Tom's Guide | Tom's Hardware | Tom's Games
 |
 |
 |
A friend gave me the above machine to play with while I study for my A+ exam. I had gotten the thing pretty much into shape when I received the following error messages while booting:
Invalid Boot.ini file Booting from C\WINDOWS
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <system root>\system32\hal.dll
I tried "Last Known Good" from the Boot Menu with no success. I then Googled it, but everything I find says to boot from the Windows CD, and use the repair feature. I do not have the CD; I will try to get it from my friend. If he doesn't have it, am I out of options?Thanks,
Kirk
Anyone's xp home should repair it. Might be an odd issue if you do a repair with a pro cd.
"Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10
0 
You should be able to fix it if your friend has the CD to boot
from. It's a simple find and repair job. If that's not possible,
you might want to look in to repairing the files individually
and restoring them with a floppy disk. I haven't had to do
this with the boot.ini file before so I'm not sure how
applicable that is, but it's a good alternative for those who
are CD-less like me!Have you tried Safe Mode?
0
There are two repairs, one is a reinstall of the OS that preserves the installed apps/data. The other just replaces the registry files.
You would do neither in this case.
You would get your friends cd and boot into recovery console and run the utility bootcfg /rebuild.
You can do this from any version of xp.
You can not do a repair install of xp pro with xp home
You would not want to do a registry file reload of xp home files on a xp pro install.When was the last time this unit was defragged? The usual reason for this error is a severely fragmented drive with key boot files beyond what the boot loader can address.
Replace one file and you will be asked to replace another ad nauseum. It still won't work.
If this is due to fragmentation the only solution is to wipe the drive and reinstall from scratch. Even a repair install can't fix it.
0
Thank you both so much for the replies. Jefro, I happen to have a Compaq of my own which came with XP Home and a "QuickRestore" CD. I was hesitant to use this CD because it is not labled explicitly as a Windows XP Home OS CD. After waiting a day for a possible advisement against this from you, I will try it. KirstyN, I haven't tried Safe Mode because I assumed Safe Mode would require the loading of the OS, which as I understand it, is not possible. I will go ahead and try it, though. Would you mind being a little more explicit about "repairing the files individually and restoring them with a floppy disk"? I don't know how to do that. I think another thing I'll try while waiting to maybe hear back from you all, is my Ultimate Boot CD. I haven't tried anything with that yet.
Thanks again, Kirk
0
Use your own CD and follow the instructions from the following site http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixth...
0
Thank you for the reply, Wanderer. I must have just missed your post. Just to be clear, the machine with the boot problem and my own machine are both XP Home (and both are Compaqs). I had done a defrag of the machine with the boot problem the day before; I don't know how long it had been before the last defrag. I don't mind wiping this machine, but I will not be able to get a hold of the machine's CD; it has been lost. I do, however, have the QuickRestore CD for my machine; I just don't know the lagality of using it on the machine with the problem. In case you're curious, the machine with the problem was very slow, and had 256MB stick of 2700 RAM in it. I went ahead and put in a 256MB stick of 2100 RAM. It booted fine and ran much faster. I then deleted a boatload of programs (Detto InelliMover Demo, DING!, Disney's Lilo & Stitch Pinball, KBD, Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0, Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable, PC-Doctor for Windows, PS2, Python22 combined Win32 extensions, Python 2.2.1, RecordNow, Simple Installer-Multi language Version, Sonic Update Manager, Viewpoint Media Player, and WildTangent Channel Manager). I also tried to delete Indeo Software, but couldn't. I rebooted after this massive removal, and that's when I got the above message.
Thanks,
Kirk
0
Thank you, Tonto for your response. I don't know why Response Number 5 precedes Response Number 6; it wasn't there when I wrote Number 6. Thank you to everybody who helped. I write this last bit to any poor Joe with a Compaq who has the same problem who happens across this post in the future. I wrote Compaq, and they wrote back, saying to start the system and press F10 repeatedly, until the repair screen appears. Apparently, you don't even need the CD they send you with the machine; You can access their cursed overly-proprietary D drive with the pressing of the F10 key. -Thanks, Kirk
0  |
 |
 |
This post is quite old and has been locked from receiving new replies. Please create a new posting instead.
| Ads by Google |
