hi all, i just received an error message when i turned on my laptop- windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows root>\system32\hal.dll. please re-install a copy of the above file the laptop was fine and i simply restarted it and i got this. its a sony vaio running xp media centre edition 2005. i dont have an xp disc as it was pre-installed but i do have 2 recovery discs i made myself-1 system and 1 application. im hoping not to go down the recovery route as id prefer not lose data etc.. would recovery be possible if a system file or files are missing? any help on what caused it or what to do would be appreciated, thanks!
Anytime you have an abnormal shutdown while the computer is writing to the hard drive, you might get that kind of error saying that files are missing or corrupt. Since you didn't purposely remove any system files, more than likely they are corrupt. This is an easy fix, but you need a windows installation cd to bootup and get a command prompt. You need to type in a dos command without the parenthesis (chkdsk c: /f). I've encountered this problem on windows xp pro several times and the chkdsk has always fixed it. No need to restore or reinstall windows. If you can't get a windows installtion cd, the only other option is to remove the drive and install it on an external usb enclosure and run a chkdsk or scandisk (with boxes to fix errors checked) on another computer. Don't slave it inside a computer because you never want to bootup with 2 c: drives.
