boot problem

[chuckz47]

Hello everybody

My XP system stopped working after a BIOS flash (AWARD bios, GA board).
There were no problems during the flash, but restart gave me error messages (missing hal.dll). I found plenty of info about this (possibly mbr corrupted etc.), and followed advices, but nothing helped.
I have several disk partitions, all are OK (using Acronis partition manager's boot CD), POST shows the disks OK, but does not boot to Windows.

I tried reformatting one partition and set up a Windows reinstall with Fdisk format. Still the same.
Tried another disk - Windows is loading from the Installation CD, then won't boot to the hard drive.
Therefore, if it is a boot record problem, or a partition problem, or a BIOS problem - at this point I am at a loss. (I tried fixmbr and fixboot from the Recovery console).

Should I try to low format the disks (I am not sure how - with the manufacturer's software?) to get rid of all partitions in order to create a clean boot record? Is there another way to fix the boot table?

Or is my BIOS chip damaged and I should try reflashing just before giving up (I returned to the previous BIOS version, BTW, but it did not help).

Any advice would be appreciated

 

[Harvey]

I found a number of possible solutions, on this page which you may alreay have found and/or tried.

Obviously, you're on another working computer to post this thread. Connect the failing system's drive to this or another working machine, and use Windows search to look for hal.dll on all partitions. On my machine (XP Pro, SP 3), it's in C:\Windows\System32.

If it isn't on the drive, copy it from another machine and paste it, there. If you do it from a machine booted to XP, you should be able to copy it from the working machine to where it belongs on your other drive.

This problem may be caused by a failing or failed drive so the above may not fix it. If you can't re-install Windows on a freshly formatted drive, suspect the worst, and install Windows on another drive. If your original drive is still readable when connected as a slave, you can copy your critical files from it once you have a stable new installation.

Which reminds me... As long as you're using Acronis products, you might want to invest in another drive and a copy of Acronis True Image to clone your working drive. If you ever have another failure like this, you can use it to restore your drive to the last backup condition without having to re-install your programs. If you ever encounter a catastrophic failure, your backup drive will work without re-installating anything. True Image also lets you create a bootable recovery CD to restore your drive from your backup.

If you have Seagate/Maxtor or Western Digital drives, both companies include a free copy of True Image with their disk tools. The only constraint is that at least one of the drives in the chain (source or target) must be from the manufacturer from whom you got the tools.

If you're still using XP, the old versiion of Norton Ghost is even easier to use. You run your backups and restorations from a bootable floppy drive or, if your machine allows, from a flash drive formatted to boot to DOS and containing the Ghost program and a mouse driver.

HP used to give away a free utility that would format a USB flash drive to FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS. You can download it here as HPUSBBOOTTOOL.zip.

This file contains:

• HP USB disk storage format tool V2.0.6 HPUSBFW.exem renamed hpflash1.exe - This installs the Drive Key, the program that creates a bootable flash drive.
  
  
• A second compressed file that contains COMMAND.COM from DOS 7 (Win 98) and boot files, such as a CD ROM driver, etc. required to do more than you'll need until you want to run DOS tasks that may require them. (see below).

1. Extract the files, and Install DriveKey.

2. Place the added files in a folder under the installed program folder, C: \Program Files\DriveKey.

3. Place a copy of COMMAND.COM from the above extracted file in yet another folder under C: \Program Files\DriveKey.

4. Place a copy of Mouse.Com in the same folder that contains only Command.Com.

When you run DriveKey, it will ask for the location of the boot files you want to use. For most DOS programs, all you will need is COMMAND.COM, MSDOS.SYS, IO.SYS and a mouse driver. Directing the program to that folder will create the bootable drive with only these files.

I have used this utility to create bootable flash drives for DOS 6.22 and DOS 7. It didn't work with DR-DOS.

Good luck.

 

[C1]

Sounds like you made a major change that the XP Installation doesnt like (HAL mis-match at a very primitive level; BIOS may not like your HDD now). A possibility is to attempt a WIN XP repair.

If this doesnt work, I would setup the XP on a new/clean HDD then try to image the OS over after it is installed to satisfaction.

Oh yes, flashing firmware is always risky so dont do that unless you are sure that you have to. Sometimes BIOSes have a restore from backup option so check to see if that exists for you in your case.

 

[chuckz47]

Thank you guys for taking time to explain the possibilities to me.
I am on that stage when I've already tired to copy-paste the possibly missing hal.dll, and I also was able to create images of my partitions (some were already made before, some I was able to create using the Acronis True Image startup disk). So, I should not have lost much data (hopefully).

I tried to reinstall Windows on each of my 2 HDD. And none was successful - Windows installation starts, then it requires reboot in the middle, and my computer still refuses to boot to Windows, and asking for a CD instead.

I suspect that BIOS became corrupted, or for some other reason it does not recognize the boot records on my disks. I've reinstalled Windows XP with the formatting option, so I guess, the new boot record has been written?
I am not sure about that.

My question: is the XP installation formatting supposed to be sufficient for generating a working boot table?
Is it worth trying wiping the partitions (created with the Acronis Disk Director - they are still there)?
Is my last resource reflashing the BIOS?
And then go and buy myself a new motherboard?

At this point I am trying to narrow the problem down to possibly the BIOS gone bad.

Is the boot record generated by Windows during the installation process? Or during the low level format? If the OS has installed OK on both disks that I tried, and the True Image shows all the partitions after the emergency CD reboot, then there is nothing wrong with the disks.
Therefore why Windows won't boot? Does it mean that the BIOS chip is corrupted? Can it be fixed? (I checked the BIOS setup repeatedly, with the booting sequence, etc.)

Sorry for the long post.
Maybe someone has ideas...

 

[Harvey]

Did you try clearing the CMOS with the jumper or by removing the battery for around 30 seconds? That may be enough if the BIOS became corrupted.

If that fixes the basic function and allows it to to work, you may have solved the problem. If so, you may be lucky, but if it acts the least bit squirrely, I'd consider starting over by wiping and resetting the partition and then formatting it in case the previous corrupted settings caused bad data to be written to the drive.

Sorry, I don't know enough to answer the rest of your questions. Again, good luck.

 

[chuckz47]

Thanks Harvey

Yes, I cleared the CMOS, replaced the battery, reflashed the BIOS, then reinstalled XP
and yes, I have obviously the partition-related problem, that need some exploring. At this point Windows is starting in safe mode only, since it's confused between two identical installations that I got as a result of all this fixing, and I got the following disk labels in the Disk Management:
csystem), Hboot).

It seems that the PC boots from one partition, then works from the other?
Since I am not sure how to make it to boot from csystem) - changing letter assignments?
Maybe I'll do some research on that
If not, I will certainly follow your advice, delete all partitions, and reinstall one more time. D:

Good new though that BIOS seems OK

thanks again

 

[chuckz47]

Fresh installed XP -
on a new SATA 500 GB disk

The old RAID configuration made of two 80 GB SATA disks
is recognized in BIOS but

Disk magager in XP shows 1: 75 GB and 2: 149 GB

meaning that in addition to the 2-SATA RAID (149 GB considering some lost - inallocated - space) it shows one of these two SATA as a separate disk??
I searched this topic and it seems that lots of folks are having some problems with SATA.
Need help!
thanks in advance

 

[chuckz47]

Windows XP Device Manager is also showing extra partitions (extra storage) in the OS SATA drive - like for the 500 GB HDD is shows an additional 60 GB on an extra partition, that is, duplicating the 60 GB of the active partition used by Windows XP.

I think I should post this in Storage