First time user, lost with the HAL.DLL problem

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Pallius, Dec 9, 2006.

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  1. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    How does one find their Product ID? Is it on the Windows holographic sticker?
     
  2. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    Yes, if your system is from Dell,HP,Acer etc, it'll be on the bottom of a laptop or on the side/top of a PC.

    Colin
     
  3. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Here's an update: I followed the link to Repairing Windows XP in Eight commands. I followed those instructions exactly. When I tried to boot from C:, the system says Verifying DMI Pool Data then, after about a minute or two, says "Please select the operating system to start;" presenting 2 options - Windows XP Home or Microsoft Windows XP Home. In either case, I get the message that Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file. Back to square one?
     
  4. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    This sounds as though boot.ini now has two entries in it, and both pointing to the same install.

    Go back into the console mode and type bootcfg /list this will tell us if it is now seeing two installs.

    We can persuade your Pro CD to think it is a Home one, but you'll need a computer with a CD burner and you'll need to temporarily copy the complete CD onto the harddrive. Then we can do the easy thing of doing a repair install.

    We can also attempt to extract a new copy of hal.dll, but I don't think this is the problem.

    Did you actually delete the old boot.ini?

    You are aware that when it asks for the load identifier, you can call it whatever you like.

    Colin
     
  5. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    I did delete the old boot.ini. Accdording the 8 Command article, the system creates a new one for itself in the step after DEL boot.ini. I am not familiar with the repair console but it looks like I get a C: prompt like DOS. If I do a DIR, I don't see a Windows directory. Perhaps Acronis TI didn't restore everything it was supposed to. Or does the DIR command present information differently? If there's no Windows folder, then there's no path to HAL.DLL. Maybe I should go back to the restore process and try it again?
     
  6. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    The recovery console should leave you at a command prompt: C:\windows. A dir /p command should list the contents of the directory. When you restored did you just restore the partition only or did you select DISK 1 which would include the MBR. You have just created a new MBR and Boot.ini file in the recovery console so you only want to restore the partition. Here is my boot.ini file your's should be similar.
    [boot loader]
    timeout=30
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptOut

    My machine only has 1 partition and it sounds like yours does also. If the boot.ini file says anything other then partition(1), assuming you have only one partition then the boot.ini file needs to be edited.

    This website has some approaches to fixing this issue also:
    http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm. Note the very last solution on the page by Shaun Gray.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2006
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Pallius,

    When I saw your first post about a corrupt image at 80% I pretty much lost hope.

    A few months ago I did a test from BartPE where I deliberately deleted the Windows folder from a WinXP partition. I can't find my notes but I'm pretty sure that when I tried to boot that OS I received a hal.dll error.

    As others have pointed out the hal.dll error is usually due to an incorrect boot.ini. I gather you don't have a floppy drive to check your boot.ini with editBini but do you have access to a BartPE CD? This CD allows you to directly view and edit boot.ini as well as look at your whole C: drive and check whether the Windows folder is absent.

    Another restore attempt is what I'd try. Several times.
     
  8. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Tom, I do have a floppy drive but I never heard of editBini. I would need a bootable floppy disk, I assume. My boot.ini file looks like yours, but I'll have to check once I get home. I left out the NoExecute=OptOut since my processor doesn't have the Intel XD function (as described in the 8 Commands article). I think I will boot from the Acronis CD and check drive C for the folders and directory stuff that way. (Make any sense?) Brian, I don't have BartPE, but I can display the contects of boot.ini from the C prompt in the repair console when booting from the XP CD. I'll comment later on tonight as to what results I get.
    Gracias amigos.
     
  9. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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  10. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    From the Xp Recovery console, if I take a DIR, I see a some files, including boot.ini, and a directory called Drive(C). THe Drive(C) directory won't let me access it. This seems all wrong to me, as if the restore process did not put Humpty Dumpty back the right way. I was instructed by Acronis last week to do an individual folder restore, folder by folder, then the remaining loose files I see in the archive. This MUST be part of the problem. Is there a correct way to have done this? Was anything to be excluded? Should there have been any other steps? My boot.ini file has this in it:

    timeout=30
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Drive(C)\WINDOWS
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Drive(C)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

    How does a Drive(C) directory make any sense?
     
  11. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    Well that seems like a problem to start with!

    Somehow, probably caused by individually dragging files and folders, you have a directory called Drive(C). It is absolutely standard console behaviour to not allow you entry to this.

    Delete the Drive(C)\ text in both parts of the boot.ini, so that it looks like

    If you want to make the XP CD that you have workable with your product Id for home, it requires altering the text in one file and then reburning to a new CD. This would allow you to do a repair install, which will almost certainly sort your problem out.

