Another error message (1 Viewer)

I bought a PC 7 weeks ago from PC world-things worked fine until one evening when my daughter was playing a SIMS game and the PC crashed. Ever since the error message, Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt, windows root\system32\hal.dll. Please reinstall a copy of the missing file. I looked up MSN knowledge base and the error was only linked to an OS upgrade so this was no help

Rather lazily I had not backed up my email/docs( I have them on external hard drive from my old PC) as it was a new PC. I wanted if possible to restore them so was reluctant to use the recovery discs. I took the PC to PC World and they looked at it. They felt initially that the SIMS game was responsible for the crash. They accessed the hard drive to back up the files but found that My Docs seemed to have disappeared. They found the email OK. I went in to see what they had done and asked why My Docs might have been wiped. They said it may have been a virus, despite the fact that I have Norton that is automatically updated. They said they would restore my email and get the PC running.

However they phoned yesterday to say they had found a hardware fault and that there was a problem with a memory module(RAM) and that they would get an engineer to replace this and that this was the cause of my problems. However when I got off the phone I thought about things and as far as I understand the RAM is the memory that the PC uses when the PC is running. How could this cause My Docs to vanish?

So I’ve had 3 explanations for what has gone on-SIMS causes crash/virus/memory problem. Has anyone any thoughts on what has happened?

Mark found on line, it appears to be a common problem but the problem with HAL or hardware adaption layer is normally found on new hard drives where the boot.ini file settings doesn't align with the hardware settings for the PC, if as I understand it correctly it could cause a partition to change or be removed if so then the data in that partition would not be visable, this is really on the edge of possibility but it was PC world who gave you the information

As found on line
HAL.DLL MISSING OR CORRUPT ERROR MESSAGE

If you get an error regarding a missing or corrupt hal.dll file, it might simply be the BOOT.INI file on the root of the C: drive that is misconfigured.

Here's what to do:

1. Insert and boot from your Windows XP CD.
2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
4. Typically this will be #1
5. Type bootcfg /list to show the current entries in the BOOT.INI file
6. Type bootcfg /rebuild to repair it
7. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

or

Workaround provided by Hiep Luong (12/2/04) - Use as an example:

Many people (including me) have (had) problems with the file hal.dll when installing on a fresh new harddisk. The proposed solutions do not
work in this case because there is a dynamic drive overlay (ddo) installed. The solution is quite simple: remove first the ddo (for
example with Seagate's DiscWizard: http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html) and re-install windows xp.

Generalized information:

This situation occurs when setting up a dual boot situation with Windows 2000 and Windows XP (it may occur with other setups). After Windows XP's install routine has finished copying files, and is ready to boot to the GUI portion of SETUP, you may receive the above error.

One possible fix. So far, this has been traced to an incorrect BOOT.INI file. To gain access to the Boot.ini:

Go to Start/Run and type in: msconfig. Then go to the Boot.ini Tab. Or...Right click the My Computer icon/Properties/
Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings/System Startup/Edit.

How to Edit the BOOT.INI File in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q289/0/22.asp

This user had 1 hard drive, partitioned into C and D drives. His BOOT.INI file looked like this: (the erroneous lines are in "blue")

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

The 3 in the erroneous lines, above, points to the 3rd partition on the first physical hard disk. Since this user only had 2 partitions, this value was incorrect. Changing the value to 2, in both lines, allowed the user to complete Windows XP's setup.

The corrected BOOT.INI looked like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer

HAL is Microsoft's abbreviation for the Hardware Abstraction Layer, the technology and drivers that let the Windows NT, 2000, and XP operating systems communicate with your PC's hardware. HAL is one of several features--along with the NT file system (NTFS) that replaced the much less secure MS-DOS--that make NT-based operating systems more secure and reliable than Windows 95, 98, and Me.

HAL prevents applications from directly accessing your PC's system memory, CPU, or hardware devices (such as video and sound cards)--a method that can prevent many device conflicts and crashes. Unfortunately, HAL sometimes also slows or stops DOS games and programs, which need to load their own memory managers or control hardware directly for better performance.

With HAL in the way, developers must rewrite or even abandon their older software in favor of newer, HAL-compatible versions. Microsoft has pressured hardware makers to provide or support technologies such as MMX, DirectX, and 3D graphics language OpenGL, all of which allow fast but indirect access to the advanced high-performance features of video, sound, and CPU hardware. Such access also makes for a better visual experience when using Windows for Web and productivity applications; improved graphics performance is evident all over Windows XP's new user interface.

XP also offers some new compatibility-mode features that let you run programs meant to run under earlier operating systems, but, frankly, most DOS-based and even some Windows-based games simply won't work with the new OS

Did you have a password to help keep your files private, Mark? That would explain the PCWhirled 'engineer' not being able to access the docs - or, perhaps, they didn't know where to look for them? My bet is that your data is still there. (Take ownership of files http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421).

I've seen a lot of boot-file corruption in XP and bad RAM or PSU is probably the most common reason. If PC makers shipped a standard Windows disc, recovery from this is not too difficult (Boot from the XP CD and enter Recovery Console > Type: attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini 'Enter'. Type: bootcfg /Rebuild 'Enter'. Type: fixboot C: 'Enter' then exit) - alternatively, I think you could recover this using the set of XP boot floppies, possibly even a Windows 2000 CD.

Don't let them wipe your disk! If they run a parallel install for a fresh copy of Windows or repair the original, you should be able to find your stuff.

Andrew Rowlands said:

Did you have a password to help keep your files private, Mark? That would explain the PCWhirled 'engineer' not being able to access the docs - or, perhaps, they didn't know where to look for them? My bet is that your data is still there. (Take ownership of files http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421).

I've seen a lot of boot-file corruption in XP and bad RAM or PSU is probably the most common reason. If PC makers shipped a standard Windows disc, recovery from this is not too difficult (Boot from the XP CD and enter Recovery Console > Type: attrib -s -h -r C:\boot.ini 'Enter'. Type: bootcfg /Rebuild 'Enter'. Type: fixboot C: 'Enter' then exit) - alternatively, I think you could recover this using the set of XP boot floppies, possibly even a Windows 2000 CD.

Don't let them wipe your disk! If they run a parallel install for a fresh copy of Windows or repair the original, you should be able to find your stuff.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies. My documents was not password protected. The PC came with windows xp pre installed so I'm not sure if what you are proposing is possible, Andrew

markgrubb said:

Thanks for the replies. My documents was not password protected. The PC came with windows xp pre installed so I'm not sure if what you are proposing is possible, Andrew

Click to expand...

Second option then - the engineer didn't know where to look ...

Andrew Rowlands said:

Second option then - the engineer didn't know where to look ...

Click to expand...

Having being given the run around for 2 weeks you may well be right.......

Any news on the situation, Mark?

If you could get your hard disk from them before they wipe it (buy another for them to install afresh to? - 160Gb @ £60), you could send it to me to try to recover the data that's 'lost'?