Alright dude, this is actually pretty simple. I can't find instructions for it, but I can try to give it to you from memory here. I did it fifty million times... just the last time I did was a few years ago... 1. Put your original XP install disc that came with the computer in the drive (sounds like you have it). 2. You'll get a little message that says "press any key to boot from CD." So press any key. 3. Blue screen appears, it will load crap for awhile. 4. You'll be presented with some options: Set up Windows XP, repair using Recovery Console, or Quit. Choose "set up windows xp" by hitting enter. 5. Can't remember exactly where it goes from here. It it asks you to pick a partition, use the existing partition (the same one your original OS is on... likely whichever one is biggest if there's more than one). 6. If it asks if you want to format or not, choose to leave the file system as-is. (If there's no option for this and it demands that you format, your hard drive is messed up. In this case you should probably download knoppix and use that to get your files off.) 7. If it didn't already, it should be telling you that there's an existing installation of Windows on your machine. At this point, opt to install another copy. Then it should ask you whether you want to use the same location as the original installation, or pick a new one. Choose to pick a new one, and just type "WINDOWS2". 8. It should then set up, reboot, set up some more, and eventually you'll be at the default desktop. From there just browse to your WINDOWS2 folder, copy the file that was missing/corrupt, and paste it to the same location in your original WINDOWS folder. Then go Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab - Startup and Recovery -> Edit, and change your default to your original installation. Hope that helps. Let me know if I need to clarify something, I probably didn't remember exactly correctly on every step, but hopefully it's enough to get you there.
Wow, this worked except when I reached #8 on your list. Under 'Default operating system' it only list one option and that is for the new installation. Under 'Edit' I would need to manually edit start up in Notepad, is that what you are talking about? It is a file named boot and in it is the following: Do I just need to edit WINDOWS2 to say WINDOWS or do I need to edit something else as well? Should I edit nothing in this file? If I finally get my original Windows installation up and running, how do I remove the second one? Thanks for all your help. I've been able to salvage the much needed data using this method just in case a total reformat is required. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Alright, again, this is from memory, so I'm not completely 100% sure... From what I recall, I did almost always have to edit the text file manually. But I thought there normally might have been a couple installation lines in there rather than just one... I'm guessing that's because your boot file is one of the things that got messed up in the first place. The installation is there, the boot file just doesn't know it. So here's what ya do... 1. Make sure you copied the corrupt/missing file from your WINDOWS2 directory into your WINDOWS directory (that being system32\hal.dll). 2. Head back to Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab -> Startup and Recovery. You'll see a "Time to display list of operating systems" checkbox. If it isn't already checked, check it. Then set it to a good length of time... at least 10 seconds (you can lower this number later). This causes the machine to wait X seconds for you to pick an OS when you start up... when time runs out, it picks whatever's in the default line of the boot.ini file. Soooooo... 3. Hit that edit button again to open up your boot.ini file. Delete nothing, but simply add the original WINDOWS OS on its own line at the very bottom. So your boot.ini should now look like this: Code: [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS2 [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS2="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Notice that what's in quotes ("Microsoft Windows XP Professional") is what will display when you're picking an OS. So if you want to be able to differentiate, you could change the 2nd one to something else, though I never bothered doing this. ...in theory, simply replacing all instances of WINDOWS2 with WINDOWS might work, but if it didn't, you've left yourself no way to get back to the working installation. 4. So now, test it out. Restart the computer, and you should get a black screen with white text asking you to pick an OS. They should look identical (unless you changed the description for one of them). The top one is your default (WINDOWS2), so hit the down arrow and pick the second one (WINDOWS), and see if it gets anywhere. If it's fixed, switch WINDOWS to your default OS in your boot.ini file, reduce the OS selection delay, and you're done. If it doesn't work... oh well, you've still got your 2nd installation. As far as removing the 2nd installation... there's no really clean way to do it. You can always just drag the WINDOWS2 folder to the recycle bin and delete what you can. But really, with hard drives the size they are these days, the size of a fresh install of XP is pretty negligible. I'd say just leave it... heck, you never know if you might need it again. And on a totally unrelated note, the graphics card on my laptop just started dying this morning. I was hoping this thing would last longer, but getting a replacement motherboard is more trouble than it's worth without a warranty. Time to buy a new computer...
