Boot Problem: "windows could not start because..." hal.dll

[nvisage]

Hello all,

My girlfriend was using her laptop a couple of days back as usual with no notable problems. After shutting down the system over night she came to turn it on the next day recieving the following message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt

<windows root>\SYSTEM32\hal.dll

Please replace this file..."


I've dealt with this sort of error before on my desktop system using the...
"copy d:\i386\system32\xxx.xxx c:\windows\system32\"
...command in the windows recovery console to resolve the problem but I can't seem to find a way to do the same thing with this error.

I've read this article on the windows knowledge base, the symptoms are the same but it's not due to either of the listed scenarios and niether of the resolutions are possible.

Does anyone have a clue what's happening here? It's quite important that I solve the problem without having to format as my girlfriend has a lot of data that she can't afford to lose.

All comments and help greatly recieved in advance,

Thanks,

Lewis

[directhex]

aren't files on the windows cd compressed (and need extracting with "extract"?

[nvisage]

Yeah I'm pretty sure they are. I've found a few files named "HAL" in the "(cd):\i386\" folder but none have the correct extension so I'm not sure what to do.

[TheVoice]

Hey mate, Emma sent me.

Instead of using 'Copy' at the Recovery Console, try this:

expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll

May or may not work. Could also be a boot.ini issue, but try the above first. Hope that works.


EDIT: If that doesn't work, try this: http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;330184


Chris

[GoNz0]

use the recovery console to run chkdsk /r 1st, the files coded to the install, so a copy of will render unbootable (i think)

[nvisage]

I've already tried chkdsk and it says that it's found a problem and fixes it but that doesn't work.

Also, I've found hal.dll by expanding the file HAL.DL_ in recovery console, but then when I attempt to copy it it says access is denied when the file isn't "read only" and there isn't a password to access the drive.

I'm at a bit of a loose end here =/

[GoNz0]

might be worth trying a windows repair ?

[nvisage]

I've tried that too...

I've moved onto something else now though.

I decided to go and buy a cable to connect the laptop drive to my pc via IDE to try and back up the files needed that way.

I can see the drive and I can access it but I cannot see the users documents. All I see in the documents and settings folder (with "View hidden files and folders" on) is...

- Administrator
- All Users
- Default User
- Local Service
- Network Service

...and I'm looking for "Emma" or "Emmas Documents".

I've tried the file path C:\Documents and Settings\Emma\My Documents but it's saying it doesn't exist =/

Any solutions to this?

(I'm logged onto the computer using the hard drive in my PC just in case anyone was wondering =P)