I set the BIOS to boot from the CDROM, but I still get the message and the
CDROM won't boot. I really don't want to reformat the hard drive.

Rock, you're right that it's a corrupt Boot.ini, since the last thing I did
was to modify the Boot.ini to remove the 2nd version of Windows.

Can anyone tell me why the boot diskette I created on my main system won't
let me see my C Drive on the bad machine? I can boot from the boot diskette,
but not change to the C:. Suggestions?

Thanks, Steve

"Rock" wrote:

> Steve wrote:
>
> > I had a backup machine that I inadvently installed 2 copies of Win Home XP
> > on. I decided to clean things up, and now have a problem. I installed SP2,
> > and removed the 2nd version based on an article I found in the Knowledge
> > Base. Lastly, I edited the Boot.ini according to the instructions. When I
> > reboot my machine I get the following error at the DOS prompt:
> > <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt.
> >
> > I made a boot diskette on my main machine and copied hal.dll onto it. I can
> > boot from the diskette, but the C Drive isn't there (DOS won't let me change
> > to it, nor can I copy the missing DLL).
> >
> > Unfortunately, I don't remember enough about DOS to go beyond this step. Can
> > anybody help me. Thanks, Steve
>
> [Courtesy the late MVP Alex Nichol]
>
> That message is rather misleading. It happens because the boot.ini file
> that tells the boot where to look for 'Windows' is damaged, so it is
> looking for files in the wrong place - hal.dll just happens to be the
> first one it looks for. Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot
> the XP CD and, instead of Setup, take the immediate R for Repair.
> Assume any password requested is blank, and TAB over.
>
> Use
> Attrib -H -R -S C:\boot,ini
> DEL C:\boot.ini
> to delete the bad one
> BootCfg /Rebuild
>
> to search for Windows installations and make a new one.
>
> --
> Rock
> MS MVP Windows - Shell/User
>
>