To the nerds, how would YOU fix THIS

[FMD]

Heres the error on boot:

Hal.dll not found

OR

Drive read error, Press cntrl alt del to reboot.

You have a 160 GB hard drive. the primary partition takes up all but 2GB of space on the drive.

OS: Windows XP SP2

How would YOU go about attempting to fix this problem?

Its a genuine SERIOUS question.

[justKel]

Well you're not going to like my genuine serious answer...

Install Linux.

No, it's not snark. That's really what I would do. I don't use Windows anymore if I can help it. I have 5 computers in this house and only one has Windows on it, and that's Windows 2k. When it dies, Windows is done in this house.

My kids each have a computer. They all run Ubuntu. They've been using Ubuntu for years. My laptop dual-boots into Ubuntu or Vista but I only have Vista because work requires it (for whatever reason -- I can do all the same things in Ubuntu that I can in Vista).

I have a Proliant server that did run Windows 2000 Server until I got ahold of it and now it runs Debian.

I know less and less about Windows and I'm all the happier for it. I used to code for Windows but grew weary of having to adapt all my old software to work with each new version M$ came out with because they make practically nothing FORWARD compatible when it comes to their software platforms.

Yeah I know, that's not the answer you're looking for, but it's my answer. It sounds like you have a corrupt system file but I have no idea what the procedure is to fix it in XP. I gave up on learning new Windows related tips and tricks with 2000, after XP came out. Even most of that I've forgotten.


EDIT: Sorry, I saw the word "nerd" and of course I had to look!!

[mikenold]

Heres the error on boot:

Hal.dll not found

OR

Drive read error, Press cntrl alt del to reboot.

You have a 160 GB hard drive. the primary partition takes up all but 2GB of space on the drive.

OS: Windows XP SP2

How would YOU go about attempting to fix this problem?

Its a genuine SERIOUS question.

You could try a repair install of windows. Before doing so, you might want to get any information you would like to keep off of the Hard Drive first. You can either slave this hard drive into another computer or there are adapters that convert IDE or SATA drives to USB. There is the possibility that the drive is bad, but it seems that the computer is reading from the drive, judging from the error messages you have listed.

[Slim.fsp]

I agree with Mike backup any data and then try and repair the windows installation. HAL.DLL is one of the core windows files it is used for the Hardware Abstraction Layer which allows the Windows Kernel to interact with the hardware.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_library_files#Hal.dll

[justKel]

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:D

[WNYresident]

Hal.dll not found

OR

Drive read error, Press cntrl alt del to reboot.

If it's a physical read error then get a new drive and reinstall XP.

[FMD]

Your answers actually surprised me... I was actually expecting the Linux comment though...

But heres the way *I* fixed it... I did this thread just to see what your answers would be, to see how far outside the box I am doing things.

If you noticed, I mention a 2GB unpartitioned space at the end of the drive. I mentioned that curious to see if any one would catch it... no one did, so Ill explain.

For one. HAL.DLL is custom to the computer its installed on. Meaning you cant use your friends version even if he has the SAME hardware. I think this has to do with the serial numbers on the hardware or the hardware ID numbers.

This is what I 'did' to fix this.

I popped in my copy of XP, and booted into set up. Because the drive is visible to the computer that tells me the drive is still 'ok' I then attempt to install the SAME version of XP onto the 2GB partition. If all goes well, and I get to the desktop, I then try to access C drive. If I can, I just copy over the files that are 'missing'. It works, every single time.

Next, the Disk Read error was a first for me... That caught me COMPLETELY off gaurd. But the same rules apply. Install the SAME version of XP on a little baby partition and then boot from that. Turns out, the Boot.ini file had become corrupted, and some how my drive letters became switched around. So instead off booting of C, it was trying to boot of the 400GB data drive. A little reworking of the boot.ini reboot, bam back onto windows.

Now... here are the problems that are with YOUR solutions:

Repairing XP thruogh setup has ALWAYS proven to me what a fricking NIGHTMARE that can be as it wants every cd for every piece of hardware on the computer... Screw that. If you miss one CD your screwed. And, often times it doesnt fix anything.

2) Slaving the drive on another system to extract data, only works if you have enuogh space to back up your data.

A program which is absolutely priceless with computers is called Power Quest Partition Magic 7. PM8 was made by Symantic, when they bought out PQ. as a result the new PM's are bloated, slow and often create problems.

When ever I get a new drive, I NEVER EVER use up all the space, I leave 2-8GB unpartitioned JUST for this type of 'problem' and it has served me well for many many years.

[mikenold]

Your answers actually surprised me... I was actually expecting the Linux comment though...

But heres the way *I* fixed it... I did this thread just to see what your answers would be, to see how far outside the box I am doing things.

If you noticed, I mention a 2GB unpartitioned space at the end of the drive. I mentioned that curious to see if any one would catch it... no one did, so Ill explain.

For one. HAL.DLL is custom to the computer its installed on. Meaning you cant use your friends version even if he has the SAME hardware. I think this has to do with the serial numbers on the hardware or the hardware ID numbers.

This is what I 'did' to fix this.

I popped in my copy of XP, and booted into set up. Because the drive is visible to the computer that tells me the drive is still 'ok' I then attempt to install the SAME version of XP onto the 2GB partition. If all goes well, and I get to the desktop, I then try to access C drive. If I can, I just copy over the files that are 'missing'. It works, every single time.

