Member Avatar for BrokenOldBottle

I formatted my drive and reinstalled XP yesterday and now when my laptop boots up it comes to a gray screen with two OS showing with the first one highlighted. IF I agree to boot to the first one everything is fine and it goes directly to Windows. If I choose the second one it comes up error windows root\system32\hal.dll

How do I get the machine to go directly to boot on the first one and delete the second one. Is this a partition problem. DO I have two Win XP loaded?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #127113

Dani AI

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Good outcome — the duplicate entry you saw is a common leftover from a reinstall and the HAL.DLL error on the second choice simply means that entry points at a Windows installation that either isn’t present/complete or doesn’t match the hardware abstraction layer. @Thunderstorm98’s quick removal fixed the symptom; the notes below explain why it happened and what to check so it doesn’t come back.

Why it happens

  • Reinstalls, changing which partition is active, or leftover Windows folders on another volume can leave stale boot entries in XP’s configuration. When you select one of those stale entries the loader tries to start a Windows instance that isn’t usable, which produces the hal.dll error.

Follow-ups to consider

  • Inspect Disk Management for extra partitions and look at the root of other drives for an unused Windows folder (move or delete it only after backing data up).
  • If the duplicate entry reappears or the machine ever fails to boot, the XP recovery tools can repair boot configuration and the master boot record.

Recovery/repair commands (use from Recovery Console or a repair environment)

fixboot
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild

Cautions and prevention

  • Do not delete or format the partition marked as System/Active unless you are sure — that can make the PC unbootable.
  • Back up important files or make a full image before editing partitions or boot records.
  • If uncomfortable with manual fixes, a GUI tool (for example, EasyBCD) or a full disk-image restore is safer.

Since @Thunderstorm98’s approach solved it for you, these steps are only for verification and future prevention. Marking the thread solved is appropriate once you’ve confirmed everything is clean.

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Member Avatar for Member #127113

Hello and Welcome to Daniweb !

Just you need to configure the NT boot loader its easy..start the windows which is working fine and follow the steps:
click on start> run> type the word msconfig and press ok..it launchs the configuration utility.
go to the tab BOOT.INI and press the button 'check all boot paths' now windows check itself which one is running...if it tell to remove the odd one then say yes.
now restart system and tell me what happens then..

Regards

Member Avatar for BrokenOldBottle

Thunderstorm98...Bingo! that did it, thank you much for such a quick and easy solution.
That certainly took care of that problem

Hello and Welcome to Daniweb !

Just you need to configure the NT boot loader its easy..start the windows which is working fine and follow the steps:
click on start> run> type the word msconfig and press ok..it launchs the configuration utility.
go to the tab BOOT.INI and press the button 'check all boot paths' now windows check itself which one is running...if it tell to remove the odd one then say yes.
now restart system and tell me what happens then..

Regards

Member Avatar for Member #127113

Great !!! you done that..
Please mark as solved to this thread if its realy solved.

Have a nice day..

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