<windows root>\system32\hal.dll

i keep getting the messege... <windows root>\system32\hal.dll file is corrupt or missing, and needs to be replaced ? ?? ?? ? ?

can anyone help me please.... re-formatting is out of the question, as it is my work PC and has all of my valuable work on it ???? is there sumway that i can transfer wot's on my HDD onto another PC, and then back up all of my files/??

i am not that computer literate so i need an idiots guide!!!!!!!

Please help me!!!!!

1. Place your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and Reboot your PC

2. XP's setup program will automatically start and files will be loaded to memory

3. When you reach the Welcome to Setup screen choose the Repair option by pressing R

4. This will start the Recovery console and the list of Windows installations will appear

5. As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1

6. Type in your Administrator password. If you are using Windows XP Home edition the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter

7.Now type bootcfg/list

8. A list will now appear of all the entries in your boot.ini file

9. Next type bootcfg/rebuild

10. Your boot.ini file should now be repaired

11. Finally remove your XP CD from the CD-ROM and then type Exit

12. Reboot your machine to see if the the problem has been cured

Just a few modification.

When appears the recovery console,
type

Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini (press enter) // To make the boot.ini easy to edit
DEL C:\Boot.ini (press enter) // delete the faulty boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild (enter) // rebuild boot.ini
Fixboot (enter)
Exit (enter)

ok, I've done everything that I was told...including something left out...the fact that I had to access the BIOS by hitting the "delete" key when the message first appeared telling me that the "hal.dll" file was missing or corrupt..and set the boot priority to the CD drive...I've gotten to the point where it says, hit "R" for recovery, and I do that...then it asks me for my administrator password...simply hitting "enter" does not work....and using the administrator password that I have set, and have Always used, does not work either? so as my name implies, I would love to know "Now What?" lol....I have used the same password since I bought this comp....but for some reason it won't take it now...I can't afford to lose all my stuff...and I'm pretty much a novice...please! help me!!

Somethings fishy an admin password not working i have herd of this but not in this situation as i have fixed the hal.dll and had no problems. sounds like someone messed up something they shouldn't have and are in trouble unless they get it fixed

Always try to keep the password recovery disk.

Ok, first of all, nothing is fishy, this is my HOME computer, and only I use it...second of all....i don't feel like losing the 100 + ORIGINAL songs that I have recorded with no way of EVER duplicating them again...yes, I know, I'm a damn fool for not backing them all up....some of them have been burned to disc, but many, many have not....I'm not trying to break into someone's work computer, if that's what you are implying, and to further illustrate that I am not clever enough to be breaking into someone's computer illicitly, I don't even know what is meant by a "password recovery disk".....so I would like to ask again, is there anyway I can bypass the admin password section...as the ONE and ONLY admin password I have EVER used, does not work....believe me I am PISSED that this is the case, because if it DID work like it SHOULD i think i would be able to recover everything......someone I work with said because i unplugged the computer while it was writing to the disk, it may have corrupted my password....is that so unlikely? i think it is VERY likely...as this MUST be what happened....otherwise, why wouldn't it work??.....Please help me if you can tell me a way I can recover my information, but don't tell me "something's fishy" because that just gets me irritated when I am the ONLY person in the WORLD entitled to access this computer, and I'm the ONLY person in the WORLD who can't!!! LOL!!
I hope I don't come across too angry, but It's annoying to have people misjudge you..instead of helping.....sorry....

OK, I feel you are at a total loss.

Windows XP allows every user to make a floppy disk to reset the password for his account(for not hacking into others computers but to reset your own password when you have forgotten and obviously this cant be used on another machine). You can make it by Control Panel>User Acounts> Click your username and click "Prevent a forgotten password".

Well stating this now of course wont recover you from this state you are in. I just tried to make you known about some precautionary measure to be taken before such situation.

I think this is your solution
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;308402

You should take into considertation this also for future reference(when you upgrade to Windows XP from a previous version)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;318026

Thank you for your help, I will check out the links you gave me, and see if it helps...The thing that is different about my situation, is that I have always had Windows XP on this computer....I never tried to upgrade from Windows 98,.....this only happened to me when I was shutting down my computer....i thought that it had finished shutting down, and I unplugged it to avoid it getting fried in a severe thunderstorm that we were having..when I turned it on the next day, I received the <Windows root> system 32 hall.dll missing or corrupt message....I read in a message board somewhere, that someone else had this problem due to a power failure.....but Thank You for trying to help.....I'll let you know how I make out....

He's not at a loss. Unless he encrypted the hard drive.

Take the hard drive out, put it into a friends computer and search through and grab all your mp3s, pron and personal files and save them on a CD/DVD/extra hard drive/whatever. Reload windows, insert cd/dvd/etc and reload your files onto the computer. Then invest in Norton Ghost & a data backup solution.

I tried to get microsoft to help, but they just referred me to Dell...i'll call Dell tomorrow, so that I can be on the phone for 2 hours just to find out that they can't help me, but I was just wondering ....if I take out the hard drive and put it in a friends computer, won't i have the same problem? without the administrator password working correctly, won't I still be unable to access my files? or would I use his drive to probe into mine? forgive me, but like i said, i'm a novice....I have a friend who might be able to help, but I would need more details before we even attempted something like this...

You take the hard drive out and just copy the data you don't want to lose off of it. You do not need the administrator password for that.

Then, replace your hardrive into your computer and format and reload with Windows. Then replace your data on your computer from your friends computer (Burn some CD's or DVD's).

Then invest in Norton Ghost and some DVD or Tape backup solution.


Invest in an External Enclosure that fits the type of Hard Drive you have. You put your drive into it and hook it to a working computer via a USB or firewire cable
There you can see all of your files and you can make a backup of the entire drive if you wanted to. I usually have an extra drive that I clone my install onto so I can easily reload my computer.

Any help is appreciated.

I have been working on computers for a long time, but this one has me stumped. I noticed this post, and decided to look for someone else who may have a solution.

My problem is the same, "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll"

I have re-installed numerous times, and tried all of the posted fixes, but nothing is a permanent fix, and the problem re-arrises.

I have narrowed down when the problem develops each time I re-install. I first install Windows XP Pro, and delete the previous Windows Directory, and shut down and boot multiple times - no probs.

I then install the video drivers and windows xp updater, and shutdown and reboot multiple times - no probs.

I then install the critical updates (not SP2), then the problem occurs.

I am sure that it has something to do with one of the updates, but I am not sure which one, or why. I will continue with a re-install, and each time, only install one of the windows updates until I figure out at least which one is giving me the headaches. In the meantime, if anyone could help me shed some light, I would appreciate it.

I have also noticed that the hal.dll files are different sizes after the update. I personally do not believe that this problem has anything to do with the hal.dll file, but some configuration file.

FYI:
I am running a brand new AMD Semprion 2600 (Because it was cheap) with MSI Mother board
I am running FAT32 on a WD 200Gb HDD
I have run MEM86 to test 512Mb brand new DDR 400 mem
I have run CHKDSK /p
I have copied hal.dll from the installation disk
I have run fixboot, fixmbr, and bootcfg /rebuild

I keep getting the same message!

when I hit F8 it goes to Windows Advanced Options Menu, but when I select an option, it goes right back to the <windows root>\system32\hal.dll file is corrupt or missing..

I can't find my backup disk!

Can someone please tell me what is wrong and what I can do?

Imanovice