Windows boot problem (hal.dll)

[stump]

I try to boot windows, but get an error message saying hal.dll is not found or is corrupt. I have a dual boot system (win98 & XP).I tried a few things that I found in this forum, like copying a new hal.dll to the c:/windows/system32 directory, but is still giving me the same error. I also tried booting to the win xp disk, going to the repair screen & running bootfix, but does not work either.

It started when I changed the boot.ini file, now I cant even get into either operating system. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Alfie]

Put in the XP cd and after it loads,click on install,XP will ask if you wish to install or repair an existing copy,click on repair,all settings should remain the same,but you may have to reload some drivers,but that should cure your ills.

[stump]

I'm trying to repair the win xp as suggested, but it tells me it can't find a file named "asms" and to type the path. I did a search on the CD, and there is no file called asms on the CD. A folder, but no file. Where would I find this? It won't setup without it.

[GaryRouth]

Some reading for you:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q311755&

http://www.pchelplive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=87

http://www.pchelplive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=100

I think the "bootfix" referred to is an option from the repair screens when booting from the XP CD

. . . Gary

[p.s. ...the "upperfilters" and "lowerfilters" Registry entries come in handy when cd drives mysteriously disappear under XP, also
. . . and post again if these articles don't lead to happiness!]

[stump]

Okay, I got Win XP going again, thanks for the links. Now it doesn't recognize the win 98 partition. Is it better to have both OS's on the same HD? In the past, I've sucsessfully ran two OS's with two HD's, but they were on the same disk. Now I'm having nothing but headaches. Would it be worth it to move them to the same disk & start over?

[GaryRouth]

Is it that it doesn't list Win98 on the boot menu, or it actually doesn't "see" it at all?

I'm guessing the you have WinXP on a Primary Partition on its own hard drive with XP's version of NTFS, and Win98 on a Primary Partition on its own hard drive with FAT32?

And now Disk Management can't see the Win98 partition or drive? I'll have to look around for that one. Maybe one of the other techs will have a quick answer, but I'll have to do some checking around.

. . . Gary

[p.s. ...seems like it shouldn't matter whether they are on separate disks or on the same disk, as long as they have their own partitions]

[stump]

Hi Gary...
XP is on disk 2 primary FAT32 partition, 98 is on Disk 1 primary FAT32. Xp is FAT32 so I can network with another Win98 computer. I can get at the win98 partition files when using XP, but 98 is no longer in the boot manager, and if I disconnect the XP disk and try to start up, I get nothing but "PRESS ANY KEY TO REBOOT" on the screen, which when I reboot, gives me the same message again. I don't know if the 98 partition got screwed up or what.

Now that I can get to the files and back them up, I think I'm going to put both OS's on one drive & have the second drive my logical partition.

If you do find out what went wrong, however, Please post. It would be good to know for future troubleshooting.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Sounds like you can leave things as they are, if you'd like, but just edit your boot.ini file. The order of the entries is a little tricky.

You can try the article on Multi-Booting here at PC Mech, or perhaps some from AnandTech.com. There's one about removing an OS from MultiBoot (using Win98 & XP as examples), maybe you can find some clues there about the syntax/grammar that the boot.ini file needs there:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q243431

And here's an MSKB article that might give you a quick fix, if you decide not to move the partitions & operatings systems around (uses a utility called bootcnfg):
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307061

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[as to what went wrong, I imagine an answer might be in the MS article - I kinda skimmed it quickly, so I'm not sure how the boot.ini got to it's 'altered state']