pc just died

[Deacon]

wtf has gone on here ?


was using my pc everything working fine then all a sudden windows xp bluescreens and reboots

now it says it cant boot windows cos it cant find system 32 :censored:

can i just make a boot disk and repair this copy of xp thats on the machine :smash:


what could have caused it ? my hd fooked?

virus?



stuck on my server pc..... a p3 800mhz thats "built" into a cardboard box :D

[dan_blu]

sounds like dll files are missing ! my HD is on its last legs and i get some odd things happening .........cant you start in safe mode?

[Deacon]

wont boot windaz!
:D

[Deacon]

"windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"

"<winsdows root>\system32\hal.dll.

please reinstall a copy of this file

[voodoo_melon]

Could try the repair thing in windows setup. Boot off the cd and run the auto repair thing. Failing that (likely) do repair console instead and you can copy a good version of the file off a floppy.

Can post a copy here if you need it.

-edit- there is a recent (late Feb) worm (http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w97m.ortant@mm.html) which deletes this file along with others. Make sure you do a virus scan with up to date definitions.

[paul180sx]

looks like you have a pc you're working on - take a copy of hal.dll from it, stick it on a floppy, boot your duff one into dos, copy a:\hal.dll to c:\windows\system32\hal.dll should sort it ...

[paul180sx]

snap ..

[Deacon]

this pcs running 2k


so if i got a copy of the file i could put it onto a floppy and go into dos.


mmmm k

how do you get into dos ?

[voodoo_melon]

Windows 98 bootdisk.

But if your c: is ntfs it won't work, 98 can't seentfs. You'd need ntfsdos or the recoverty console :wack:

[Tenman]

for 2K you'll need a boot floppy, just hold down shift and press F5 when it's booting

[Deacon]

nfts is being used .......running xp :)

[--Lorien--]

Lookie here!

Hall.dll (http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000490.htm)

May be of some help.

[Deacon]

ill go get my cd copy of xp and try N repair the system using the xp disk :)

[paul180sx]

http://www.bootdisk.com for all your boot-disk type needs :)

[mattpayne]

mmmm.... I hope yo uhave a backup of some of your data...

NTFS - only way your gonna fix that is with the recovery console... no boot disk will give you ful access to an NTFS partition...

with the demise of this file, the 'repair' option probably wont be availiable booting from the OS CD

in the recovery console you _should_ be able to replace that... but when that goes it usually takes a bunch of registry settings with it...

theres a bunch of help on the microsoft knoledge library - common problem here at my schools... but i usually just rebuild the PC - simplest way to fix!!

good luck... you WILL need it...

[Deacon]

BOLLOCKS :mad:


so i might need to take the hd out and get the data onto one of my other pcs :indiff: before i try and reinstall

[Deacon]

so the os boot thing prolly wont work? :(

[voodoo_melon]

Maybe, but try it anyway. Worth thing that'll happen is you screw windows up more, but seeing as it doesn't work anyway that hardly matters :wack:

[mattpayne]

youll be able to boot the os using the XP CD and do an install or use the recovery console, its just the repair option that usually doesnt show up in these situations...

or you can boot using any other boot floopy... but all your NTFS partions will show as 'invalid drive specification' or something...

[paul180sx]

just a thought - boot it with the CD and before you do anything else, try running scandisk. Just because Windows can't find hal.dll, doesn't necessarily mean it's fooked, it may be a just a slightly damaged sector that scandisk can sort. works occasionally - not often, but you may be lucky ...

[Deacon]

o.k :)


off to fetch my well used xp disk from a friend

in trusty car ( just so it dont break on me)

that would make my day ! :D

[voodoo_melon]

We get errors about winsrv.dll missing sometimes even though it's there. Caused by a knackered registry so we just rebuild it. Could be the same in this case but might be just the file if youre lucky.

[Deacon]

Originally posted by paul180sx
just a thought - boot it with the CD and before you do anything else, try running scandisk. Just because Windows can't find hal.dll, doesn't necessarily mean it's fooked, it may be a just a slightly damaged sector that scandisk can sort. works occasionally - not often, but you may be lucky ...


what do i need to do to get scandisk to run from the bios startup then or do i need the boot disk ?

[Deacon]

come to think of it .......it asked to do a scancheck this morning when i booted and i just skipped past it :o


could mean anything ?

[Dave_S]

You'll need a bootdisk that can read NTFS partitions if you can't boot of the CD for some reason.

HAL = Hardware Abstraction Layer and that file is pretty fecking serious!!! How it's gone missing I don't know. HDD on it's way out sounds plausible.

Dave

[Yak]

See if you can find a copy of ERD commander. Tis very good in that sort of situation. :thumbs:

[Deacon]

when i put the xp cd in the drive it gives me the option to do a "automatied system recovery"


what is this?

[voodoo_melon]

That's the automatic thing which tends to be a bit pants. Try it anyway, might fix it :)

[Yak]

+ it'll only work if you have backup / made some disaster recovery disk already or in the recent past as it trys to find this data on the HD to fix the system.

