System32 Hal.dll missing or corrupt

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This XP workstation at my work has this message whenever you start it up. I've tried going into the recovery console to try a repair but no one seems to have the admin password. When i try using Windows Key to replace the password it doesn't recognize an operating system on the C drive so it has no password to replace. However when i go into recovery console it asks for this password. How can i reinstall this file and get my system back up and running? Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!
 
Hi

i would use the XP disk to boot from and then choose the option to repair an exisitng installation, this should replace the missing file and get you back up and running.
 
Check your cable, I have encountered missing hal.dll once on a slightly loose HDD cable. Try also CHKDSK /p at the recovery console.
 
The CHKDSK /P command is diagnostic only...it performs and exhaustive check of the drive, but does not make any changes to the drive

WinXPert, I also stated this to you in >> this post as well (5 days ago)
But I noticed that you have stated CHKDSK /P to Users in 3 Topics in the last 20hours
You can read more about CheckDisk and use of switches HERE

If you are going to perform CheckDisk, may as well state: CheckDisk /r from the Recovery Console


By the way none of the above will work anyway (including the Windows Repair
As a Administrator password is present, and will remain from doing all of the above options
We cannot help you in recovering your Windows password here at TechSpot, as its against our rules. But there are free boot disks that can recover/remove Windows Admin passwords across the web, hint look in Sourceforge site

Good luck, and let us know how you went :)
 
Yes I stated /p not /r. It checks and repairs errors too but does not locate bad sectors. I've used it many times and it works.

/p is equivalent to /f option when you run CHKDSK at the Command Prompt on Windows. I believe it's the same switch CHKDSK uses when your HDD is flagged dirty.
 
By the way none of the above will work anyway (including the Windows Repair
As a Administrator password is present,
:)



Sorry i meant to say, run the windows install routing, it will say that an existing installation is present and repair that, all that will happen is that any existing accounts will be removed and a new administrator account will be created, hence you wont need to worry about any existing passwords.

If there is anything in the accounts that you want, you will need to slave the drive upto another machine and copy the contents over, to do this you will need to take ownership of the files.
 
It's not really clear from the post... but i wonder if the OP simply tried hitting Enter as there may, in fact, be NO password!
 
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