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Deleted file in Windows, will no longer boot.

notredewey

notredewey

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 16, 2006
57
0
Hey everyone. This past week I was going through the windows folder on the mac side of my computer. I went through and deleted somethings I thought I didn't need to save some space. As it turns out, I deleted something I shouldn't have (go figure) and now Windows will no longer boot up. It lists the error as not being able to find C:/windows roots\system32\hal.dll. Then says something like please reinstall this file. Now my question is..how do I go about doing this? I stuck in the Windows XP install disk and they do have a repair option, but it is way to confusing for me. Any suggestions? Or do I have to reinstall all together? Thanks.
 
I assume that you are running Windows via BootCamp.

It will depend on what you deleted.

You can copy the file that's missing to the appropriate place. However, there might be more critical files missing than just the first one that it lists. So you will receive a new error message after you replace that file.

The easy way for you may just be to reinstall Windows. Before doing so, be sure to back up any files that you created within Windows that you want to save.
 
If you can't understand the Windows repair options, I'd agree too. It sounds like you have a FAT32 disk, since you're deleting files from inside OS X? Just copy over the files that you need -- docs etc -- and then re-install. And don't do it again! ;)
 
If I were to reinstall it would my settings and so forth still be intact with a new install? By the way yes I am running Bootcamp, and have a FAT32 format. Sushi, do you know where to find that file I am missing and/or where to place it that would be the correct place? I feel I should probably try this step before reinstalling all together. Thanks.
 
No, as far as I know, if you reinstall, you'll lose everything on the Windows side. Erm... have you tried googling for the name of that dll? Maybe someone else did this before.
 
notredewey said:
Sushi, do you know where to find that file I am missing and/or where to place it that would be the correct place?
Click to expand...
I've attached the file. It's zipped.

Place it in the following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\

So when finished it will be:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\HAL.DLL

Again, unless you are used to mucking around in Windows, it will probably be easier to just reinstall Windows.
 

Attachments

  • hal.dll.zip
    57.2 KB · Views: 186
sushi said:
I've attached the file. It's zipped.

Place it in the following folder:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\

So when finished it will be:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\HAL.DLL

Again, unless you are used to mucking around in Windows, it will probably be easier to just reinstall Windows.
Click to expand...


I would start by following Method #2 as described in:

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341


Be aware that if you have installed IE7, you may need to also uninstall/reinistall afterwards...

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP if Internet Explorer 7 is installed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964
 
Thanks everyone. I'll give it a shot in the morning, and let you know how it works out.
 
By the way, you can reinstall Windows on top of itself and you won't lose your applications and their preferences. The Windows installer is fairly smart and generally replaces only missing or corrupted files.
 
dunawaydk said:
I would start by following Method #2 as described in:

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341


Be aware that if you have installed IE7, you may need to also uninstall/reinistall afterwards...

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP if Internet Explorer 7 is installed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964
Click to expand...
Good info.

However, for most I think that it is easier just to do a new install as other problems can arise when using the steps above.

YMMV.
 
Thanks for posting
"How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP" However, I can't even get into windows, thats my problem. The instructions say to go to start.... I am not able to do that. Sushi, thanks for zipping that file, I placed it in the correct folder, but I still got the same error message when trying to boot windows. Topgunn, how do I do another install to save my prefs and apps like you suggest? Thanks.
 
notredewey said:
Sushi, thanks for zipping that file, I placed it in the correct folder, but I still got the same error message when trying to boot windows.
Click to expand...
The problem with Windows, is that for some files it expects them to be at a certain location on your HD. And if they aren't, Windows can't find them.

I would say that your best option at this point in time would be to do a new install. Then try to back up the FAT32 partition.

FYI, I am working on finding a good way to do that. CCC and SuperDuper will not work. Nor does Disk Utility Restore function work -- although it's close. After Restoring, it gives some errors but the install will work.

I am looking at trying Ghost and Drive Image to see if either will work like they do for me on a regular PC.

