Okay, so today, I started by computer, and was greeted with this message:

Quote: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.

So, I went to here:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerro...haldll.htm
And tried a couple of those options.
I am at #7, and I am having troubles with the recovery console that is talked about in the article.
When I open it up and get to command, it does not ask me to log in to my Windows installation, but only displays C:\, and not C:\WINDOWS.
When I tried the 'expand' command shown in #7, I get an access denied error.

This thread on another forum is very similar to my problem:
http://forums.techarena.in/windows-xp-su...838982.htm

I want to try as much as possible before doing repair or clean installation of XP.