Corrupt Windows File

[Aralith]

Whenever I turn my computer on, I recieve this message:





So, my question is simple: how do I resolve this?


*Before you ask, no, I do not have the Windows XP Installation/Restoration disc with me. However, note that my copy of Windows is genuine.

[Discord]

I guess you could get yourself a Linux Live CD (those are freely downloadable; make sure you get something easy to use... there was one with 2007 in the end of it's name) as well as a floppy with the named .dll (from the other PC or google for "dll download") on it and paste it into your Windows directory. I can't guarantee anything good happening, if you do that though.

Otherways get a Windows CD.

[crono_logical]

If it's genuine, you should have some way to restore the system at least to manufacturer's settings with thier own restore disc rather than an XP one - if you don't have such a disc, then you're in a genuine pickle, since the usual way to fix that is to restore the file from the XP install disc (using the recovery console), or reinstall XP

Other unlikely causes could be a corrupt boot.ini file or hard disk partition table, but again, an XP CD (or some other bootable CD like Knoppix) would be the way to fix it.

I'd suggest find a friend nearby that can lend you a copy of their CD (make sure it's the same service pack) to try to repair it, or download one and do a clean install

[o_O]

I had an error similar to that when I split two partitions before the Windows partition. The end result was that my boot.ini was pointing to the wrong partition. Note that the XP recovery console failed in all respects because it's crap.

Do what clout said.

[Peegee]

Is it possible to use BartPE ? You can copy a clean copy of the hal.dll file from online or a friend, then use the BartPE boot cd to copy it back into place.

[crono_logical]

I've not used BartPE, but if it can write to NTFS drives, I don't see why not It'd just be another alternative boot CD though like Knoppix

[Aralith]

I recently re-partitioned my hard drives, and so that is likely where the problem orginated.

I'll see if I can find my CD, though the chances of doing such a thing seem dangerously slim.

[o_O]

Then it probably is that your boot.ini is pointing to the incorrect partition now.
What happened is probably similar to this:

Your disk:
Partition:  1 (Data)     2 (Data)     3 (Windows)
           [------------|------------|------------]
boot.ini points to partition 3 to find Windows.

Assume you delete partition 2:
Partition:  1 (Data)                  2 (Windows)
           [-------------------------|------------]
boot.ini doesn't change automatically, so it still points to partition
3. The problem is that Windows is now on partition 2, so the bootloader can't find the OS data.

Here's what I think you should do:
BartPE looks as though it would do the job. Download that, burn it to CD and boot windows. Open your boot.ini (for your OS, not for the BartPE disc) and change the partition it's trying to boot from to the correct partition. There are a ton of guides to editing boot.ini, just Google for them.

[Aralith]

Well, over the weekend I was able to locate my recovery disc. However, I still don't know how to re-install the file(s) missing/corrupted...

How do I go about re-installing the file(s) I need?

I'd like to retain all the information I already have on my computer, if at all possible.

[o_O]

It's not necessarily the same for any manufacturer. Generally it's something like:

- Put disc in drive
- Reboot computer
- You get a menu with options similar to "full restore", "recovery", etc.
- Usually recovery is sufficient and will overwrite the system files on your drive with fresh ones.

What you want to do is to recover the system files of your computer without reinstalling or formatting.

[crono_logical]

If it's just repartitioning though which broke it, then I don't think you'd need to do a full reinstall - just boot something like Knoppix to fix your boot.ini file to point to the correct partition, if you can remember how it used to be, and how it now is partitioned to help you work out which number to change in that file It's just a matter of changing that one number correct to fix it in this case

[o_O]

I've just used trial and error on a PC which I didn't know the previous partition table of. It's not so bad - the average Joe probably wouldn't have more than 4 partitions.