[Deacon]

asked for a disk :)

going for repair option ....see what it says

if all fails....off round a a friends who has a SATA motherboard

get all the data i want off my pc

[Deacon]

gave me the repair option


its examining the HD now :)


hmmm

[Deacon]

hmmmm.......wondering if its doing anything ? it says its examining the HD ........but how long should it take!!

its a 120 gb hd with 95 Gb of crap on it

Hd dont seem to be seaking much :confused:

[Deacon]

still !!!! it says its examaning :mad:

[voodoo_melon]

Is the hdd going at all?

[Deacon]

yeah man :)


gonna build another copy of windows onto a other Hd i got then run in that machine and had a look at that hd ! i think its the easyest way :)

[mattpayne]

just start again from scratch... it allows you the oportunity to find and save so much new and varied porn! :wack:

XP can really hammer a hard drive... especally on older systems where its doing a lot of virtual memory stuff... thats what kills my older XP machines...

[Deacon]

not reaaaaaly a option Tbh matt :)

[mattpayne]

i cant remember if it works, but you could be able to resuce all your data by building another XP machine, stuffing the duff HDD in as a slave and just browsing to it...

is the scandisk still going?? or you got bored and cancelled it???

[Deacon]

it says its scanning for errors !


what im planning on doing is making another xp machine up and getting it updated and swapping that file over and looking for differences in the windows folder :)

ill also scan it and do a anti virus and scan disk on it


at the moment its still saying its doing that "repair" scanning ....seems to be talking a long time...how long does it useally take? its got like 90 GB of stuff to make its way through

see how it go's i guess ! :)

[voodoo_melon]

Would be far easier to just transfer all your data onto the other disk and use that one. Or if you've just borrowed the other disk back up your stuff onto it then format your disk and transfer stuff back.

Set it up with 2 partitions so if something stuffs up again you can format, reinstall windows etc and not lose all your porn.

[Deacon]

why not use the busted HD as a 2nd hd and boot up on the first one !

ill try fixing it

then ill do the 2nd way :)

could re do the windows instalation on the hd ...wont loose any data :)

[mattpayne]

if you just reinstall windows, it will by default wipe the my documents folder....

as voodo says... its always a good idea to use seperate partions for system and data...

ive never done a scandisk on an ntfs partion, but nearly 3 hours....!!!

[voodoo_melon]

I've set my documents, favorites and my outlook express save folder on my d:, so if windows dies I can format it and not lose all my stuff :)

[paul180sx]

still having fun with this then? :)

Mellon's suggestion of an extra partition when you get it going is definitely the way to go. I have 3 - one for system, one for data and a small one for backup. From time to time, I use the ASR wizard to back up system state data onto my third partition, that way if Windows goes pear shaped I can restore it all without losing anything. Started doing it when I installed a SATA HD - don't trust this new technology ;)

Search on Kazaa for Partition Magic - it will let you create your extra partitions without needing to blitz the HD ...

[mattpayne]

:) data security mad here :)

2 partions on the workstation, most data on the server which has hardware raid 3 on 6 scsi disks and both machines are backed up on DDS3 tapes :D

[paul180sx]

it allows you the oportunity to find and save so much new and varied porn!

Matt, that is overkill just to keep some pictures of naked ladies ;)

[voodoo_melon]

I used to use Raid 0 over two hdds. I knew one was on the way out to replaced them both and literally 5 minutes after I got all my data off one of the original disks died :eek:

Got a 250gb stat and 60gb now :) And a 20gb usb2 laptop disk :D

[christopher]

Originally posted by Skyline_Matt
if you just reinstall windows, it will by default wipe the my documents folder....



Not exactly true... I've reinstalled Windows 2000 over the top of an existing installation a fair few times, and it doesn't replace the files, it numerates the folder which contains the data for the userprofile. Currently i'm on C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator.CHRISTOPHER.004

:D

[christopher]

the ****er keeps on ringing me up for help too, and there's only so much i can do when i'm living 300 miles from him now :D

[Deacon]

so what am i missing chris


fat file or some thing :o


anyways i could replace this in dos.......because windows wont let me access it :rolleyes:

[voodoo_melon]

Windows XP has some features which would be great if they did something worthwhile. There is an automatic file restore feature that will restore certain files wich get deleted from a hidden folder in the windows dir. Go to c:\program files\netmeeting and delete all the file in there (assuming you don't use netmeeting :o), after a few seconds they all reappear. It doesn't protect things like ntldr though, so although netmetting can't be deleted you can cripple the system by removing one file :rolleyes:

[christopher]

dunno mate. tis bodged n shit innit :P


you could tryyyyyyyyyyyy doing the recovery console thing, failing that go searching for some tool that'll let you repair or reconstruct the master file table record - but I dunno any specifics, it's never happened to me.

[Deacon]

mmmmmmmmm



any ideas?