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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Alternative Operating Systems > repairing XP Professional through bootcamp

repairing XP Professional through bootcamp
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wstt
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Jan 10, 2012, 10:49 AM
 
I have had XP Pro installed on my iMac so I could run all my work applications but one of the DLL files is corrupted ( system32\hal.dll ) so I need to repair my XP installation. Does anyone hae any guidance they could give me on this ? I found the following post on this website from a few years ago, but it's not the same as the directions state.

"If you really do need to do a repair install, here's how:
Boot from your XP install disc and choose to install XP. DO NOT press 'R" for the Recovery Console! That's a real PITA that takes some serious experience to get to work right. So you choose "Install" and then when you get to the screen that asks what partition to install on, THERE you can select to "repair an installation." Let it run and go through everything it wants to do. When it's finished (it'll tell you it's done by rebooting into XP) you can poke around to see whether or not everything works.
Glenn ---"

I have tried what he stated but when I skip pressing the "R" for recovery and go to the windows installation it does ask for the partition, but then it alerts me to a previous installation of windows exists but it only offers the option to write over it, there is no repair option. I selected to write over it and it then confirms you are about to write over it asks for me to confirm as all documents are going to be erased. It never gives the recovery option.

I also later tried selecting the "R" for repair while the post above said not to, and then it asks me for an administrator password. My password didn't work even though I have adminstrative privileges so I couldn't go that route either.

Thank you in advance for anyone who can give me some help on this.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Jan 10, 2012, 12:24 PM
 
Because Boot Camp does things differently as far as partitions go, you are probably best off rescuing any data you want to keep onto your Mac drive and then using Boot Camp to start from scratch. Delete the Windows partition, then create a new one and reinstall.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
wstt  (op)
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Jan 10, 2012, 12:33 PM
 
I realized I can just boot in Mac OS and see windows folders. I wanted to just copy over the bad DLL in bootcamp from the file off the XP disk, but while in Mac OS, if I try to copy anything to the bootcamp folders, it says "cannot be modified".

Does anyone know how to modify the bootcamp folder?
     
seanc
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Jan 10, 2012, 02:55 PM
 
Boot into the recovery console, press enter when it asks for an administrator password, it's probably blank.
Perform a chkdsk C: /R

See if the machine boots.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Jan 10, 2012, 04:43 PM
 
Windows partition will be NTFS which is read-only on OS X.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
ghporter
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Jan 11, 2012, 08:12 AM
 
For some reason, some Windows XP installation discs do not install the "repair" option. It's a switch built into the installation script, and in my experience there is no rhyme or reason for which discs do and do not include that option. But... Sometimes the repair option is available but not shown on the screen. Try one more time, and select your existing installation and press 'R'. It might just work...

If you got through all that and it still didn't run the repair option, then seanc's instructions are appropriate. Boot from the install disc and then DO select "R" for the recovery console. This will open a command line interface with limited Windows commands. The "chkdsk" command examines a disk for errors, while using the /R switch tells it to repair any errors it finds. This is a lot more of a hassle and will only "probably" fix a corrupted DLL.

(By the way, if you were looking to corrupt the worst DLL you could, you did a good job! HAL.DLL is what tells Windows how to connect to the hardware...)

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
wstt  (op)
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Jan 11, 2012, 03:07 PM
 
I also found something online that said the following to repair the hal.dll :
"When you reach the command line prompt, type the following and then press Enter:"

expand di386\hal.dl_ cwindows\system32

I tried the above and it did ask to overwrite the file, I said yes, and it stated one file expanded hal.dll.

However, I tried to reboot and I got the same message saying HAL.DLL is either missing or corrupted.

I think I might have to try the command prompt chckdsk /r method next as pressing "r" during the new installation didn't give me a recovery option at any point.
     
wstt  (op)
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Jan 11, 2012, 03:08 PM
 
I don't know why those smiley faces appeared in my message above but they were supposed to be a colon then a slash. : then \
     
P
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Jan 11, 2012, 04:04 PM
 
Try wrapping commands like that in [code] tags.

At this point, I think you need to reinstall.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
seanc
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Jan 12, 2012, 03:14 PM
 
Nah.
Do a chkdsk first, I'd be surprised if that doesn't fix it.
Failing that you can restore the registry files from a few days ago when you knew it was working. Quite involved for someone not familiar with the command line, but do-able.
Restoring the registry files from the System Volume Information folder fixes a surprising number of weird issues.
     
wstt  (op)
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Jan 12, 2012, 05:06 PM
 
I can embarrassingly say that the reason for the DLL file becoming corrupted is because I had so many applications running for work and the Mac seemed like it was freezing up. I impatiently decided to just hold down the power button to shut it off because it was taking so long to close applications in the few seconds I would get before it froze back up again. I am guessing it was writing to the disk at that time.

I don't know if a chckdsk would fix that, but I'll try.
     
seanc
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Jan 12, 2012, 07:44 PM
 
Well there's the reason.
A disk check should fix that. Windows or the hard drives inbuilt firmware has probably marked a sector as bad, the /R flag should sort that.
     
wstt  (op)
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Jan 12, 2012, 09:38 PM
 
I ran the disk check twice. It took a few hours each. It kept getting into the 70% finished range and then it would go back to the 50% range before climbing back up again.
No luck though after it was completed. Ugh. The next is a new installation. I can't even find my product key with my XP pro disk anymore so I might have to buy windows 7 now.
If anyone has any other ideas let me know.
Thanks for everyone's responses on this. It was truly appreciated.
     
   
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