[RESOLVED] XP will not boot: Invalid Partition Table

also...does the mbrfix command area on reatogo help for this...if so what do i type there???

Afraid I'm not familiar with " reatogo".

Ok

I played around with all....I still have the loop between "HP system Recovery" and the HP splash screens..... but now when I hit F8 I can get the safemode screen.

When I try to launch safe mode or any mode like last known config that worked...i get a new message: <windows root>\system32\hall.dll imissing or corrupt, please reneter.....

How do I re-enter and all

A hal.dll error can occur when the partition boot sector has become corrupt, isn't properly configured, or if the physical part of your hard drive that stores any part of the hal.dll file has been damaged.

Options:

1. Restore the hal.dll file from the Windows XP CD.
   
   
2. Perform a repair installation of Windows XP.
   
   
3. Perform a clean installation of Windows XP.

ok...I will try more tomorrow and let you know how it goes :)

Thanks

sigh...well, I have borrowed a couple CD Boot CD's and none work. Someone told me I need the exact one from the manufacturer and those arent available.

The symptoms are still:
1) A " Starting HP PC Sytems Recovery bar (dashed lines that turn solid) comes up..it completes
2) A black and white HP logo comes up for a few seconds
3) The blue and white more modern looking HP logo comes up...with options for setup and recovery (but f10 for recovery only starts this loop over and there is no recovery screen)
4) Then it loops back to step 1

Note...I can change the bios to boot from CD and it will read oltpe and reatogo and load them...but it will not read any boot CD

Any suggestions versus me taking into a shop to fix ($$)?????

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skb1012

I have borrowed a couple CD Boot CD's and none work.

... it will not read any boot CD

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If the problem is the drive, new CD/DVD burners start at $17.99, including shipping.

Thanks

I dont think it is a drive problem as the PE disks all load fine....it just wont read the boot cd's (not from manufacturer).

Ok ....well thanks, if you need to close this out go ahead and do so. I am thinking to just take it to a repair shop this morning.....

:( Thanks anyway

You're welcome, and best of luck. You can "close this out" by clicking "Thread Tools" then "Mark Thread Resolved".

One last question...an maybe this will help????

I was able to get into the safe mode menu screen....you know, the one that list all the safemode options etc. None of them work. But....I was able to enable the boot logging and got this message:

Windows could not start because there is a missing or corrupt file: \system32\hal.dll

Remeber that I cant access the repair disks or xp disks....is there another way to add that file in....perhaps from PE (I can get into it and it has command line access, registry tools, testdisk, other tools)

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

Clean the OS cd and use a lazer cleaner cd.
That fix the xp disk reading problem.
A repair install of the xp OS is what I use.

Items to check.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findby...singhaldll.htm

Thanks everyone.

For anyone who may have similar issues ...I found a fix...yeah!!!! I burned a Herins Boot CD on another computer. When it boots it has a menu. I happened to click on and entree that was "Smart Boot ...." It loads a cryptic table and then a menu. By dumb luck I noticed that there were 2 boot pc items....one was FAT and the other NTFS. I clicked on the NTFS and it worked....

Excellent news. Thanks for posting your solution. :)