Windows failed to boot b/c of corrupt .dll, now disk boot failure

[imported_niko]

Well, now I've done it.

My computer has been a bit sluggish lately (no spyware/viruses), so I decided to give her a good ol' nudge and defrag. Unfortunately, I decided to go against my better judgment by not using Window's included defragger. I downloaded DirMS (http://www.dirms.com/) and it crashed midway through installation. Rebooting my pc led to this:

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.

Ok, so no big deal right?

I attempted to restore the missing .dll, but I never made it to the recovery console. Instead of going happily on my way thanking my lucky stars, my situation just got 100x times worse. When I clicked "R" to Repair, I got shot with this:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Setup cannot continue.

I shut off my computer and opened her up just to be sure the HD (it's a SATA) was connected properly. Going by my luck today, it was.

Restarting the PC, without the XP CD in the disk drive, I encountered this message:

Disk Boot Failure, insert system disk and press enter.

Well, I did just that and it still isn't being recognized. I've gone through Windows setup about 5 times now and checked the BIOS and my HD is nowhere to be seen.

Is this really a hard drive failure?

My computers specifications are:

AMD Sempron 2800+
1GB DDR400 (512x2)
160GB Hitachi SATA HD
eVGA 7600 GTS
Fortron Source 400W PSU

I'm using XP SP2; haven't made any backups recently and am now regretting it. I really don't want lose the photos I just took of the family vacation.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[mechBgon]

What motherboard is it? Some motherboards' SATA controllers would require that disk controller drivers be provided during Windows Setup (on a floppy).

 

[btcomm1]

Yeah, but he said he checked his bios and the HD is not listed there either so it in fact does look like an HD failure. Did you make sure the power connector was connected properly to the drive?

Are you sure you were looking in the right place in the bios and it wasn't listed there or you just could not find where it should be listed?

It was probably sluggish because the HD was going out.

 

[daveybrat]

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.

Almost every time i see this error on customer's pc's (and i've seen this one a lot!), it's because their hard drive is dying and/or developing bad sectors.

If you were just getting this message i'd say you have a 50/50 shot of recovering data from your drive.....however getting disk boot failure messages ensures an almost zero percent chance of any data recovery on your part.

Your only alternatives are likely to be professional data recovery services that are probably not worth spending money on unless your data is invaluable.

 

[RebateMonger]

If the drive isn't being seen in the BIOS, it's a hardware failure - data cables, drive power cables, or a component of the hard drive itself.

Hard drives are dirt cheap. Hopefully you keep backups of anything important.

 

[oynaz]

You can try running the diagnostics software from the manufacturer's website.

 

[imported_Baloo]

For futrure reference, a missing or corrput hal.dll is a big deal.

EDIT: Ok, having read thru this thread now, definately appears your hard drive has failed. Do you have another pc you could plug it into - it may be the controller that's failed, and not the drive.
Also, that defrag software you used probably did not cause this.