CRISIS: Cannot startup: Missing/Corrupt dll file

Windows could not start; missing/corrupt file:
<Windows Root>\System32\hal.dll.

At my level of inexperience I don't even know the meaning of the < & >.

I am on HP Pavilion a1350n Media Edition2005 with WinXP SP3. I have Win XP Pro CD which I ran. After installing numerous files it offered choice of I386 or MiniNT. Not having any knowledge of either I arbitrarily selected I386. Tried fresh startup with and then again without CD; in both cases the same "missing/corrupt" message appeared.
Presume I must use Safe Mode but no idea of what to do when I get there.

Will appreciate clear details of just how to find/install the required dll file.
Secondarily I'd be interested in probable cause as means of avoiding repetition.

Thank you. Sincerely,

 

Are you attempting to reinstall XP?

 

If you have installed XP Pro straight into the partition that had XP MCE in it, without formatting it first, then you have trashed your system and it is time to get out your Recovery CD, or Ghost/Acronis rescue disk.

Or is that not what you did?

 

Thanks for prompt reply. Can only hope I have not trashed the system but so far as I know, will only know when the hal.dll file is restored.
As has been said, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Even exaggerating my lack of tech savvy as equivalent to a "little" knowledge.

 

Certainly not intentionally!
I'm simply trying to find the hal.dll file and then trying to find details of installation.

 

The point is, are you trying to replace XP MCE with XP Pro, or are you wanting to install XP Pro as well as MCE?

If the former, you only need to format the MCE drive before proceeding with the Pro install. If the latter then you need to create a new Primary partition for it prior to installation. Windows will then automatically create a dual boot for you. However you would need disk management software to create the necessary partition, as neither XP MCE nor XP Pro can do this unaided, although Vista can.

You will not put this right by trying to find and install hal.dll.

 

Earthling, to repeat, I'm ONLY trying to start/run windows desktop, nothing else. Message preventing my doing so, as you know, simply states need to reinstall that hal.dll file.

As to your comment doing so will not "put this right" I know not, nor do you explain reason. Please don't feel it necessary to do so as I'm alreay well beyond what little competence I have.

 

Hi Tim W and many thanks for most interesting URL. Of course it doesn't provide means of communicating with "Kelly", but very educational as is.

Problem is, and it appears at other locations as well, the solutions identify where to go but not how to get there. Various helpful instructions are for me not accessible. I have only that black screen with its message. He'll say, for example, go to Start and ... I can't get there to begin with!

I've also reviewed several MSN KBs he mentions and found same thing. Do this or do that, but not how I get to be able to do this-or-that.

Apparently my best hope is to copy the hal.dll file from this laptop with VISTA if it's there, to Flash drive. And I don't even know how/where to find it.
Then copy to desktop XP. If the flash drive does not load automatically I'm lost again.

Assuming this gets done, I can only hope it will indeed resolve the issue and I can Start.

 

It is unclear by your posting what you did to get the system in to the state of a missing hal. Did you try to install something? Start a windows install by booting from the install CD? What happened.

What earthling was trying to say was that the chances are pretty darn good that whatever event occurred to cause the hal to go missing has caused some other damage as well. I believe booting from a BartPE disk is in order so you can examine the hard drive on your system.

 

Worse and worser! There is nothing I know of to relate this misfortune to anything which preceded it. I shut down normally several nights ago, and in the morning my routing boot up produced that unwelcome, unknown message.

Never heard of a BartPE disc or where to find it. And the examination following its use is most likely to simply display my ignorance.

 

Before offering any more suggestions can we try and clarify a few things rodell?

- Does this non-booting PC have XP Pro or XP Media Center Edition installed? It just isn't clear which from your post.

- Are you able to boot into the boot options menu, by repeatedly tapping F8 during bootup? If so, you could try Last Known Good Configuration.

- Can you boot from your Pro CD to the Recovery Console? If so, when you get to the command prompt enter chkdsk /f /r <Enter>. This will try to find and correct any disk errors that are present.

 

Earthling, I started my posting with
I am on HP Pavilion a1350n Media Edition2005 with WinXP SP3... and regret you found it unclear. I'll do my best with your other questions.

1. Are you able to boot into the boot options menu, by repeatedly tapping F8 during bootup? If so, you could try Last Known Good Configuration. YES TO BOTH. The Last Good Config brought forth original message re hal.dll, nevertheless.

2. Can you boot from your Pro CD to the Recovery Console? If so, when you get to the command prompt enter chkdsk /f /r <Enter>. This will try to find and correct any disk errors that are present.
UNFORTUNATELY, NO. AND COMMAND PROMPT INACCESSIBLE.

Your help is much appreciated.

 

rodell:

When you boot a Windows CD you get the choice either to install Windows or repair an existing Windows installation. You cannot boot to a desktop from it. As you had run an XP Pro CD after the problem occurred there seemed to be a possibility that you were trying to repair a Pro installation, despite your description of the system in #1. Hence my uncertainty over which system was installed.

