[pors]

Hope someone can help me. I have a Dell running Windows XP. I ran Hijack and was told on the Dell forums that I have a Nail Infection and received instructions on how to fix it. Unfortunately, I turned off my computer and attempted to reboot. Now I cannot start normally or even in safe mode. I get the following message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
windows root\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file"

I'm a novice at this and don't know what to do next. I'm typing this on another computer since I can do nothing on mine. Can anyone help me? Thanks!

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try this first

Boot from your windows CD and follow the directions to start Recovery Console.

at the prompt, type

Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini

rename C:\Boot.ini c:\boot.bak
enter

then
BootCfg /Rebuild
enter

then
Fixboot
enter

[gerryf]

try this first

Boot from your windows CD and follow the directions to start Recovery Console.

at the prompt, type

Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini

rename C:\Boot.ini c:\boot.bak
enter

then
BootCfg /Rebuild
enter

then
Fixboot
enter

[pors]

Thanks for your help - hopefully I have resolved this problem and can go on to removing the other junk that is causing me problems.