It is rightly said - When you least expect, the worse happens. I was happily working on my DELL Inspiron 6400/E1505 (having DELL Media Direct). Morning - I copied Picture images from my DigiCam and then shutdown the laptop. I don't remember doing anything wrong as I waited for the computer to shut off completely, But Voila ! on Next Boot I am greeted with the message.
The following file is missing
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: Windows\System32\Hal.dll .
This is not the original error, but appears as Windows Boot Loader does not find boot.ini in C:\
I checked and yes It was NOT There ! How on earth could it get deleted one (fine *&%#) day ??
I got bamboozled. I had shutdown absolutely normally. What could have gone wrong ?
Answer: DELL had the HELL called Media Direct (I do not use it regularly) whose some button I had pushed while OS was shutting down. It simply WIPED OUT C:\boot.ini (How could DELL be so careless ! They do have good Hardware level Advanced Diagnostics Utils etc .., but software NOPE)
Repair:
I ran Windows System Recovery Console. Got to command prompt after Administrator Password. It loads a Read Only file system. (Heck) ! So how do you create a boot.ini in C:\ ?
Microsoft (as always - Had a KB Article saying boot.ini corrupt but not as to How ?) Link here --> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184
1) Login to recovery console using XP setup CD (after boot from CD)
2) run command bootcfg /rebuild
it will try to detect existing windows installations and write a boot.ini file. After that Win XP was up and running again !
BTW: My DELL was custom built, and OS pre-partitioned by DELL. Inspite of that it got me back Win XP running normally. (Yes, at one point, I was thinking of calling DELL Technician due to non-standard Partition that DELL had installed and XP Setup CD detected and warned me about !)
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