boot.ini or hal.dll ?????

---RUNNING XP PRO---

Hello all.. (great site by the way).. anyhow.. here is my problem.. I ran combofix.exe (because i'm trying to get rid of a malware problem) and once my system went to reboot, I was encountered with an error:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll

But right before this screen I can see a command saying Invalid boot.ini. (but it quickly changes to the hal.dll problem)..

I've tried to run recovery console & when I'm asked to select which windows installation I would like to log onto.. I only have the following options:

1: c:\MiniNT
2: c:\I386

I would greatly appreciate any help from here! Thank you in advance :confused

 

The missing Hal.dll error will be displayed if the system is looking in the wrong partition (as specified in boot.ini) for the system files.

Since you can get to the recovery console

use the bootcfg /rebuild command.

You can scan without changing anything first if you like

bootcfg /scan

This will list the proper paths to all NT operating systems.

You can then manually edit boot.ini using the console.

 

thanks for responding! .. these are the options i have at recovery:
1: c:\MiniNT
2: c:\I386

Well I ran a bootcfg /scan on both choices and the result was:

Error: failed to successfully scan disks for windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrut file system, which could prevent bootcfg from scanning.Use chkdsk to detact any errors. (which i did and says the volume is in good cond.)

 

You should try this:http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp
Good Luck!!!
PS: READ THE PAGE VERY CAREFULLY!!!!!

 

Ahhh yes, the good old "Repair Windows in 8 steps". Excellent idea. As stated above, read thru the steps completely and carefully before proceeding. Print it out for reference if at all possible. Also for reference, a standard Windows XP Pro boot.ini file should look EXACTLY like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


If your hard drive has more than one partition, then you'd have to change the file accordingly. More info about the boot.ini file can be found here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314081/en-us