[Hardluck Hank]

I am using a different computer to log this as my main one is FUBAR.

While trying to reboot, it only gets as far as listing the drivers and then automatically reboots. It does this in safe mode (all 3 options) as well, and I can't get into the windows restore either. No matter what mode I boot up in, it gets as far as listing the drivers, and then reboots and starts over. Aaaargh !!

As my computer is an HP Pavillion a362n with OEM installed system (Win XP), I have no system disc to boot off of. However I did have a Norton SystemWorks disk that I could boot from. The strange thing is that normally my CD ROM is J drive. When I got to a command prompt booting off the CD, it said it was A: drive. When I tried to look at C: drive, it pointed to my HP recovery partition drive instead of my normal C: drive and I was unable to locate any other of the HD partitions (my master HD has 4 partitions, and my slave has 2). Furthermore when doing the NAV check, it only search about 9K files, which leads me to believe that all it saw was the HP restore partition.

I have not as yet tried the HP partition system restore as it will go back to day 1 and needless to say many headaches.

Not one of my betters days .... Please help !!

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do you have an OS on the slave drive

[peterm]

do you have an OS on the slave drive

[Hardluck Hank]

No, it's strictly used for data storage.

However, in the mean time, I have borrowed a copy of Win XP Pro (my system is HE), but by using the CD, I have been able to view C: drive, although it doesn't seem to allow running of programs (i.e. Hijack). Apparently C: is still there although the remainder of the partitions for the HD have moved down to J:, K:, and L:

I temporarily disconnected the second HD until the startup probs are solved.

Edited by Hardluck Hank, 06 June 2005 - 10:28 PM.

[peterm]

what did you change before this started to happen
any software hardware or windows updates

Edited by peterm, 06 June 2005 - 10:53 PM.

[Hardluck Hank]

Take note that I edited my previous post.

Mirc was added as SW. I believe it was the only sw. A friend came by this weekend and temporarily added an external HD, but it was removed a couple of hours later. The problems only started occuring upon the next reboot a couple of days later.

I have run chkdsk on the main HD (once I finally got to view C:). The first pass thru, it reported read errors, but when I reran it with the /R option, it seemed to pass everything.

When I reboot selecting the Windows restore option, it displays the black Windows background (which leads me to believe that at least it is beginning to execute out of C:), but then automatically reboots shortly thereafter - similar to how it operates in safe mode.

[peterm]

did you restore the jumpers on the 1st hard drive to be a master with no slave

[peterm]

i would start looking for files(drivers) that the external drive might have installed

[Hardluck Hank]

The jumpers on the drives were set to be self-detecting.

How (where) do I look to find drivers that might have been installed by the external drive?

When my friend added it to the system, it was hot. It was a direct plug and play, and no other CD or diskette was inserted. When he removed the drive, it was also hot. He said that's how it worked on his computer, and at the time it appeared to work fine on mine.

[peterm]

ok drivers must have already been in xp
was this a usb drive

[Hardluck Hank]

Yes

[icyprincess77]

perhaps your hard drive has crashed.

[gerryf]

In safe mode:

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose ADVANCED, choose the SETTINGS button in the Startup And RECOVERY section, and uncheck AUTOMATICALLY RESTART

Now reboot. This will result in the BSOD error...report the STOP ERROR and any parameters.

[Hardluck Hank]

Sorry, Gerry, but I can't even get into safe mode. Perhaps you didn't quite understand the problem. I can opt for any of the three safe mode choices (including safe mode with command prompt) and it starts, lists the drivers, and then reboots before it actually gets into safe mode.

The only mode that it gets a little further than just listing the drivers is windows restore mode (from reboot) in which it lists the drivers, displays the black windows screen with the scrolling bar (which leads me to believe that at least it is executing out of C: drive) and then automatically reboots.

[Hardluck Hank]

Okay, I finally bit the bullet and did a system restore from day 1 using the f10 option of the HP computer which does a system restore from a partition of the HD.

This however, did not solve my problems. Whether I am trying to enter safe mode (any option) or normal mode I get the message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32]hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.


I have no system disk to get to a command prompt (the computer had factory installed OEM software). However, I have a friend who has Windows XP Pro install CD (my computer is HE) but at least I can use it to browse files on the computer. I checked the Windows/system32/ directory and there is a "hal.dll" file - size 127872 bytes. Thus I must assume that the file is corrupt.

Is this file possibly the reason I was unable to get to safe mode before?

Where can I get a copy of the file and is it possible there other files I will need?

[peterm]

can you get to the command prompt now?