From your description of what then happened, and in particular the reference to i386, it seems that XP Pro may have gone ahead and installed itself over the top of your MCE system. I have no idea what the consequences of this might be, but we do know it hasn't made your system bootable.

What is the situation now? Are you still able to boot to your Pro CD, or has that gone down too? If you can still boot to it then by working your way through the repair options you will get to the recovery console, and if you can get to it then I would suggest that in addition to running chkdsk /f /r you also run FIXMBR followed by FIXBOOT. Then try rebooting without the CD.

 

HI -
I am seeing this exact same problem today. When I turn on my Dell Inspiron 1501, instead of booting up, I get this message: System32\Hal.dll missing or corrupt

I boot from the install CD and run Recovery. I enter "bootcfg /rebuild" and get the message "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. Note: This opeation must comlete successfully in order for the /add or /rebuild commands to be utilized."

I type "chkdsk" and get a message stating "The volume appears to be in good condition and was not checked. Use /p if you want to check the volume anyway."

However, the "/p" command is not a recognized command.

So, am at a loss of how to resolve this. Prior to attempting to start my machine this a.m., I had done nothing unusal. Nothing new installed. Nothing deleted. Just checked e-mail. So no idea why today I'm seeing this error and unable to get in. Cannot even get in via Safe Mode, as when I try this, I go to black screen and the same dll error message.

While booting from install CD I tried this in the Recovery Console...

Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot

But only received "system cannot find the file or directory specified" after entering the first line of code (the line beginning with Attrib).

If anyone has a resolution to this problem (aside from completely reinstalling Windows), I'd really appreciate it. I have a lot of work files (and work) to be done this weekend and am just in limbo now.
Thanks!
CR

 

rodell:

You probably already know all this stuff, but it may help, (courtesy M$) -

Starting the Windows Recovery Console from the Windows XP CD-ROM

Insert the Windows XP CD into your CD drive and restart your computer. If you are prompted, select any options required to start (boot) from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts. Select the repair or recover option by pressing R.

When you are prompted, type the Administrator password (if you haven't set one just press Enter)
At the command prompt, type Recovery Console commands (refer to #14)
At any time, you can type Help commandname for help on a specific command. For example, you can type help attrib to display the help on the attributes command.
At any time, you can exit Windows Recovery Console by typing Exit at the command line.

chad-roscoe:
/p means chkdsk /p

 

I do appreciate your response, but unfortunately it is unworkable. Cannot get past the Missing/Corrupt hal.dll message no matter what or from where. Only F8 allows access and many of the 14 items thereon, including the three Safe Modes, when selected only produce that same original Missing message.

 

Well, you're a lot better off than I am. Go to ABOUT and you'll find a weath of useful info including, but not limited to Kelly's Korner. And if you don't have your 25 digit Product Key, try FREE Magical Jelly Bean (or whatever correct spelling is -- it will be found at ABOUT).

 

Unfortunately Eathling, no change from my earlier report that whether from the CD or C drive, only result is appearance of that same Missing/Corrupt hal.dll file.

I'm trying to accept need for clean system recovery using those 3 HP System Recovery discs but still a ways to go --- particularly with the mixed bag of backups accumulated over the past 4 years! To retain what's there will cost $145 plus from CompUSA where I bought the PC, but as may take anywhere from 4-20 hours, and is about 50 miles away, the alternative is not very enticing.

 

mmm...well, if it can't boot your XP CD it may not boot your recovery disk either. Does your hard disk look ok in BIOS?

 

Not having the least idea how to find out anything about BIOS, cannot answer.
Tell me what to do and I'll do it!

Is there a way to copy contents, run System Recovery, reinstall contents? My hodgepodge collection of CD backups are useless.

At this discouraging point, is there any alternative to loosing the 4-yrs of data/programs?

Cordially,

 

If you are not familiar with the BIOS then I suggest we skip that for the time being. Can I suggest you try to boot to your recovery disk, simply to ascertain whether it is possible. Don't proceed with the restoration though, not yet anyway. If this works there might still be a chance of recovering your system.

Don't be too down though. Even if it ends up needing a new hard disk you will still be able to install XP Pro and gain access to your backups.

 

Thanks yet again, Earthling.
I grasp at your encouragement as the proverbial drowning man at a straw.
Not at my computer -- we leave for 6 mos Europe mid-week -- so schedule a bit crowded. Will try boot and advise ASAP.

No uncertainty re the 3 HP MediaCenter2005 System Recovery discs, but apprehensive as to the MSN XP PRO disc in view of your comments re compatibility with MEDIA edition.
As you probaby know, latter is a version unique to HP, being neither PRO nor HOME.

Cordially,

 

ADDENDUM: Somehow I missed this message and now do not find it (reCD):
"...running chkdsk /f /r you also run FIXMBR followed by FIXBOOT..."
As noted I cannot run chkdsk or FIXMBR, or for that mattrer, anything at all. Cordially,

 

I look forward to hearing it has booted OK.