    If it doesn't feel free to sue me if you feel like travelling 12K miles. :)

    Colin
     
  12. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    That leaves me with 2 questions, Colin. 1) My original c drive had no such directory, so why does it now? and 2) Why is rdisk to be set at (1)? I bought myself a liarbird...
     
  13. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    I made the changes you suggested to no avail, same HAL.DLL message. Would a repair install delete data files?
     
  14. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    Good catch - my boot drive is on the second drive - change that rdisk to 0

    Colin
     
  15. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    No, it only deletes XP system files and XP updates. It then re-installs the files and cleans the registry boot entries, remakes the MBR and boot.ini.


    You can try using the Pro CD to do this, but I think the moment you put in your Home PID it will shout and sulk.

    To try the repair, don't enter the 'R' that you've been doing with the recovery console, continue to the installing Windows screen. It should show you your current installation. Choose Repair here and just follow the instructions.

    Colin
     
  16. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    I am going back to square 1 and will try to restore the entire image of C again, with rosary beads ready. If it fails, I will again try folder by folder restore. This software is woeful.
     
  17. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    I now know where this C folder came from! It is how TI restores individual files to a different location as you can see from the screen shot I'm attaching, testing out PDF file restorations.


    Colin
     

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  18. thomasjk

    thomasjk Registered Member

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    Pallius, just a thought here. Can you remove the hard drive from the external enclosure and connect it as a slave drive in your machine? If you can do this I would try the restore that way and eliminate the USB chipset as a variable. If you search the forum there are numerous reports of issues with USB especially in the Linux Rescue CD environment. I would try this and also validate before you restore. The other option is to build a BartPE CD http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ with Mustang's plugin for V10 http://www.mechrest.com/plugins/ or use the one Acronis includes. You can use the XPpro Cd you have to do the build of BartPE.
     
  19. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Tom, that may be worth a try. Acronis, after receiving a disk report I sent them generated by a bootable floppy with a diagnostic they supplied, suggested
    - 1) run Acronis Bootable Media;
    - 2) format the drive and create only one single Primary Active partition using Add New Disk wizard;
    - 3)restore files and folders again on this new created partition;
    - 4) try to boot again.

    I will try this next. Since the archive did not verify last night, I am stuck with the folder by folder restore process, which I have learned is painfully slow. I am convinced that there is something about that process that puts things back in a sloppy fashion. I was thinking that, as a disk imaging program, it would be restoring disc sectors, clusters, whatever the term -just as it first read them. This is apparently not the case. I think it will be days before I know if this is successful. (Note to self - Why, why, why did I ever get involved with this product?)
     
  20. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Well, the idea from Acronis didn't work since their Add New Disk utility only works in 2-drive systems. So, I made a BartPE disk. I can see the boot.ini file and it looks correct now.

    The path to the HAL.DLL is C:\Drive(C)\Windows\system32\hal.dll
    Could it be that the system can't find this file? Or could it indeed be corrupt?
     
  21. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    I really think, you need to get back to c:\Windows\system32\hall.dll

    As you can now navigate the C: partition using BartPE, I suggest dragging Windows\system32 to the actual c: prompt.

    In fact drag all folders and files in the Drive(C) folder back to the C: prompt.

    Your C: partition should look similar to the screen shot on the left middle panel. Then make the necessary adjustment in boot.ini (get rid of that drive(C) reference).

    See what happens. You may have to unhide the hidden system files so that you can drag them across.

    Once dragged you can hide them again.

    Then see how you go. You won't do any harm once this has been done, if you try and see if that XPPro CD will do a repair install - because if it's going to sulk it'll do it when you put in the product ID and all it has done to that point is to read the drive information.

    If you can get hold of a Home version, then everything will go to plan.

    Colin
     

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  22. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    All of the files that used to be at the root are now in C:\Drive(C). The root of C: has empty config.sys, empty autoexec.bat, a boot.ini file whose contents look correct, a small hiberfil.sys and a few other things. But it won't boot.
     
  23. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    Yes, that is what I'm saying - move all the files from DRIVE(C) to the root of C:, which is where they ought to be anyway. You should end up with an empty folder called DRIVE(C).

    Then you will need to alter boot.ini so that it now points to
    This will also make it easier to perform an XP repair - which will solve the problem in 20 minutes

    Colin
     
  24. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Hi Colin, I moved all of the files and folders from Drive(C) back to the root of C:, very much resembling what it used to look like. The boot.ini file looks like what you indicated, it is the boot.ini that always worked before Acronis. What happens now when I try to boot from C: is I get the usual opening message "Verifying DMI Pool Data......" then it waits about a minute or more and reboots. Then again Verifying..... and a reboot. It will keep looping like that.
     
  25. Pallius

    Pallius Registered Member

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    Do you think that the XP repair, if it works, will remove SP2 and all of the XP patches that have been applied to date?
     
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