missing file cant boot xp please help??

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:33

Hi all this is now the second time this has happened, computer was working fine, turned it off, turned it back on and now wont boot, im getting this message half way through boot up:

windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.
<windows root>\system32\ha.dll

as i said this happened out of the blue last month and had to do a complete reinstall, all I have is the packard bell xp master cd and I dont get the option to repair files as i think you do with the official windows xp installation disc. Is there any way I can do this without a complete reinstall. I dont think i can take another 4 hour xp games and driver install,

wesley · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:50

you sure its ha.dll, not hal.dll?

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:52

wesley said:
you sure its ha.dll, not hal.dll?

sorry your right its a hal.dll, is that good or bad?

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:28

decided to do another reinstall :rolleyes:

this is really getting a pain, im scared to turn off in case its there when i boot up again

been reading up and its something to do with a boot.ini file,,, :confused:

as to what this is and does though so any help would be really appreciated. i would like to prevent this from happening again if possible.

Priapus · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:34

The only way I can see to stop it happening again is to shut down your pc the right way, everytime.

Start > Turn Off Computer > Turn off.

If it happens again, while using the above way. Then I'd start looking at your hard drive. May be a little faulty.

True_Scotsman · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:45

you should be able to use an original XP disc and use the repair option, this will just remove the windows files and keep everything where it should be.

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:48

I always use the windows shutdown, as i said it seems to be related to the boot.ini file but just trying to get my head round what this file does,I found how to save and edit it in windows but havnt a clue how its gonna help me resolve the problem.. :confused:

Kerplunk · 10 Mar 2006 at 13:49

Whats in your boot.ini file ? Post it up here.

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 14:45

Kerplunk said:
Whats in your boot.ini file ? Post it up here.

Heres what I see in the boot.ini file

[boot loader]
timeout=0
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\windows=''Microsoft windows xp home
C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat=''microsoft windows recovery console''cmdcons

all double dutch to me Im afraid, I have 2 hard drives set up in raid also if that helps.
thanks for your help

BigBoy · 10 Mar 2006 at 14:51

what sort of raid ? 1/0 stripe mirror? did the computer have a raid when you bought it?

turtle3 · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:02

its nvidea stripe setup in 0 raid array, and the system was purchased set up like this.

thanks

BigBoy · 10 Mar 2006 at 21:06

sounds like the Raid stripe linking is a little flakey put your windows cd in the drive and boot into the repair console (press r) and type chkdsk /r to do a full disk check for errors