hal.dll problem in Windows 7

Hi everyone,

I'm having a hal.dll missing or corrupt error since yesterday. My computer won't start and I can't use safe mode etc. I can boot from Win 7 but the startup repair doesn't help nor does system recovery and i'm stuck with just the command prompt. I read that the problem is related to boot.ini so I'm asking help to edit it and get rid of this problem forever. I previously had XP and upgraded to 7. I don't have dual boot, just Win 7.

So, I have 2 hard drives;
1st one, 2 partitions CWin 7 installed) and D:
2nd one E: (no other os)

How should my boot.ini look like? How can I get rid of this problem without formatting (which I have to do otherwise)

simonadebisi said:

Hi everyone,

I'm having a hal.dll missing or corrupt error since yesterday. My computer won't start and I can't use safe mode etc. I can boot from Win 7 but the startup repair doesn't help nor does system recovery and i'm stuck with just the command prompt. I read that the problem is related to boot.ini so I'm asking help to edit it and get rid of this problem forever. I previously had XP and upgraded to 7. I don't have dual boot, just Win 7.

So, I have 2 hard drives;
1st one, 2 partitions CWin 7 installed) and D:
2nd one E: (no other os)

How should my boot.ini look like? How can I get rid of this problem without formatting (which I have to do otherwise)

Hall.dll has very little (if anything) to do with boot.ini. It is the interface between your devices and software. Boot.ini just configures the boot options.

Are you sure you did a repair install? did you boot from the dvd?


Ken


EDIT::: Just checked my own system and no boot.ini. If I am not mistaken boot.ini is from an earlier OS

I can't do a repair install because when I do a dvd boot it says I must first start Windows normally and do the install from there, and I can't even start Windows in a safe mode. I have Win 7 Ultimate and Win 7 Enterprise and both does the same thing.

This hal.dll problem occured out of nowhere, I haven't changed any system files or anything.

EDIT::: Just checked my own system and no boot.ini. If I am not mistaken boot.ini is from an earlier OS[/QUOTE]

I know, it's from Win XP but I don't even have XP installed. I upgraded from XP and deleted the Windows.old folder. I've been using 7 from since.

Win7 and vista dont use hal.dll. XP used to.

Try rebuilding the BCD. You said you can get into command prompt from the install dvd? In that case,
at the command prompt, type (each command on separate line):

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

Hit Enter after each command. Please note you should do this only in the Recovery environment i.e. when booted from the install dvd or a Win7 recovery disk. You can also download a recovery disk from the link below.

Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files

simonadebisi said:

I can't do a repair install because when I do a dvd boot it says I must first start Windows normally and do the install from there, and I can't even start Windows in a safe mode. I have Win 7 Ultimate and Win 7 Enterprise and both does the same thing.

This hal.dll problem occured out of nowhere, I haven't changed any system files or anything.

Where do you buy your OS from?

Bill2 said:

Win7 and vista dont use hal.dll. XP used to.

Try rebuilding the BCD. You said you can get into command prompt from the install dvd? In that case,
at the command prompt, type (each command on separate line):

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

Hit Enter after each command. Please note you should do this only in the Recovery environment i.e. when booted from the install dvd or a Win7 recovery disk. You can also download a recovery disk from the link below.

Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files

Thanks. Will try that and post feedback.