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Window's Recovery console damaged, Missing Hal.dll


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#1
DarkPhase

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Recently I was infected with a virus(thread describing it, and the help i http://www.geekstogo...55/page__st__15)

While attempting to use combo-fix it was informing me that i did not have the recovery console installed. Which strange because it's been installed since I've had the computer and I've always gotten an option to boot to it on start up.

After receiving that message from combo-fix i went and tried to boot into the recovery console only to have it tell me that <root/System32/hal.dll is missing and that it cannot start.

I'd like to reinstall/repair the recovery console as I'll need it for any serious infection.

I Have a compaq presario sr2002x,Widows XP SP3. Any help would be appreciated.

Edited by DarkPhase, 08 December 2010 - 09:37 PM.

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#2
Spyderturbo007

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Is there a reason that you don't allow ComboFix to install the Recovery Console as instructed by azarl? Just follow his instructions and click the "Yes" button when you are prompted to install the Recovery Console.
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#3
rshaffer61

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Your Recovery Console has been damaged due to the virus. By installing a new copy it should resolve the issue. If you are unwilling to follow the instructions then the Malware nor us can help since your system as of yet has not been declared healthy. Anything we attempt t do here in the Tech forums can be nullified due to a hidden active infection.
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#4
DarkPhase

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I'm not sure if you read what i said to him on the second page, But it was a question about reinstalling it to my recovery partition because my C drive is low on space and from my knowledge the recovery partition is where the recovery console originally was and that i would like to repair it/reinstall it there. He also told me to ask the tech forum to see what they say and he'd keep my thread open till i got an answer.
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#5
rshaffer61

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When installing it through ComboFix as he suggest it does not give you the option to where to install it I don't believe.
If the recovery partitioned has been damaged the chances of repairing it are going to be slim since it in reality is a image of your system as it was brand new.
If you have the OS disk you can get to the recovery console on the disk. This would in essence allow the repair to be done on the main partition.
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#6
DarkPhase

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Apparently the way this was setup, The recovery partition also contained the OS disc. But to get it you had to burn it onto like 4 different discs or something. So i don't have it, SO I'm assuming the best choice is to just have combofix install it?
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#7
rshaffer61

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I think you are confused on what Recovery Console is used for. It is a diagnostic program that allows for repair or running diagnostics outside of windows.
You can restore, chkdsk and sfc outside windows using the Recovery Console.
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#8
DarkPhase

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I understand that, but what i read from this computers manual and what i read about obtaining recovery discs for my computer aswell, Is that all of that was contained on the recovery partition, and now that's damaged i have no way to use it. So I guess my last choice is to just have combofix install it on the main partition

Edited by DarkPhase, 09 December 2010 - 07:02 PM.

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#9
rshaffer61

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Since one of your concerns is the amount of space you have free on your main partition let's see what you have for sure.
Go to Start then to Run
Type in compmgmt.msc and click Enter
On left side click on Disk Management
On right side you will see you hard drive.
Now I need you to take a screenshot and attach it to your next reply. Do the following to take a screenshot while the above is open and showing on your desktop.

To do a screenshot please have click on your Print Screen on your keyboard. It is normally the key above your number pad between the F12 key and the Scroll Lock key
Now go to Start and then to All Programs
Scroll to Accessories and then click on Paint
In the Empty White Area click and hold the CTRL key and then click the V
Go to the File option at the top and click on Save as
Save as file type JPEG and save it to your Desktop


Attach it to your next reply
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#10
DarkPhase

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Here you go, It was at 7.68 gigs a week or so ago, Something's been slowly eating up space and i haven't installed anything so.

Attached Thumbnails

  • harddrive.JPG

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#11
rshaffer61

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OK this is part of the problem. At 10% free space the MFT or Master File Table can become corrupt. This can cause instability as well as eventually causing the system to become unbootable.
Now you need to do some cleaning up of your master drive. First thing I would suggest is the following two.



Download TFC by OldTimer to your desktop
  • Please double-click TFC.exe to run it. (Note: If you are running on Vista, right-click on the file and choose Run As Administrator).
  • It will close all programs when run, so make sure you have saved all your work before you begin.
  • Click the Start button to begin the process. Depending on how often you clean temp files, execution time should be anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or two. Let it run uninterrupted to completion.
  • Once it's finished it should reboot your machine. If it does not, please manually reboot the machine yourself to ensure a complete clean.


Download Auslogics Defrag from the link in my signature below. Auslogics Defrag in my opinion is better because:

It does a more comprehensive job at Defragging
It will actually show you what it is doing
At the end of working it will show you how much speed you picked up
You can view a online log of the files that Auslogics defragged

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#12
DarkPhase

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I ran TFC and it cleaned about 138mb of temp files out, I then went to defrag using defraggler(seeing as i already have that installed) and it's letting me know that if i defrag with less then 10% of real harddrive space that it'll be limited and slow. So what should i do.

EDIT: I started the defrag, i noticed that alot of the defrag files are from system volume files/_restore is that anything to be worried about.

I also looked inside that folder and that's where the restore points are stored i guess, and it appears to be making a restore point daily, Which before i remember it making one every other day and deleting older ones,now the latter is happening which is taking up a good amount of space (100-300mb, with 11 RP folders in total) I'm assuming that's what's been magically eating up space on my hard drive, Any info on what i should do?

Also, The only way i was able to find this _restore folder was through opening the containing folder of one of the fragmented files. The system volume files folder is otherwise empty even with hidden files enabled.

EDIT 2: Did some searching, Found out that the alloted space for my system restore somehow got rasied (it was at 12% Which is 12gigs) What should i change it to, to be a normal amount? I also used disc cleanup to remove all old restore points but the recent one, and I'm back up to 8.63gigs which was the normal amount i had before the infection.

Edited by DarkPhase, 10 December 2010 - 06:06 AM.

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#13
rshaffer61

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I would suggest lowering the allocated space for restore points to 5%. This would open up probably enough then to have the 10% free space.
Also I would suggest taking any pictures, videos, movies off your hd and putting them o another drive or external media.
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#14
DarkPhase

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Ok, So from after doing all that where do we go from here in terms of the recovery console/combo fix.
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#15
rshaffer61

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You need to finish with the malware person and make sure your system is infection free then and only then can we continue.
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