Missing hal.dll

[Chupaweed]

I have NT4 Server installed in one of my servers and today after a software upgrade when the computer restarted this error came out:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Winnt root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the following file

Can someone please tell me how to do that in NT4 because it does not want bootup and if someone knows the cause of it??

[Gabriel]

The file is there - Read all of What I have written

IMHO what you have is a simple BOOT.INI file problem.
BOOT.INI file is responisble for Starting Windows NT based computer.
It "tells" the computer where and which OS resides on Which Controller/Disk/Partition.
If the file is missing - copy it from another Windows NT into the Boot partition (YES there are NTFS drivers for DOS).
You will have to find out the correct Information - Windows NT uses ARC Naming convention (Numbers as opposed to drive letters).
For example:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"

Says that on the first Controller (if SCSI with no bios than the line starts with SCSI).
on the first disk (MASTER) on the first partition.

I saw this situation Thousand of times - Boot.ini gets corrupted or Accidently Deleted.

Tip - in order to easily get the Partition Number you can Use partition Magic and view the number.

Another Hint - if you have RDISK /SAM you can starr the Dangerous and Painfull Recovery Procedure.

My best advice to You is to go on the manual option - You will learn a lot from It.


For more information about Boot.INI goto :
http://support.microsoft.com/default...;en-us;Q311578
(Boot.ini hasn't changed a bit since NT4.0).

A lot of Good Luck Wishes,
Gabriel

[Chupaweed]

Can I use win2000 recovery console to put back hal.dll in NT4

[Gabriel]

You don't get it right....
Nothing is wrong with Hal.DLL - check Boot.ini.
Hal.dll cannot be replaced during OS work - it is one important file (Hardware abstraction Layer).
Check Boot.ini - This is the way.

Good Luck again,
Gabriel