast and easy will do the job. In any case, I would recommend that you disconnect the cables from the other disk before going into any procedure. Leave just the disk that you want to fix.

[vally]

The thing is that I tried solution 1 at the beginning and it did not work.
When I started to try and solve the problem I was getting the corrupt OS with the missing hal.dll. But the point that I stated to back up I discovered that there were 2 HD. At this point I Noticed that one disk was xp the other had 2 partitions 30 gig Win98 and 10 gig called system. In the system section was unaccessible. So I stated with the disk with only xp and disconnected the other one. The xp that I worked on gave the same error even though my friend did not know it at the time.

When I get the computer back and after I copy the disk I can install the hal.dll that I took yesterday that worked.

What I am wondering now is how did the 2 files on 2 different OS get damaged even though they did not bot the same way ( one via boot.ini list and the other by changing the bios)

[The Skeptic]

hal.dll is not a win98 file. It can get into a disk which had 98 installed only if an upgrade to XP was performed, which is not the case.

If your friend did not know that he has the xp installed on another drive then he must have used the 98 as an OS. If this is the case try to disconnect the disk with the XP and boot with 98. What happens now?

[vally]

I can see that I'm not the only one that cant follow my self .

This is from what I can tell\remember.
There are 2 hard drives one (jupered as the master) has XP pro in hebrew.
The second has win 98 and in the second partition he has win xp pro in english. This installation is the one thatis missing the file.

The disk set as master was not in use. It was to be used as the main HD in the future instaed of the split disk. It was installed over a year ago and was foegotten about.

He will bring me the computer tonight or tomorrow mornning. I'll post what I find out.