Dear Gods Help This Idiot!
myskaal:
So I'm about at my wits end and a complete reformat is looking inevitable. I'm still thrashing about helplessly trying not to lose everything on my computer and trying some last ditch efforts.
Quick background: When attempting to remove secuROM, Windows decided to throw up and either corrupt or lose HAL.dll. Since that moment I have been trying recovery/rebuild option after option with very little success.
I have gotten to a point where Windows will start, but logs me off immediately after log on. Windows starts, shows my log on, I log on, I see my desktop background, windows logs off.
So I am now going to try installing a 2nd OS to at least be able to grab some of my most important files before ressting the whole damn thing and starting fresh.
However, there's a small glitch I created when following these instructions that I can not seem to find a solution to - thta I would like to solve before continuing on to a 2nd install.
By using the rebuild I now get a menu just after reboot for "which" windows XP I want to run. I really should only have one but apparently following the above instructions creates a new one.
So I get a boot menu that looks something like the one down about mid-page at this link: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000492.htm
Unfortunately.. I can not get windows to start through any means of noral or safemode. So I can't use the DOS command line instructions found there. The recovery disk instructions they have linked there do not explain how to modify the boot.ini from the Recovery tool.
I'm so extremly brain fried at this point I doubt any of what I am typing makes any sense but the gist of it is HELP!
edit: trying to clarify a bit, what I am trying to do is delete id1 and id2 in bootcfg. Unfortunately, in the Recovery Console there is no /delete command and rebuild creates yet another id to choose from when rebooting.
So, from the windows command prompt I would type in: bootcfg /delete /id1 and then rinse and repeat for 2 but I can't get to the normal windows command prompt (because windows will not let me log on) and I can not find any way to do this from the Recovery Console.
So.. should I just not worry about this step and install the 2nd OS? Or is that a waste of time because without fixing whatever is causing me to not be able to log on right now will continue to prevent me from logging on with a 2nd OS installed?
Any ideas?
Ambular:
Shot in the dark, but you haven't, by any chance, installed XP SP3 very recently?
myskaal:
Answered this in the Securom post, too, but honestly I can't say that I haven't. There was a recently installed update to windows which installed on it's own and rebooted my comp for me while I was at work. I'm wanting to say that was a week or more ago but I could be way off on my time line. I don't generally double check those things.
I have not manually and/or purposefully installed SP3.
Without being able to log on, I'm not sure how I would go about finding out if it was installed.
Kazzandra:
YOU HAVE. Poor you. I had recovery disks, thank goodness, that I had made sometime around when I first configured my computer. I lost nothing on my hard drive, but my user account was fried, so I had to make a new account. Considering that just yesterday Microsoft reminded me to download SP3, you probably had this happen, too, and if you had automatic downloads on, Microsoft killed your computer.
Links: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12098.msg341380.html#msg341380
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11859.msg335084.html#msg335084
I'll look into finding you some help on this topic. Installing a second OS should remedy your problems. I'll post back after some research. You should get a boot menu, btw. Use the new install.
ETA: It seems you could set the hard drive as a slave in another computer and copypaste your userdata and then format.
Or load up a whole different OS. Ubuntu or some other free OS.
Here's the best info I could find. Your results may vary.
Quote
As for hal.dll, here are the steps to recover from the mistakes..
Boot from your WinXP CD and follow the directions to start Recovery Console.
Then type these commands :
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot
The alternative way is to boot from your CD and follow the directions below to start Recovery Console.
Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.
If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
When prompted, type the Administrator password. (if you didn't create one try pressing enter).
At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.
Most likely you will need to expand the file from the CD. The command would be expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
You can refer to some screenshots of the recovery console here
http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm
Do you have an HP box or an AMD processor? Seems to be the root cause.
myskaal:
I knew I should have bought a MAC.
*Thanks for the links. I'll definately be turning auto updates off this time around.
I'm going through the 2nd install now. Hopefully it will, at the very least, allow me to grab the files that have sent me into panic attack about losing. I'll be backing up a shitload more often from here on out. I definately don't mind reformatting(the comp needs it, for sure). I'm going to freak without thoe files, though. ;)
HPBOX ... eruummm. No? And no AMD.
HP as is Hewlit Packard?
I have (like Simsbaby) a Dell. Although it's a desktop not a laptop.
Those steps you quoted above are what got me to the point where windows would load but would log me off again immediately after log on. The rebuild is what gave me the multiple OS menu after reboot.
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