oldmankit
September 20th, 2009, 09:49 AM
I've just installed the latest version of ubuntu and am really impressed with it. Most things are working right out of the box. However, I cannot access my windows xp (SP3) installation. When I was installing ubuntu, I tried resizing the windows partition. It was not successful doinig that: I don't know if that's responsible for the following error.
The bootloader was set-up fine, but when I selected the XP partition, I got a message saying it "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file." I looked up the problem and it seems to be to do with the boot.ini file, or mbr. I have extracted hal.dll from the XP cd to \system32, and of course it didn't fix the problem.
From the recovery console it says I have one windows partition, on D:\. Here are my attempts to fix it, and the results:
bootcfg /list : There are no boot entries available to display.
bootcfg /scan : Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file syst, which could prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors. Note: this operation must complete successfully in order for the /add or /rebuild commands to be utilized.
I've run chkdsk /r, with no errors reported.
I ran fixmbr and fixboot, both of which completed without any error reports. The bootcfg command still wouldn't run.
After that, I rebooted, and I found that it tried to go straight into windows, bypassing the bootloader that ubuntu had set-up. (Unsurprisingly, the original hal.dll error still prevented windows loading.) I tried to get the ubuntu bootloader running again, but resorted to re-installing ubuntu.
So now I'm back at square one. Ubuntu is running fine, the windows parition is sitting there prettily but uselessly. I've spent a good deal of time searching for a solution, and the answer seems to be re-install windows XP. That seems so heavy-handed and I'd really like to find a solution to this. However I feel I've exhausted all the answers on existing forums.
One last thing. There is no boot.ini file on the windows partition. On the windows partition, I only found a 'bootex.log' file, contents here:
Checking file system on \DosDevices\D:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
The volume is dirty.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 2744 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2744 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2744 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
46082420 KB total disk space.
20136136 KB in 98834 files.
43104 KB in 8522 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
189000 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
25714180 KB available on disk.
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
11520605 total allocation units on disk.
6428545 allocation units available on disk.
Internal Info:
c0 a4 01 00 68 a3 01 00 ff 66 02 00 00 00 00 00 ....h....f......
07 46 00 00 01 00 00 00 cf 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 .F..............
c8 bd 45 02 00 00 00 00 52 5b a7 55 00 00 00 00 ..E.....R[.U....
68 fc fd 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 h..$............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 be 4c e9 7e 00 00 00 00 .........L.~....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 18 3b 07 00 12 82 01 00 ..6......;......
00 00 00 00 00 20 03 cd 04 00 00 00 4a 21 00 00 ..... ......J!.. On a separate partition where I store my documents, there is a boot.ini file, contents:
[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Any suggestions are very appreciated.
PS: On my single hard drive, I have one ntfs partition, one fat 'documents' partition, one root partition, one swap partition. Whilst working through this problem I've noticed an 8mb partition at the start of the hard drive. I don't remember it being there before, don't know what it is...
The bootloader was set-up fine, but when I selected the XP partition, I got a message saying it "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file." I looked up the problem and it seems to be to do with the boot.ini file, or mbr. I have extracted hal.dll from the XP cd to \system32, and of course it didn't fix the problem.
From the recovery console it says I have one windows partition, on D:\. Here are my attempts to fix it, and the results:
bootcfg /list : There are no boot entries available to display.
bootcfg /scan : Error: Failed to successfully scan disks for Windows installations. This error may be caused by a corrupt file syst, which could prevent Bootcfg from successfully scanning. Use chkdsk to detect any disk errors. Note: this operation must complete successfully in order for the /add or /rebuild commands to be utilized.
I've run chkdsk /r, with no errors reported.
I ran fixmbr and fixboot, both of which completed without any error reports. The bootcfg command still wouldn't run.
After that, I rebooted, and I found that it tried to go straight into windows, bypassing the bootloader that ubuntu had set-up. (Unsurprisingly, the original hal.dll error still prevented windows loading.) I tried to get the ubuntu bootloader running again, but resorted to re-installing ubuntu.
So now I'm back at square one. Ubuntu is running fine, the windows parition is sitting there prettily but uselessly. I've spent a good deal of time searching for a solution, and the answer seems to be re-install windows XP. That seems so heavy-handed and I'd really like to find a solution to this. However I feel I've exhausted all the answers on existing forums.
One last thing. There is no boot.ini file on the windows partition. On the windows partition, I only found a 'bootex.log' file, contents here:
Checking file system on \DosDevices\D:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
The volume is dirty.
Cleaning up minor inconsistencies on the drive.
Cleaning up 2744 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2744 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 2744 unused security descriptors.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the
master file table (MFT) bitmap.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.
46082420 KB total disk space.
20136136 KB in 98834 files.
43104 KB in 8522 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
189000 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
25714180 KB available on disk.
4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
11520605 total allocation units on disk.
6428545 allocation units available on disk.
Internal Info:
c0 a4 01 00 68 a3 01 00 ff 66 02 00 00 00 00 00 ....h....f......
07 46 00 00 01 00 00 00 cf 1c 00 00 00 00 00 00 .F..............
c8 bd 45 02 00 00 00 00 52 5b a7 55 00 00 00 00 ..E.....R[.U....
68 fc fd 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 h..$............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 be 4c e9 7e 00 00 00 00 .........L.~....
99 9e 36 00 00 00 00 00 18 3b 07 00 12 82 01 00 ..6......;......
00 00 00 00 00 20 03 cd 04 00 00 00 4a 21 00 00 ..... ......J!.. On a separate partition where I store my documents, there is a boot.ini file, contents:
[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect Any suggestions are very appreciated.
PS: On my single hard drive, I have one ntfs partition, one fat 'documents' partition, one root partition, one swap partition. Whilst working through this problem I've noticed an 8mb partition at the start of the hard drive. I don't remember it being there before, don't know what it is...