XP recovery problem

Basically, I have a pc that will not boot due to a problem involving hal.dll. I believe that the XP recovery disc that came with the pc would be the best method to fix it, but I do not have it as it has been lost through the years.

I have been looking into different options, but I do not have a floppy drive so I cannot download boot disks, I do however have a CD/DVD drive, but I am yet to find a solution.

If any downloading needs to be done, I would prefer as little as possible as I am currently alternating between using free wireless at the pub and next door.

 

If you can borrow a XP CD from someone you can boot your PC from that. Then use the borrowed CD to run a chkdsk. And this is legal - in case you're wondering.

 

I actually managed to find a program that I burned as an image to dick that allowed me to enter the recovery console, chkdsk tells me there are errors and it can't run, trying to expand the hal.dll file from the disk gives me an access denied error.

Basically none of the suggestions I have read online have worked, it looks like I am going to have to find a proper XP disk from somewhere and do a fresh install.

 

It is worth you reading microsofts explanation/help.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/945380/en-us

But I would check your hard drive, as when chkdsk /r does not work, it is possible that the errors are hard disk related (going to sleep for good)- so, run through microsofts help page, and if you can connect your hard drive as a slave to another computer, you could try chkdsk /r from that computer to see if it can be repaired with the software touch.If you have data on ther , you can use the slave drive method to copy it over.
Come back if you need more help, someone will usually try to help.