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trouble with dual boot Win7 / Winxp pro


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#1
sportspeddler1

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Hello,

Well I had to format my HD so in the process I am attempting to set up my computer to dual boot into Win 7 and Win XP pro. I first installed Win XP pro, set up some additional partitions, then installed Win 7 in a different partition. Everything was OK at that point. I was able to boot into Both versions. I went back into Win 7 and started to install all the updates, drivers, etc. When I tried to boot back into XP I was not able to and got 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 attempted to repair hal.dll from the command promt in Windows 7 using the expand command and copying it from the Windows XP install disk to the system32 file in my Windows XP partition. (Hopefully I didnt screw anything up by doing that.) Well that did not work and I am still getting the same message when I attempt to boot into XP. I figured I would look for some help on here rather than try something else that might make things worse.

Thank you in advance for your help.
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#2
Ztruker

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From a Windows 7 Elevated Command Prompt, run chkdsk /r against the XP boot partition.

Look in Computer on Windows 7 to see what the drive letter for XP is. If for exam-ple. it's E: then you would enter

chkdsk e: /r
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#3
sportspeddler1

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I ran chkdsk /r and it came back that chkdsk found no problems. Got the same error message when I tried to boot into XP.
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#4
Ztruker

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Did you run it against the correct drive though? What was the actual command you entered?
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#5
sportspeddler1

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Coincidentally, I have XP installed on my e drive just like your example so the command I entered was exactly like your example. chkdsk e: /r
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#6
Ztruker

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Okay, thanks.

I wonder if it could be a messed up boot.ini? See if you can fix it, see here: How To Repair or Replace Boot.ini in Windows XP
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#7
sportspeddler1

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That did the trick and I was able to boot back into Windows XP!! Yay!!! Do you have a recommended way to get rid of the incorrect boot option that shows up now when I boot up and have it boot directly into the boot option that works?
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#8
Ztruker

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Control Panel, System.
Advanced tab.
Click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery.
Click the Edit button.

Look at the default line, will be something like this:

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

Now remove the line under Operating Systems that does not match it.
Press Ctrl+S or click File then Save.

That should do it.
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#9
sportspeddler1

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Well that was kind of scarry, but I did it and it worked. Thank you again. Unfortunately, starting another thread with another problem re. PCI Controller. Frazzled here, but seem to be taking baby steps toward getting up and running again.

Thank you ZTruker
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#10
Ztruker

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I posted a link to this thread in your new one along with some info.
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