Next, the Disk Read error was a first for me... That caught me COMPLETELY off gaurd. But the same rules apply. Install the SAME version of XP on a little baby partition and then boot from that. Turns out, the Boot.ini file had become corrupted, and some how my drive letters became switched around. So instead off booting of C, it was trying to boot of the 400GB data drive. A little reworking of the boot.ini reboot, bam back onto windows.

Now... here are the problems that are with YOUR solutions:

Repairing XP thruogh setup has ALWAYS proven to me what a fricking NIGHTMARE that can be as it wants every cd for every piece of hardware on the computer... Screw that. If you miss one CD your screwed. And, often times it doesnt fix anything.

2) Slaving the drive on another system to extract data, only works if you have enuogh space to back up your data.

A program which is absolutely priceless with computers is called Power Quest Partition Magic 7. PM8 was made by Symantic, when they bought out PQ. as a result the new PM's are bloated, slow and often create problems.

When ever I get a new drive, I NEVER EVER use up all the space, I leave 2-8GB unpartitioned JUST for this type of 'problem' and it has served me well for many many years.

I would disagree with your assessment of using the repair function of the windows XP disk. I have brought mission critical servers back from the dead using the repair option. I have also fixed hard drives that would not boot using chkdsk under the repair screens. Slaving the drive into another system is a very good means of getting data off of a "bad" drive. most computer these days come with hard drives with more than enough room to temporarily hold the data. Also, most people are not going to have a copy of partition magic laying around and most people will not have a 2GB partition handy.
When you said "the primary partition takes up all but 2GB of space on the drive" you did not mention this was a separate partition. If this was not a separate partition you would not be able to accomplish what you had done to install a fresh copy of XP.
In conclusion, You found a viable solution to the problem, but you were the only one that new about this 2GB partition. However WNYresident and me also had solutions that would have worked just as well.

[FMD]

primary partition - the 2GB of free unformatted non partitioned space is not actually a partition.

Not saying your methods would not have worked, however, your methods all take hours to complete. This method takes about 30 minutes, tops. And when in business like WNY Resident, time is money...

And try that repair tool on a custom built computer and be missing one cd. Then tell me how 'great' it is. Or have all the CD's but somehow the repair process identifies some piece of hardware and names it some wacked out thing that 'no driver will pair with' and you my friend, have a MAJOR problem on your hands.Not saying your wrong, just point it out.

On the flip side, WNY could use this information in his business. By installing XP 2x on new computers and set the boot screen to like 3 seconds. By doing this, the end user wont be smart enough/ fast enough to catch it, yet he will know about it. This way, if there is a problem he can resolve it quickly, and effortlessly, and still make a good buck.

Now i dont know if this works on Vista since I have very little 'run time' with Vista, but it works on XP. The important thing to remember though, is an XP Sp1 files and XP Sp2 files are NOT interchangeable.

Unpartitioned space shows up in Windows XP Set up. during the set up process you can 'claim' part of this unpartitioned space. Minimum space required for XP to work, is 1.8gb you go lower than that, and your PUSHING your luck as to how stable XP will be once you get up to the desktop.

[WNYresident]

But what corrupted it in the first place? Something did. If the drive is actually having read errors why risk it happening again?

HD drives have gotten cheap for the most part. A new hard drive might also be faster than the one you are having the read errors with.

If your going to install window XP on a small partition anyways just install it on the new drive and then slave the bad drive to grab the data? Or was it a virus that caused the mis-read?

Today I completed 4 os issues. One physically bad drive issue, three your windows is completely loaded with spyware/trojans.

[FMD]

All my data is backed up.

As far as what caused it? Not sure exactly, I think there was a 'glitch' in the installation of XP SP3 for GTA4 when I installed the 2nd OS. As it listed the 'boot folder under default as windows 1.0 or something odd. I didnt really bother with it at the time because it seemed to 'work'

However this one time it didnt work and rearranged my drive letters... also odd.

I did a compelte scan of the entire system (took 3 days) and all is clean and normal.

I also hate reinstalling my primary OS, and try not to do that, as it is such a pain in the ass. the initial install takes an hour for xp to install and get the drivers in and the basic programs, but then it takes weeks to gey everything set up the way I like it...

I can almost like a 6th sense, tell when there is a problem with my computer. Its wierd. Even if there are no obvious signs, I can generally tell there is a 'problem'

with that said, there have been no errors, and no 'feelings' of a potential issue. So far its been rock solid as if nothing occurred.

I think however it could have been somehow related to the WAY I shut down. GTA4 was running in the background, and instead of going back into the game and exiting the game and then shutting down, i just shut down. Could be the problem right there, not sure. But havent had any issues since.

I should also note, that in my experience, any drive over 500GB of space, has a real risk of having problems with in the first 12months of ownership. I know this because I have had 3 bad 750's and 1 bad 1tb drive with in the passed 18months. from 2 different mfg's. However my 500's are rock solid. go figure.

[WNYresident]

I can almost like a 6th sense, tell when there is a problem with my computer. Its wierd. Even if there are no obvious signs, I can generally tell there is a 'problem'

People look at me funny when I say that. But after you repaired over 10,000 computers you sort of get an idea what is going on.

[HipKat]

Bottom line.... XP sucks.....

[FMD]

I dunno I actually like XP alot. Vista is like the NT version of ME

[HipKat]

I completely disagree.
XP, I HAD to have THREE different spyware/adaware/anti-virus programs running all the time.
I constantly had to reboot to restore memory.
I hated the look of it.

Vista, runs smooth. I only use AVG FREE, it never bogs down on me, and I love the way it looks.

[mikenold]

I dunno I actually like XP alot. Vista is like the NT version of ME

Good analogy! :)