Need Suggestions\Help

[Siddhartha]

On Dec 24th, my Windows XP Think Pad showed a BSOD that read it was having trouble with a file and needed to reboot. I rebooted and before it gets into Windows it says the Windows root>\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupted. "Please reinstall a copy of the above file."

The problem I am having is I can not find my Windows XP install disc.

Questions:
Is this result of a virus or something?
Where can I get a copy of Windows XP today. Is there an application I can use to get my laptop booted?

 

[stargazr]

There's a utility on Win XP install disc called Recovery Console, which allows you to run command-line tools for recovery. You can dowload it here:

http://forums.pcpitstop.com/index.php?/topic/150212-boot-to-recovery-console-wo-xp-cd/
You can restores files for boot-up

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

http://www.informationweek.com/news...ml?articleID=185301251&pgno=2&queryText=lllll

Here's a link to download the file itself (never tried this):

http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?hal

 

[Skitzer]

Google the hal.dll file, download it and put it on a thumb drive. Boot your Think Pad with an Ubuntu install disk. Rename then replace the old hal.dll with the new one.

 

[Skitzer]

http://www.ehow.com/how_5256275_install-haldll-file.html

 

[Siddhartha]

Everyone thank you for your help!
I fixed the problem by:
1. Plugging the laptop hard drive into my desktop system
2. Renamed the hal.dll file to old hal.dll.
3. Copied the hal.dll from my desktop system to the laptop's system32 folder.

I am posting this using the laptop.

I also antivirus scanned the laptop's hard drive before I did anything.

The Recovery Console app reported that it was not able to repair Windows because the hard drive was missing! This is why I checked it using my desktop system.