[Leashy]

I am trying to get my brother's computer up and running. He brought it to me with Antivirus 2009 taking over.

I found a step-by-step process to remove it and after the first reboot (in safemode!), I got a black screen saying windows can't start because hal.dll is missing or corrupt.

Everything I've read to repair the file say to start with the disk and use the recovery console, but his computer didn't come with the disk and I run Vista.

Is there anyway to repair or replace this file without buying XP?

Thanks for any info.

Edited by Leashy, 03 December 2008 - 12:28 PM.

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Howdy and welcome to GTG:

Sorry, but you will need the cd to repair it.

What is the make and model of his system and did you check with the manufacturer as to the availability of a cd?

Murray

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to GTG:

Sorry, but you will need the cd to repair it.

What is the make and model of his system and did you check with the manufacturer as to the availability of a cd?

Murray

[Grandad Phillip]

If it is indeed a missing or corrupt HAL.DLL (and it might not be despite the error message), you can get a copy of it here:
http://www.dll-files...files.shtml?hal

On Windows XP it belongs at C:\Windows\System32

However, if it is missing there may be other files missing or corrupted as the boot procedure continues, since when a whole bunch of files get's corrupted Windows can only flag them up one at a time in a particular sequence as they are scheduled to be loaded into memory. Long story short, restoring hal.dll may only be one of a whole series of steps you need to take.

As Murray S. rightly says, you need to perform a repair and that requires an XP cd.

Edited by Grandad Phillip, 03 December 2008 - 02:18 PM.

[jt1990]

Copying the file into the directory does not work - I've tried it before.

[Leashy]

Darn.

It's a Sony Vaio... don't know the specs on it.

Have not contacted them about it.

[Murray S.]

Odds are there is a hidden partition that contains the Recovery Files and your brother should have gotten a message to make the cd's when he first started the system.

Otherwise, I would contact Sony and request the cd.

Murray

[Leashy]

I found my old an emachines windows xp restore CD. I really didn't think it would work (still don't know for sure) but I put it in the drive and started the computer. It gives me a choice

1. Restore Windows XP
2. Boot to command prompt from CD-ROM

I don't want to restore (reformat?) Windows yet, I just want to get in there, back up some files and then I can wipe it out and start fresh.

Is it possible to repair the missing/corrupt hal.dll file with this disk?

Ack!

Edited by Leashy, 03 December 2008 - 04:09 PM.

[Murray S.]

Possibly.

Use option 2. When you get to the command prompt, type in chkdsk /r and press enter.

Let it run its course. Remove the cd and reboot.

You can't use that cd to re-install as it is for a different system and will be looking for hardware and a mobo that doesn't exist. It is also very illegal.

Murray

[Leashy]

It says bad command or file name.

Any other ideas?

Thanks so much for your help, btw.

Edited by Leashy, 03 December 2008 - 04:21 PM.

[123Runner]

chkdsk /r

Did you know there is a space before the /

[Leashy]

Yep. Tried both ways

[123Runner]

Can you borrow a CD of the same flavor (home or Pro).

[jt1990]

Chkdsk didn't fix the issue for me when I came across it - I had to run a repair install of Windows. But that doesn't do much good since you don't have the CD.

[Leashy]

I don't know anyone with a CD. This is all I have.

Are there any other commands to try? There's two disks actually. The one I already put in and a second one for drivers, would that one do anything?

[123Runner]

I recall reading somewhere that if your computer boots from a floppy then hall.dll isn't missing. I do not know if this is true or not. Therefore, making an assumption.... If it is true, then booting from a CD (I suspect) would also indicate that hall.dll is good and you have corrupted boot files.