hello every one,
Im having trouble with booting Recovery Partition on a compaq computer.
Does anyone know how I can boot the Recovery Partition from the boot.ini or OS.

The reason Im askin is because I cant start it from BIOS POST by pressing f10.
For those who have an idea what the problem can be that will be awesome if you can help me out and any tips or trick will be helpfull as well.

Thanksanybody have any questions about this issue?

The issue that leads to my problem I'm having is a hal.dll problem aka missing or corrupt. When I try to boot Windows (ROOT / Partision 1).

This problem accures!

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Well I've tried to fix this problem by Using Windows XP CD to boot Recovery Console and

expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll

Also I have tried chkdsk /p /r no such luck to repare or fix this problem.


As to what I thought would be an easy fix is becoming a pain... anyone have any ideas or questions please ask.


Thanks,
ScmysterOn Compaq's it's either F10 or F11 at boot time...tap repeatedly before you see the Compaq splash screen...

NOTE: You do realise that running this will wipe out ALL your data and apps and take the machine back to Day One status...correct ? ?HelloYes I'm quite aware of loosing data which i can properly access right now back up by booting linux on a CD or booting off a separate install of windows on the same partition named WinXP fallowed intructions by Sovereign (http://forums.legitreviews.com/about6705.html)

The instructions fallowed.

Now, follow these steps.
1. Boot from the CD and start the installer
2. Choose to install onto the already formatted partition with the unbootable Windows, but opt to leave the existing filesystem and any other OSes ALONE. Choosing this will require you to create another folder for Windows to avoid writing over the existing installation (that it somehow sees now but not when the Repair "Scanning for previous installations of Windows" is run, argh!) I usually call the new folder "WINXP."
3. Install Windows as you would normally, you'll need a Product Key but you can actually use your PERSONAL key on someone else's computer with no danger to you losing it or being accused of piracy, I'll explain this later.
4. Boot the NEW Windows XP install. Do not "Activate" or "register," you're going to be deleting this copy of Windows from the machine if all goes well.
5. Edit the BOOT.INI on the hard drive from the original installation of Windows with the corrupted HAL if you messed it up like I did and had four OS entries in it, none of which worked. This usually happens when you try to use the method outlined in the InformationWeek article repeatedly and it does not work.
6. Go to C:\WINXP\system32\hal.dll (where "WINXP" is the folder you installed the second copy of Windows XP) and copy it from the new Windows to C:\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll (or WHEREVER you installed Windows XP originally, I use "WINDOWS" but some people use strange folder names for their XP) and overwrite any file there. The new hal.dll is uncorrupt and newly regenerated. The file is specific to each machine's hardware configuration and we needed to rebuild it. The installer did that for us with the new installation.
7. Try rebooting your computer to see if you can get into your OLD Windows installation. If you can, congratulations!
8. DELETE the "WINXP" folder (or wherever you put your new Windows install).

I know that my Hard Drive is not damage because it has successfully passed the chkdsk /f /r

But the problem is before I could access the the Recovery Partition before I installed a new Windows repare.

Here is the thing Even though I have the Win XP OS CD I can alternatively have a fresh install but I want the factory install from the Presario_RP, and I was wondering if any of you knew how to boot into that Partition by either adjusting the boot.ini or would I have to create an ISO mirror DVD of the Presario_RP... Or is there another way to access it?

Thanks guys for helping me out By the way if your scratching your head as much as I am... As in if you don't know the answer to this question Let me know!

That even something like that will give me a little lead way to UNDERSTAND the severity of the problem haha

Thanks,
ScmysterIf you have an XP CD you can facilitate a Repair install which will retain all your data...

Ignore billrich for now...Yeah thats what I did... Manage to recover all the data and got AROUND and manage to use the factory recovery partition!... YAY!!!

Thanks guys for the help!

I activated the recovery partition in disk manager.

We're glad that you got it sorted out.