Dual Boot with Windows - Hal.dll Missing or Corrupt

[iBrood]

I have installed pc-bsd alongside Windows Xp via a standard graphical install, and now when I select DOS on my boot loader, I get the error:

HAL.dll Corrupt or MIssing

Now, I know that there is a way to repair this using the Windows Recovery console but this will remove all the data in my MBR and I wont be able to boot to pc-bsd.

Please help.

Abhinav

[antik]

Now, I know that there is a way to repair this using the Windows Recovery console but this will remove all the data in my MBR and I wont be able to boot to pc-bsd.

Please help.


From Installcd rescue mode fire:
# boot0cfg -B ad0

[iBrood]

Sorry, but I'm completely new to BSD/Linux. Could you please tell me where the rescue mode is. I was unable to locate it in the CD's main menu or it's installation menu.

I tried using the command you provided in the emergency shell in the utilities in the installation men but it had no effect.

[antik]

Sorry, but I'm completely new to BSD/Linux. Could you please tell me where the rescue mode is. I was unable to locate it in the CD's main menu or it's installation menu.

I tried using the command you provided in the emergency shell in the utilities in the installation men but it had no effect.

Emergency is the "rescue" mode. Thiss command would install BSD bootloader to MBR.

[iBrood]

As I said, I did try that command in the emergency shell but it had no effect.

[antik]

As I said, I did try that command in the emergency shell but it had no effect.

What is your drive configuration? Is it primary or secondary, first drive or second?

More information (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/boot-blocks.html) about FreeBSD bootloader.

boot0cfg [-Bv] [-b boot0] [-d drive] [-f file] [-m mask] [-o options]
[-s slice] [-t ticks] disk

On PCs, a boot manager typically occupies sector 0 of a disk, which is known as the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR contains both code (to which control is passed by the PC BIOS) and data (an embedded table of defined slices).

The options are:

-B Install the `boot0' boot manager. This option causes MBR code to be replaced, without affecting the embedded slice table.

Try this:
# boot0cfg -B -d ad0

[iBrood]

What you said worked perfectly, however my Windows installation was corrupted beyond repair, so I had to format the system and reinstall Windows because other users require it.

[antik]

What you said worked perfectly, however my Windows installation was corrupted beyond repair, so I had to format the system and reinstall Windows because other users require it.

I don't think pcbsd destroyed your windows installation, PC-BSD is mounting NTFS filesystems read-only by default.

[iBrood]

Then I dont know what did because I didnt tamper with the Windows partition. I chose unpartitioned space for the PC-BSD installation.

[Apatewna]

I have installed pc-bsd alongside Windows Xp via a standard graphical install, and now when I select DOS on my boot loader, I get the error:

HAL.dll Corrupt or MIssing

Abhinav

The only time I have seen this message is when I install windows on a PC, install all drivers, then take the disk out and try to boot it on another PC. It's mainly a disk controller misconfiguration. Windows installed remember eg an SIS controller and suddenly it sees a VIA controller.
CRASH!

You didn't do anything like that by any chance did you?

Hal.dll stands for Hardware Abstraction Layer (or more ways to crash your windows installation apart from using keyboard and mouse).

It could be that you have a corrupt hard drive. The PCBSD boot loader starts windows just fine, no other clue as what caused the problem.

[iBrood]

No, It all happened on one computer. Normall, I am able to repair this error with bootcfg /rebuild but this time it couldn't detect the Windows partition despite the fact that the files were not removed.

In fact, when I finally overwrote BSD on the other partition to install Xp, then the old Xp partition was still intact although the new Xp install kept doing chkdsk on it time and again.

[Apatewna]

It doesn't hurt to check the disk for bad sectors.
Check this utility http://www.dposoft.net/#b_hddhid
Hdd Regenerator
It actually repairs bad sectors (tested) if it finds one. The downloadable demo version will only repair the first bad sector it encounters.

A good backup always comes to mind too...