For some reason I could not log in so I may appear as unregistered on this forum.

Any way I'm getting a problem at bootup that is connected to SYSTEM32/CONFIG/SYSTEM error.

Could not start WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION today because of error message

< windows root > \system32\hal.dll

corrupt file at startup.

Can't boot into safemode or restore to early point. All I can do is get into RECOVERY CONSOLE.

I did a bootcfg \rebuild

Which did not cure the problem. I now have two operating boot choices at startup

One with the system32\hal.dll corrupt file error.

And the other with a

WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from selected boot disk.

This is the exact error code when trying to start the first boot option

<windows root> \system32\hal.dll

is corrupt or missing.

So now after the bootcfg /rebuild I now have two boot choices with two different errors.

Both read WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION

Is there a way to grab this file from the boot cd ?

Following directions in forum did not work either. I am now stuck at same place as another guy on this same forum. If you are reading this and have found a fix please leave info here.

In RECOVERY CONSOLE

I TRIED THIS:

md tmp
copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak
delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system

After typing >

md tmp

I GET : A DIRECTORY OR FILE WITH THE NAME TMP ALREADY EXISTS.

So I do the next step:

copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\tmp\system.bak

I GET: "The system cannot find the file or directory specified"

SO i typed :

1copy C:\WINDOWS\repair\system.bak C:\windows\system32\config\system.1

I get COMMAND IS UNRECOGNIZED How is the above typed correctly? Exactly as shown, character per character???? With the full stop after system and the following characters exactly as seen?

Where do I go from here? How do I get XP back up and running. It would be simple if there was a way to easily reinstall the corrupt .dll file. from the CD, but I have not found a way. I have recovered from serious errors in the past without a need for a reboot. I want to recover from this one too.

I am on XP service pack 2.

Also What do I do now that I have two boot options available. How do I get rid of one? More importantly how do I fix this? There has to be a way. A lot of you have solved it, but I keep getting errors.

Please help.

Is this a dual boot system?
The missing or cannot find hal.dll, \windows\system32\hal.dll, or \winnt\system32\hal.dll error message may be experienced on a Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP system when the boot.ini becomes corrupted or when a user is attempting to dual boot a computer.

If the boot.ini is found on the computer and does not appear to be corrupted and/or if the hal.dll file is missing it is recommended that you reinstall your Windows operating system

Okay, I dedicated myself to an afternoon of fixing both these problems. Solved, cured. There was no need to reformat. There was no need to lose any important files. Here's how I did it.

Most importantly here is what lead up to the problem. I was watching a movie from my laptop connected to the TV. There was a power outage in the neighborhood, so I unplugged the S Video connection from my laptop and continued watching the movie. When the power came back on, I plugged the laptop back into T.V with the LAPTOP on. When the movie was done. I got little popup errors. I had to manually shutdown the computer, by pressing the power button. When I pressed it back on, that's when I got at first a hal.dll file is missing error.

I went into RECOVERY CONSOLE and copied the hal.dl_ file from the CD ROM. I did a search on INTERNET that instructed me how to do this. Ignore the one that says EXPAND. Use copy instead. And do a DIR D: or DIR E: to figure out what your DVD/CD ROM is using. Mine oddly enough was E: in one boot and D: in another boot. This is because it shifts when you set your bios to boot the CD/DVD rom drive at startup.

After this I did a bootcfg /rebuild

It will ask you 3 questions. These are the answers:

A) Select Y for YES.

B) select your current operating system EXAMPLE: WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION
C) TYPE: /fastdetect

This now gave me a new operating system option to bootup at startup and this new one I got the windows\system32\config\system pain the butt.

At any time if I could have I would have done a windows recovery re-install, but it would not allow that option, so it was seriously screwed up. I needed to put windows back together again so I could eventually do a recovery install, where windows is reinstalled without losing all of your files.

Now to solve the windows\system32\config\system error :


This is Microsoft's solution, but for those of us who get an error message after the first step, this is what you go ahead and do.

STEP 1:

GET INTO RECOVERY CONSOLE, by booting with your CD installation disk and pressing R. To get CD to load you need to go into BIOS at startup and shift the CD/DVD ROM to first place. It's easy to figure out, once you are in BIOS.

IN RECOVERY CONSOLE : TYPE THE FOLLOWING. (ENTER)AFTER EACH LINE.

md tmp
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak

If you are missing this file you will get an error message right here. Forget it. Just skip it and go on to the next. Take great care to type exactly as shown below.


copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak

delete c:\windows\system32\config\system

Again you will get an error message right here, because there is no existing system file to delete. Skip this step. Go on to next.

delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\default

copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system

Here and this is the important part. There was no system file, so the computer actually restored this file god knows from where. But now we have the system file back into place. Follow the last steps to restore files we erazed.

copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

EXIT and reboot. You should be able to get into WINDOWS now. I still had some problems in Windows such as not being able to connect to internet. So I went ahead and did a recovery reinstalation of windows XP home Edition, just to make sure all .dll and other files were put in again and this time I say forget Windows XP service pack two, because ever since I upgraded to service pack 2 I have had errors of this nature. Every two months I have a major problem to solve. And without the need of a reformat.

Hope this helps the rest of you. Now all I have to do is retweak windows and update all important drivers, but everything is okay again.