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Boot problem

post #1 of 7
10/7/05 at 11:35pm
Thread Starter 
Ok, my Dell desktop says it's either missing the file "Windows\System32\hal.dll" or it's corrupted. Now, I've done all the things I can think of, and of course the way to fix this would be to put the recovery cd in and go to the repair console. So, I did this, but it asks me for an Administrator password... Now I don't remember even being asked to set a password, and I've tried all my passwords just in case I did set one, and none of them work. So, my question is, did Dell set a password with out me knowing? Does anyone have any experience with anything like this?
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post #2 of 7
10/7/05 at 11:51pm
The recovery console has a default password. You want to repair a file see if your windows disc has a recovery option IN windows.
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post #3 of 7
10/8/05 at 12:07am
Thread Starter 
I can't get "In windows". That's the whole point, I can't boot. And BTW, before someone suggests this, I've already tried just pressing enter for a blank password, and that doesn't work.
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post #4 of 7
10/8/05 at 1:47am
The administrator password is set during the final phase of setup, which, if you never reformatted, is a few screens after you first get your computer.

If you've totally lost it, there is no recovery method. What you should be able to do is a repair install of XP. This sets you back to whatever service pack level is on your CD so you'll have to run Windows Update when you're finished, but all your software and settings are left intact.

To do this, boot to the XP CD. At the first screen, it will ask if you want to repair or install, select the option to install. It will then detect your existing installation of Windows and ask if you want to repair that one, which you do. When it's done, provided it replaces the file in question (which 99% of the time it does), you'll be able to log in normally. At that time, I highly recommend you reset the local Administrator password so you never have this problem again.
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post #5 of 7
10/8/05 at 7:57pm
Thread Starter 
I tried that but it doesn't recognize my Windows system... Where it should list the windows system, it just says, "Partition2 <Local Disk> [NTFS] 38107MB <5809 MB free>". There is also a Partition1 [FAT] and an Unpartitioned space... One person said this might be because I have a service pack1 windows CD, and my system is actually service pack2. If that's the problem how would I get a service pack2 cd, without paying a big price?
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post #6 of 7
10/8/05 at 11:04pm
It should notice it regardless of service pack level. I've gone from SP2 all the way back to no service packs with this method. This means you have more than just one file missing, it's just that HAL.DLL is the first one missing that it encountered. If you want to try the other theory, if you know anyone with a Dell that got an XP SP2 CD, you can borrow theirs if they'll loan it to you.

Your only option at this point may be a reformat. If you can do a parallel install, in which you choose the option to leave the file system intact and install Windows into a different folder, you can do that to retain your data only. Otherwise, your only real chance is to determine what you originally set that password to. Be warned that you'll probably have to run the repair console multiple times to replace all the files that were missing.
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post #7 of 7
10/8/05 at 11:21pm
Thread Starter 
I think I'm just going to set the harddrive as a slave on another computer, save what I need, and reformat and install. I really hate to have to start over, but I guess it's the only option.

Thanks for the advice though.
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