missing or corrupt: system32\hal.dll
Specs:
Windows XP
Compaq Presario 6024US
80GB Hard Drive (not sure who makes it. came with computer)
:( This is my 3rd thread in the past week. I keep having issue after issue and now I just want to cry. Before all the issues, I had a western digital that I used as my master drive (crap that doesn't work now) and the 80GB slave drive. I began to have problems with the WD HD about 2 weeks ago. I decided to do a Factory Restore of the master drive which is what Thread1 was about but I accidentally did the restore on my slave drive :0/ So I went back and backed up all my files onto the newly restored slave drive. Then I did the factory restore on the master. It didn't fix squat and nothing else i did fixed the problem (Thread2). So now the master is no more. I decided to use the slave drive in the meantime. ::Sigh:: So today I changed the jumpers on the 80GB HD to make it into the master and i disconnected the WD HD. I turned on the computer and I got this message:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
Windows root\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.
I googled the message and tried a few things that came up.
1. The first part of this didn't work for me because the first thing it has me type gave me a negative response. I don't remember exactly but it said that the command didn't work or something. I tried the second thing at the bottom where it asks me to type EXPAND D:\I386\HAL.DL_ C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\HAL.DLL but that gave me a message that said Access is denied.
2. This one is by microsoft. I abandoned this one because typing "bootcfg /list" also didn't work for me.
3. This next one is pretty much like the microsoft one but w/o the bootcfg /list. I didn't notice this till later. I followed the steps and when I got to step5 I typed Windows XP Home Edition in all caps (why in caps? I dunno, just cuz it was already on caps lock). I restarted the comp after all the steps but then i got a screen that said
Please select the operating system to start
WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
I selected the first and then I got this message
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\Backups\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
When I select the Microsoft one, it gives me the original error message in the title of this thread.
4. I lastly tried booting in to safe mode. When I clicked F8, i saw a screen with 11 boot options. Usually i only see 5. Well I clicked Safe Mode and it then had me select the OS to start...then I get one of the 2 file missing/corrupt message.
I'm done trying to fix it on my own. I really don't want to screw things up even more. I really want to fix this without having to do a factory restore. This is the drive with all of my backups. I can't lose them! How can I fix this problem without having to do so?
As always, I thank anyone who posts any helpful replies!