Dual Booting 7 with XP problem

[Nikolay]

I was dual booting Windows 7 build 7201 x64 with XP but recently felt like formatting my drive with 7 on it and did a clean install of build 7232 x64. I tried adding an entry for XP with EasyBCD but when I try to boot up XP I get a "missing system32/hall.dll" error and tells me to install it. Windows 7 is on my C drive, XP is on my second hard drive.

 

[andythecurefan]

when you add XP using EasyBCD make sure you change the drive letter to correspond with the one XP is on, and you may need to copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files to the root of your XP. these files are generally found on your XP disc in the i386 folder of your XP install disc.file:///D:/NTDETECT.COM

 

[sup3rsprt]

XP is on my second hard drive.

Lets see your boot.ini. You might have to change the rdisk and/or partition value.

 

[andythecurefan]

Lets see your boot.ini. You might have to change the rdisk and/or partition value.

they would be using the vista bootloader to add XP, so why would boot.ini matter?

 

[sup3rsprt]

yes you can add an entry to the Vista/7 boot manager, but the boot.ini is still used.

 

[Nikolay]

I have ntldr, ntdetect, and msdia80.dll on both drives

 

[sup3rsprt]

what about boot.ini ?

If the boot.ini is incorrect you can get this exact error.

when I try to boot up XP I get a "missing system32/hall.dll" error and tells me to install it.

 

[Nikolay]

I don't have boot.ini in either drive

 

[sup3rsprt]

are you sure? it will be a hidden file.

If you dont have one, create it. Here is mine:

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=4
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /FASTDETECT /NoExecute=OptIn

P.S. - rdisk is the hard disk number and partition is obviously the partition number. You may have to tweak those values to get it right on your system.

 

[Nikolay]

If it's hidden then I probably do have it. Nothing has changed to my XP drive prior to formatting my drive with 7 so I'm guessing something is wrong with the C drive. Here are screenshots of my setup with Easybcd.

 

[sup3rsprt]

hal.dll is like the first file Windows XP tries to load. It can't find it because the bootloader is looking in the wrong place. This is what boot.ini is meant to solve.

"Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows could not start" error messages when you start your computer

 

[Nikolay]

Alright I will try to repair the boot.ini file, thanks for the help and will report back.

 

[torrentg]

Yep. To confirm, I have had a few instances where I had to edit my boot.ini file in a dual or triple boot scenario to get XP booting properly from the boot menu. Things that can or definitely will cause the need for this are adding or removing drives in the pc, adding a usb flash drive that was never there before etc...

Good advice sup3rsprt. +1

 

[sup3rsprt]

Alright I will try to repair the boot.ini file, thanks for the help and will report back.

Do not use the steps in that guide, or it might hose the Windows 7 boot manager. I only gave that link as proof that Microsoft detailed this same issue.

As I recommended earlier, just take the boot.ini I gave you and adjust it accordingly.

P.S. - Thanks torrentg!

 

[Nikolay]

My XP partition was cluttered with junk so I formatted and reinstalled XP. Problem is now gone, thanks for all the help guys. I'm off to install drivers.