windows root>\system32\hal.dll.

[kevob215]

pc,s just coming on with a black screen saying windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.

any help would be appreciated. i dont have a windows back up cd either

[chroma]

OOOOOooooh HAL.dll is the "Hardware Abstraction Layer" its essentialy the file that allows windows to talk to your hardware.

Without a windows CD my next port of call would be to download a copy of the hal.dll for my windows version and copy that over the one in system32 from a linux boot cd.
Theres several verions floating around on google, just download the one thart suits and rewrite your old one and pray its just corruption instead of a hdd failure or a missing config file somewhere (missing config in this scenario would be difficult to diagnose)

Seriously though if you can borrow a CD from someone and get into the recovery console you only need to type:

expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll

and that will fix it.

[kevob215]

thanx chroma.i,m borrowing a cd from someone in work. once i get it i,ll try typing in what u said. will i lose any pics, music or data files with this fix?

[chroma]

nope ou shouldnt loose anyrhing if it was just a corrupt file.

All the fix does is copies the file from the install cd to system32
This means that its the correct file and not some random virus from the internet your installing.

[kevob215]

thanx again. will keep u posted!!

[kevob215]

Ive got hold of a xp pro cd but cant find the recovery console required to enter fix.
I can get into system info but thats all.

[mindcrime]

put the cd in and change the bios so pc boots from cd . Once it has started it will ask you if you want to repair a previous version of windows, try that . If not you can always rebuild and recover data from the drive .

[chroma]

slap in the disk, make sure the bios will boot from the CD fist and not the hdd.

Wait for it to do its thing and you will be prompted to press ENTER to setup or R to repair.

press R and then select Repair using the Recovery Console.

[kevob215]

i,ve changed the boot sequence so that cd rom is number 1,floppy drive num 2 and sata hard drive num 3. inserted disk and get same message. i,ve gone into win advanced options menu using f8 selected enable boot logging, and that just says windows (default). HELP!!!

[chroma]

your computer should power on, perform a post then pop up an option asking you to press enter or something to boot from CD.

Then it should go all blue and load up stuff like drivers and such then pop up with the option to either install windows or repair.