His Technicion

I just lost a full-page of well-written text which took over 1/2 hour. The server has an issue.

In short, I cannot get my customers Sony Vaio to run a Repair Install. I ran one last chkdsk before setting up a dual-boot with Vista which I think pooched the XP MCE boot files.

I can see both XP MCE and Vista in certain areas when booting to the Installation Disk, but it cannot see the C:\Windows installation files it tells me are there in numerous ways. (I can see them in Vista and they look fine.)

I'm going to stop now, because if the Server is having it's period I don't want to waste time.

alkadelic

It just so happens that i registered because i have a similar problem with my pc. I cannot run a repair install with xp. please help .!! it wont find the files i guess

His Technicion

I am going to check this thread at least each evening and any help would be appreciated.

The Repair Install freezes at the error message "hal.dll is corrupt, please install a copy of this file..." etc...

I tried running the command "expand E:\I386\HAL.DL_ C:\Windows\System32\HAL.DLL and it fails. I've copied the HAL.DL_ file to the \System32 directory and tried to expand it from within the \System32 directory and that also fails.

Would it be worth trying to expand the file within Vista and then simply copy it to the "C:\..." directory ?

Are there any tutorials on "advanced" methods to getting a Repair Install to work ?

Also, although the password logon was disabled, the Recovery Console now demands a password. The password that WAS active does not work, nor does the default "Administrator" password.

How do I get around the password requirement in order to access Recovery Console ?

His Technicion

Bump. Still looking for help.

eneles

We cannot help you with the password - please read the forum rules.

If you installed Vista after XP - the (XP) boot files have been replaced by Vista.
That's why you receive the "hal.dll" error.
If you fix that with, for example, bootcfg /rebuild you won't be able to boot Vista.

His Technicion

Vista is installed along side of XP, not an upgrade, and both are set-up in dual-boot configuration.

eneles

Yes, I got that.
Vista always puts its "boot files" in the root of the primary (boot) partition - it doesn't matter where you choose to install Vista.
If XP, or another operating system, is located there the previous boot files will get "invalid" when Vista is installed.
You need to run fixboot or bootcfg /rebuild in XP's recovery console.
When XP is working again you will have to repair Vista's boot loader.

Those things can be fixed, but only if you can log in to the recovery console as administrator.

His Technicion

Why would XP spontaneously require an Admin password ? I logged onto the Installation before via Recovery Console and it did not ask for one then.

I assume it is not against the rules to ask what the factory default Admin password is, although I suppose that would be determined by Sone (Vaio) and not MS. My customer is not aware of any Admin PW, chances are that he never changed or used it from factory. I'll try Sony and see what they do at the factory.

Good to know fixboot may be the magic bullet; it was what I was trying for when the magic Admin PW prompt appeared from out of nowhere.

Thanks for the help.

eneles

Did you try "no password" = Enter, when prompted?

If that doesn't work you will have to contact Sony.

His Technicion

I've tried "" for the pw, "administrator" and "admin". Those are the only defaults I know of.


Did you meant to type out "no password" or "" ?

I'll try the first one, just in case.

Thanks for the help.

eneles

Type nothing at all - just press the <Enter> key.