BTW, I've Email both the CCC and the SuperDuper folks. The SuperDuper folks politely indicated that they will not include that function and to look at PC alternatives. The CCC folks indicated that they are looking at adding that feature down the line.
 
Thanks sushi for your time. I'll hold off on doing any reinstalling for now. I'm not really in that big of rush to get it back and running, I would rather have my settings/apps/etc. still intact when it's all said and done. Keep me posted.
 
Do you have a mac pro with more then one hard drive by any chance? Is hal.dll actually in that location? It may actually still be there...but thats a whole other problem...I can't even get XP to boot. Tried many re-installs I have almost given up. I know what I need to do to fix it(edit the boot.ini) but i just can't find a way to edit the boot.ini...windows error messages aren't always what they mean.
 
For anyone who is interested...

I have tried backing up a Boot Camp partition the following ways with no luck:

A. Using Disk Utilities. Comes the closest but there are error messages generated each time you boot Windows.

B. Using Drive Image 7. Won't boot after restoring image.

C. Ghost 2003. Will not back up the Boot Camp partition. Seems there is a MBR (Main Boot Record) issue that will not let it boot.

D. SuperDuper. Does not support other than Mac OS type partitions.

E. CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner). Same as SuperDuper.

Has anybody had success at backing up and then restoring a Windows installation on a Boot Camp partition? Please. Anybody.
 
kingjr3 said:
I was hoping you would ;)
Click to expand...
I am getting tired of installing Windows. :(

I was hoping you would try this time! :D

kingjr3 said:
I could give it a try, but my usual backup strategy is to only backup my user account folder since I can always reinstall Windows and software.
Click to expand...
Oh come on, you can give it a try! ;)

kingjr3 said:
Maybe when I switch to Parallels, I can try it.
Click to expand...
The problem with using parallels, is that you can't really test out Boot Camp restoration.

As far was backing up Parallels, it is a piece of cake. Just duplicate your HD image file via the Finder. :)
 
sushi said:
Any suggestion on the dd command to use?
Click to expand...

Get your disk id for your windows partition by right clicking it in Disk Utility and select information. In the example below, my id is disk0s3

Then I would try something like
Code: 
dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=/Volumes/Backup/WindowsBackup02032007.dmg

if is the path of the input "file" -in this case our Windows partition
of is the path of the output image

Obviously, make sure whatever you are writing to as a backup has enough space to cover the entire Windows partition size. Also, I'd expect this to take a while.

Good Luck
 
deleting files

I'm always confused when people delete files to "save space" being as the file deleted was very small. I have a friend that was the king of "cleaning up" his PC and had constant problems, I don't do squat on my windows machines and they all run like a champ (as do my apples) so I'm guessing you'll end up doing a freash install and reloading your programs, chalk one up to learning...

DD
 
kingjr3 said:
Get your disk id for your windows partition by right clicking it in Disk Utility and select information. In the example below, my id is disk0s3

Then I would try something like
Code: 
dd if=/dev/disk0s3 of=/Volumes/Backup/WindowsBackup02032007.dmg
Click to expand...
Appreciate the feedback.

I used "df -k" to get the volume info.

Then tried a variety of iterations of the dd command similar to your syntax but could not get dd to work. :(

But all is not lost. I have now successfully backed up a Boot Camp partition, deleted the partition, then recreated the partition and restored the files.

Finally after about a zillion reinstalls of Windows!

The method that I used worked fairly well. In brief:
- Back up the Boot Camp partition using Disk Utilities.
- Deleted and create the Boot Camp partition.
- Boot off of your Windows XP SP2 CD.
- Complete the install up to the point where Windows restarts the first time.
- Press the OPTION key to boot into your Mac partition.
- Copy files from your back up to the Windows partition (4 key files first).
- Eliminate the NotePad issue.

And viola, you are done! :)

Here are the two web sites that I used:

Site A

Site B

I will be trying it out again this week. Seems to work okay. The key is to use FAT32 and not NTFS.

Also, in my searches I found another possibility that I will try in the near future:

NetRestore

NetRestore looks very promising.
 
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