CAnnot find hal.dll!

[gasamonroe]

My Father's computer will not startup,
because:
My computer keeps reporting that it cannot find hal.dll, and he's using a Windows Compaq...
Is it safe to use the recovery console without it deleting any of his work and new applications???
any help is appreciated!

[gasamonroe]

I just used a helpfile from my manufacturer's site:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...name=c00044897

I'm stuck when it says:

If a diskpart prompt appears, type list volume, press Enter, remember the drive letter next to the main drive volume name (usually D or H next to HP_PAVILION or PRESARIO), type exit when done, and then press Enter.
NOTE: If the main drive volume name does not appear in the list, the PC needs to be recovered. For more information, refer to Performing a Full System Recovery in XP .

Step 2: Restoring boot.ini
Use the following steps to replace the boot.ini file with the backup boot.ini file:
Type the following at the command prompt: X: (where X is the drive letter).
At the prompt, type the following: ren boot.ini boot.in2
Press Enter
At the prompt, type the following: ren boot.bak boot.ini
Press Enter
At the prompt, type the following: exit
Press Enter
The system automatically restarts. If Windows XP does not open, continue to the next Step.
My main drive letter is c. I type that in. But the Commands done't seem to work!!!

[GaryRouth]

HP mentions in that article that their main drive is often drive D or H - likely because they create a hidden partition for quick Recoveries. If you only see a C drive and nothing else, that could be trouble.

This system has only one physical hard drive, right?

What do you see if you list the directory contents with the dir (directory) command? If that doesn't work, your C drive is likely a recovery partition. And if diskpart didn't list any other drives or partitions, you might be looking at having to use the HP Recovery procedures. The trick is to be able to see 1) if your boot.ini file is present 2) if the boot.ini file is OK or is corrupt 3) if the operating system files are present 4) if the operating system files are OK or are corrupt. If you can't see any files at all - that's a problem. But you might just be looking in the wrong place.

Did you make it into the Recovery Console OK?

There is a Recovery Console utility called bootcfg that can try to detect current XP installations & offer to rebuild the boot.ini file, if that is the cause of the trouble - the other utility that might help is the fixboot utility. If you try the bootcfg command, you'd probably try the "bootcfg /rebuild" (without the quotes) first. Here's Microsoft's article with the details: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;314058

Was there a particular new program installed recently? (especially interested to know if it was something like Ghost, Partition Magic, or Drive Image)

best of luck
. . . Gary

[before going much further in recovery procedures, which can result in loss of data (depending on the procedure)... it would be a good idea to remove the hard drive, slave it in another computer (or attach it from an external USB 2.0 hard disk enclosure) - and copy what data you wish to save first]