It turns out there are few files missing from the system32\config folder but I am unable to copy and paste them from the new location to the old one. Looks like a reformat and reinstall is inevitable. Files that are missing include are default and system. Unless there is a way to copy and paste these, I don't see anyway around a reformat and reinstall.
Oh wow, ALL that stuff got blown away, huh? Yeah, I don't think there's anything you can do then. At least you got your files back, though. Look on the bright side... you could be me. Hardware problem. No warranty. Forced to buy a new one very soon, even though I was hoping this one would last me another couple years.
Yeah, oh well I'm going to save my files then start the reformat process. I really don't have to worry about the parts, this laptop is under warranty until December of 2010. Thanks for all of your assistance though, I couldn't have got the data back without it.
Just when I think I have everything going great, BAM something bad happens. I formatted the partition where Windows was stored. Everything went fine. I installed XP again, everything went fine. I installed the drivers Dell had listed for my system. Everything went fine except I started getting the following messaged whenever I logged off and logged back on: I click OK and terminate and nothing bad happens. I proceed to install all the programs I previously had such as Trend, Firefox, Office, Vuze, etc. After installing all those, everything continued to go well. After several hours of setting programs, and surfing the Internet, etc. I press the Windows key and L to return to the accounts login screen. I noticed that the three active accounts all of a sudden have the same image (Chess) instead of the different ones that were originally assigned. I try to go into User Accounts and change them but there are no pictures available and the Change Picture Option is faded. I log back into my account and I look under the Start menu and only 1 program is listed out of the several I installed. That was not the only thing, there were many Windows basics missing from the list as well such as Paint, Calculator, Defrag, etc. I decided to restart the system. When it goes to boot up I get the same error message that I received when I started the page. I decided to install another copy of Windows on the partition. I was able to copy and paste the hal.dll file into the original Windows installation. I restarted the system again and attempted to boot the original Windows installation. It was successful and the system started but my Start menu and everything else I mentioned is still jacked up. When I logged in, Windows installed some updates and now it is asking to restart. I guess I'll try it. Anybody know what may be up with the system? I'm stumped.
Ohhhh... lame. That looks like a memory reference error. First thing you should check is whether your memory works properly. Go here: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html Grab the image and write it to a CD. Then boot off the CD. Check out Mainboard Tools when it boots up, and let any version of memtest run overnight. If it shows errors, you should replace your memory (or get a new computer). If that's not it, try testing the hard drive (Hard Disk Tools -> I think Hard Drive Diagnostic or something similar -> pick whatever first option is, maybe by pressing F1?). Just running a quick test should do the trick, but you can run the full just in case. That's pretty much the end of the easy tests you can do yourself. If those come up clean, it's almost certainly some other kind of hardware problem, since you installed to a freshly formatted partition. In that case there's nothing for it but sending it in for repair.
Perfect opportunity for me to post: But, seriously speaking, Pun, it's cool to see you keep trying stuff. Bottom line, you recovered all your files no? Usually, what I would do way back before XP or Vista is that I would just REINSTALL Winders again and it would find all the "program files". The only way to lose all your personal data was if you FORMATTED or re-Partitioned the drive in which all your personal data lived.
The program files are there, they just are not showing up under the start menu. I have to go to My Computer then C drive then Program Files then select the program from the list in order to open it. I'm guessing Drexlerfan22 may be right in assuming I have hardware issues. If that is the case, there should be no problems getting new parts because my warranty with Dell runs through December 2010. I'm going to talk to a colleague today at work and see if he has any suggestions as well as testing the hardware with the software listed by Drexlerfan22. If it is faulty, I'll contact Dell unless anybody else has other suggestions.
