I was playing around on my computer drunk this one night and i noticed that my taskbar was missing .. out of teh blue so itried to restore back to recent working configuration but that didnt work so i said phuck it and tried a clean install and this is where it messes up after it installs on its own .. didnt ask me a which partioned or anything boots up and installs now im giving windows teh FuH-Q sign language in its cheap paper box when i to get into XP now it gives me "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt \system32\hal.dll" Now when i try to boot up from the installation CD trying all these options; -safe mode with command prompt -enable boot logging -enable VGA mode -Last known good configuration(your most recent settings that worked) -directory service restore mode(windows domain controllers only) -debugging mode i get the log in menu but it says guest and admin but when i try to log onto either of them it tells me this "The system cannot log on due to the following error: The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted Please try again or consult your system administrator" its wierd cause i never had to log in before like that ive also tried to use those 6 floppy boot up but on the 3rd one it says it cannot install can someone help me out or should i just buy a new hdd?

Sober up.. and reinstall all over again

uSr Don't forget to see the 'To Boot from CD - Press any Key" Then you can Partition\Format and do your Clean Install As G says - it pays to be stone cold sober when doing this! Lesley

well yah thats what im trying to do is reinstall didnt you read the post anyways when i do the 6 floppy boot up for xp it gives me this on the 3rd disk "file setupdd.sys could not be loaded error code is 7 setup cannot continue press any key to exit" any1 got any ideas or software even to blow xp off my hd because ive only recently installed it and maybe using it for a week after i installed all the software and mainboard drivers so i have everything already backed up

Ahhhh so sorry .. thanks lesley for the help i overlooked that i had 1st boot from floppy 2nd boot from hdd 3rd boot from cdrom so i switched those and its booting from the cd now thanks for your help

Like i said.. get sober first