Don't worry about possible incompatibilities - my earlier comments related to problems that might arise when installing XP Pro over the top of an existing MCE installation, but we wouldn't be doing that again.

Media Centre Edition 2005 isn't unique to HP btw. I have it here on a Medion.

 

Earthling, that's the first time I've seen anything other than the hal.dll catastrophe!
Press F to format ....All data will be lost
Press Q to Quit thisw menu.
You can guess my immediate next move. (No, not the Q; EJECT. Taking no chances!)

Cordially,

 

Good - that's answered a couple of key questions - that your BIOS is still set to boot first from the CD/DVD drive and that the drive is working. My guess is that if you had pressed F you would just have got the hal.dll message again, but we won't temp fate just atm!

We do need now to get into the BIOS to see whether your hard drive is being recognised. The BIOS is a programmable chip which sets up your hardware before Windows starts to load. It is accessed by repeatedly tapping a function key or the Del key immediately after powering on. Your screen will briefly tell you which F key is for Setup, but if you can't see it try Del first and if that doesn't work try F2.

When the BIOS screen appears you will need to use the arrow and Enter keys to move around and we are looking for something called a Primary IDE Master. If you can find it and highlight it press Enter and with a bit of luck we will get a screen ful of info about it - things like Cylinders, Heads, Capacity and much more. See how you get on and try and give as much feedback as possible about what you are seeing. I often use a camera for this sort of thing and just post the pics, but otherwise it's a pen and paper job I'm afraid.

 

No luck, Earthling (as if luck has anything to do with it). Tried them all: F2 which is SetUp; Delete key; F10; Function key. Same miserable result, the hal.dll message.
Am reminded of the F8 which does, or did, bring up the screen with those enticing 14 items including 3 Safe Modes. Each and every one just brought forth the hal.dll original.

What now? Cordially,

 

If we can't boot from the hard drive or the optical drive, and can't even get into the BIOS we're stuffed I'm afraid my friend. I can only speculate that you've got a mainboard failure somewhere, possibly in the BIOS chip itself. Whatever, I can't think of anything else we can try to bring that system back to life.

The good news may be that the hard disk itself is still OK, in which case much, if not all that's on it may be recoverable. You would probably need some expert help with that though.

Wish we could have sent you off to France with better news.

 

Hi Rodell - I went thru this whole post and seen that you are having a heck of a time. I searched a bit and maybe this link will help.... http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/restorehaldll.htm

Let us know if this helps. KathyM

 

Hi KathyM. Appreciate your efforts to help. As I believe I mentioned in one of my replies, ABOUT (and the URL there which you referenced) is a gold mine.

Unfortunately I've run through several programs accessed from there but not successfully. Variety of reaso0ns having to do with inability to get to ST^ART, let alone CMD function; differences between MSN XP PRO CD & HP MEDIA2005 edition; constan t return to the hal.dll missing/corrupt message regardless of Safe Mode or any of the dozen enticing options on that screen; inability to get F2 SETUP or from any other key.

The last resort short of complete system recovery is BOOTIT NEXT GENERATION which I mention in case it can/will help other fellow-Geeks. Cordially,

 

Hey rodell, you never mentioned this before! The BING CD is what we should have been trying to boot, not the XP Pro CD.

 

So do I! But no less grateful for your efforts. Check out BOOTIT NG although I find it beyond my competence to carry out the program. Cordially,

 

I understand it's a very capable program, but I've always used Acronis, also very capable.

 

I'm well beyond confusion as it is, never mind Acronis!
Missed your BING CD, supposedly one of my discs. What is it?
Whatever, I'm sure it would not boot the desktop no matter what.
We're off to our home in France. Do you visit from UK during the summer?

Cordially,

 

Earthling, that's the first time I've seen other than the hal.dll catastrophe!
Press F to format ....All data will be lost
Press Q to Quit this menu.
You can guess my immediate next move. (No, not the Q; EJECT. Taking no chances!)

spam link removed

 

No plans to this year. ATM we're ticketed for Mexico May 7 would you believe :eek - though that will surely get cancelled now.

I still think your comp is rescuable - give it to a local geek to play around with

 

Sorry I couldn't help you Rodell I do wish you a nice holiday though

 

Stay away from that Swine Flu, Earthling!
And just what is that BING CD?

As a final contribution to my despair, along comes our colleague fifisan's "Press Q to Quit thisw new york escort menu" How that got in there I know not, but perhaps it does raise some possibilities.

 

It's spam and I've asked the mods to bin it, along with another. If you've clicked on it you might have picked up something nasty - and I'm not talking about a STD Do some scans to be sure you're clean.

BING is the acronym for Bootit Next Generation. As you'd referred to it late in the day I assumed you actually had it and might have made some backup images with it. My mistake.

 

I not only didn't click it, I never saw it.

Only found out about BING recently, and it's implementation is far beyond me. I don't understand any of their 16 files, much less, what to do with them. Cordially,