hal.dll corrupt - xp recovery help

[Banshee]

Ugh, more comp problems.

hd locked up, restarted, bad clusters on scan.

Restarted again, hal.dll missing or corrupt

looked up some info on google, can't copy the file from cd using xp recovery, more errors

looks like i'll have to format, though there is a lot of stuff I can't lose. How can I copy entire folders from C: to D: using xp recovery?

[RoundEye]

I don't much about the XP recovery, but when a hal dll becomes corrupt it's a real pain in the ass. You could always reinstall without a format, move your data over to the other partition, then do a fresh format.

A trick to forcing a hal reinstall is to go into your bios and disable anything to do with ACPI. A lot of times this will cause windows to reinstall almost all of the hardware, when you reboot. You might be able to get away without a format.

[Banshee]

Originally posted by RoundEye
I don't much about the XP recovery, but when a hal dll becomes corrupt it's a real pain in the ass. You could always reinstall without a format, move your data over to the other partition, then do a fresh format.


Doesn't give me the option, because of errors it says I must format

[Humboldt]

http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:3xDYKmFTclIJ:sft-cyber.com/hal.htm+hal.dll+corrupt&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[Humboldt]

from another site...

This situation occurs when setting up a dual boot situation with Windows 2000 and Windows XP (it may occur with other setups). After Windows XP's install routine has finished copying files, and is ready to boot to the GUI portion of SETUP, you may receive the above error.
One possible fix. So far, this has been traced to an incorrect BOOT.INI file. To gain access to the Boot.ini:
Go to Start/Run and type in: msconfig. Then go to the Boot.ini Tab. Or...Right click the My Computer icon/Properties/
Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings/System Startup/Edit.

How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp

This user had 1 hard drive, partitioned into C and D drives. His BOOT.INI file looked like this: (the erroneous lines are in "blue")

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

The 3 in the erroneous lines, above, points to the 3rd partition on the first physical hard disk. Since this user only had 2 partitions, this value was incorrect. Changing the value to 2, in both lines, allowed the user to complete Windows XP's setup.

The corrected BOOT.INI looked like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer

HAL is Microsoft's abbreviation for the Hardware Abstraction Layer, the technology and drivers that let the Windows NT, 2000, and XP operating systems communicate with your PC's hardware. HAL is one of several features--along with the NT file system (NTFS) that replaced the much less secure MS-DOS--that make NT-based operating systems more secure and reliable than Windows 95, 98, and Me.

HAL prevents applications from directly accessing your PC's system memory, CPU, or hardware devices (such as video and sound cards)--a method that can prevent many device conflicts and crashes. Unfortunately, HAL sometimes also slows or stops DOS games and programs, which need to load their own memory managers or control hardware directly for better performance.

With HAL in the way, developers must rewrite or even abandon their older software in favor of newer, HAL-compatible versions. Microsoft has pressured hardware makers to provide or support technologies such as MMX, DirectX, and 3D graphics language OpenGL, all of which allow fast but indirect access to the advanced high-performance features of video, sound, and CPU hardware. Such access also makes for a better visual experience when using Windows for Web and productivity applications; improved

[Humboldt]

yet another site:

http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/66538.html

[Banshee]

I looked through most of that already.

When I try something like this: 2. Try running bootcfg/ rebuild from the console from here: http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:3xDYKmFTclIJ:sft-cyber.com/hal.htm+hal.dll+corrupt&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

I get this error:

Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file system, which would prevent bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors.

And when I run chkdsk, I get this:

The volume appears to contain one or more unrecoverable problems.

:confused:

[RoundEye]

You may be hosed, but keep trying. If all else fails, take the drive out, slave it to another PC, get your data off, start over with a new drive and install.

[Sid]

From my experience your going to have to reinstall. just chose the option of reinstalling without a format. You will have to reinstall your apps but your data will be intack.

[Banshee]

Originally posted by Sid
From my experience your going to have to reinstall. just chose the option of reinstalling without a format. You will have to reinstall your apps but your data will be intack.

As I said above, I can't do that. It doesn't give me the option because of errors.

:(

also I don't have access to another pc right now, only this laptop so I can't move the drive

[Sid]

Any chance there's multiple partitions on the drive?

[Grimson]

know someone with a pc ?? Take the drive to them slave it and burn it. Pain in the ass yes, but you cansave your ****.

[Banshee]

Update...

I tried everything, looks like the drive itself is dead.

I wasn't even able to format it, it just sat there at 0% making grinding noises.

craptacular.

[Norm]

Last resort....

Get another PC ready to slave it to.

Put it in the freezer for an hour or so.

Take it out, slave it to the "ready" PC, and get your data ASAP.

[Humboldt]

I was going to mention the freezer trick too as a last resort...have never tried it but heard positive things from several knowledgable (sp?) people.

[Norm]

I have a 20 GB Quantum HD that goes into grinding mode every so often. I shutdown, and wiggle the IDE cable, and/or reconnect it a few times, and luckily the drive works again. But, it does the same thing again in a few days.

I attribute it to a lose connection somewhere in the HD, not really sure, but keep trying, you may just get lucky on one attempt (as a slaved drive, just to get your important data)

[Banshee]

It's completly dead. The freezer didn't work.

I wasn't able to get any of my files off of it, though it's not a total loss as I have somewhat recent backups.

So I just ran over to Best Buy and bought a 40GB WD and reinstalled Windows.

It was an IBM Deskstar btw

[Blisster]

you might try making a ghost image of the drive and later when possible restoring the image to a working drive that you can copy your important data from. I had that same problem not too long ago.