Message comes up during boot. Following file missing or corrupt, Hal.dll, please re-install file etc etc. I know this isn't a major problem as you replace the file from the xp cd. The problem I have is that I cant get into the Recovery section from the cd. It loads the files but as soon as it says Windows is starting up it stops/hangs. Have tried this 5 times. Have got genuine copy of XP home and also borrowed copy of XP prof. It hangs with both CD's. Even used Fix-it to get into the command line to type the instructions to tell the laptop to get Hal.dll from the xp cd but it doesn't want to know. Every command I type the laptop says invalid or not recognised and I have typed "verbatim" every command I can find from the internet including Windows own help instructions, but nothing works. Is the hard drive goosed? Many thanks for any replies.

Can I just add, even the fdisk and format commands do nothing when typed in the C prompt. And like I say, I have tried all the usual ones, bootcfg, rebuild, fixboot, del boot, attrib, i386 hal.dl to C:system32 etc etc. dave t.

Did your computer come with a "Recovery" disk? Is that the CD you are trying to boot from? Some computers need special drivers (for RAID or SATA drives among other things). If you try to boot into recovery console from a CD other than the one that came with your computer, these drivers will not be present, and the computer will freeze. -Ryan Adams Computer Tips, Guides, Downloads, and more:http://RyanTAdams.com

advent 7081 http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/... I see by the info in that this is an older model. It probably has an IDE hard drive. The Recovery procedures mentioned do not apply unless you still have the orginal software installation on the hard drive, with it's two partitions, and the data on the second one is undamaged and as it was originally. ..... That message is usually false - even if you manage to replace hal.dll that usually does NOT fix the problem. It probably does indicate there's something wrong with the software on the hard drive, and that can also indicate the hard drive is starting to fail, however. .... You need to determine whether the hard drive is defective first thing, otherwise other efforts may be a waste of time. Check your hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostics. See the latter part of response 1 in this: http://www.computing.net/windows95/... (thanks to Dan Penny for this link:) Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm... If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer if you need to. ..... You may be having problems with the optical drive reading the CD because it's laser lens is dirty. Eject the optical drive tray and clean the laser lens on it if you can then see it on the tray, with a Q-tip or whatever. If the laser lens is inside the laptop, use a laser lens cleaning CD, or a Q-tip on a long stick and use good lighting. .... "The problem I have is that I cant get into the Recovery section from the cd. It loads the files but as soon as it says Windows is starting up it stops/hangs." I'm assuming you do NOT still have the original software on the hard drive. If you DO, you can still try the Recovery Console procedure in the following if your boot with a regular CD, but you may NOT see the "Repair your existing windows installation" or similar option. Also, the original Windows XP without SP1 or SP2 updates does not have that option, at least it doesn't on original XP CDs I have tried. Either your descriptions are poor, or you are not going about it the right way. You have to boot using the CD. The Recovery Console is usually what you need to try going to first. You boot using the regular Windows CD, the initial files are loaded by Setup, then when it asks you if you want to Repair Windows, you press R. That takes you to the black screen interface called the Recovery Console (there is no title there). You don't see "Windows is starting ..." unless you do NOT press R at that point, you continue on to Setup, and you either run a regular Setup, or you "Repair your existing Windows installation " or similar (many call that a "Repair lnstall", but I think it's more appropriate to call it a "Repair Setup" because what it is actually doing is running Setup again, without deleting most of the existing contents of the hard drive), then, in either case, you don't see "Windows is starting ..." until AFTER a lot of files are loaded from the CD and the computer reboots. If there is something physically or electronically wrong with the hard drive, or if you are trying to run a "Repair Setup" and there is too much data damage on the hard drive, you may very well get a freeze at that point. If you want to try to preserve the existing data on your hard drive, you either use the Recovery Console interface and try typing some commands, or you use use the "Repair an existing Windows installation" or similar option. A regular Setup procedure will delete all the data from the C partition. We can supply directions for commands you can try in the Recovery Console, or for running a "Repair Install" or "Repair Setup" procedure, but your hard drive must be physically and electronically okay. If it isn't you MAY be able to recover some of the data from it, but it is best to replace the drive.

RTAdams89, no it didn't come with a recovery disk. It was a cheap, on offer, "christmas" model from a very large UK computer chain. I just got it for my kid to do her homework on a few years back. Tubesandwires, it won't go into Setup even if I try to. No amount of pressing R will do anything. It does say on the task bar right at the bottom of the screen, "windows is starting" or "starting windows", something like that. But like I said, once it reaches this point it just stops. It won't continue to setup even if I leave it alone. It loads the files it needs as normal, then stops and the cd drive stops spinning too. So I can't even do a clean install. Very frustrating. You've given me loads of info though so I'll work my way through you're suggestions. Many thanks to both of you.

Download the hard drive diagnostics, install them on a floppy or a burned CD, run the diagnostics. (Note that if it has a Toshiba drive there are none available) The Recovery Console or whatever Recovery software was installed built into the original software that is often on computers that still have their original software will often not work properly in a situation like this. You need to try booting with - from - the regular Windows CD in that case - that should work fine. If it doesn't..... - the boot order in your bios Setup is set wrong. In order to be able to boot from a bootable CD, the CD drive does not necessarily have to be listed first, but it must be listed before the hard drive in boot order settings. If you can set it this way - floppy first, CD second, hard drive third - that works in all situations for most people's use, and you don't have to change it. In all the bios Setups I've tried it in , if you can list CD, then floppy, then hard drive, a bootable floppy is not recognized while booting. - there's something wrong with the optical drive.