Windows XP:
I have come across "Cannot find \Windows\System32\hal.dll", or "Invalid Boot.Ini" several times and it's actually a really easy fix. I found these steps on an information week article.
Boot from your XP Setup CD and enter the Recovery Console
Run "Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini"
Delete the C:\Boot.ini file
Run "Bootcfg /Rebuild"
Run "Fixboot"
Article:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185301251
Side note:
If you are using Vista you can boot to the CD and choose "repair your system" and then "startup repair". Thats it, vista should auto repair your boot up problem.
4 comments:
thanks,i'm having this trouble right now..
What do you do if you try the above bootcfg /rebuild, and it enables you to boot windows once, but as soon as you boot windows, boot.ini disappears again? That's my situation. I suspect a virus or trojan but I don't know.
@Lars
Could be a virus... Try all the standard anti virus and anti spyware apps. http://www.malwarebytes.org/ for one. If you can't find anything I think I would do a repair install of windows.
Here's a trick that worked for me! 1-Remove the hard drive and install as a slave drive in another computer. I chenaged the settings to make system files visible (under tools-file options-view. I found that boot.ini file was missing from the root directory. I found a boot.ini.backup file in windows/pss directory and copied it to the root C: directory, and renamed it boot.ini. I then put the drive back in the original computer (with master driver setting), and turned it on. The computer booted and works fine.
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