Other Norton Products

[huskertech]

I'm not the type to unnecessarily run applications, but the most recent Norton monthly newsletter suggested downloading Norton Power Eraser.  After running NPE I received the following message at restart:

        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."

When I try to use the Windows Recovery Console I receive the following message:

        INF file txtsetup.sif is Corrupt or Missing, Status 14

The PC is a HP M7277C with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center.  Any help would be much appreciated.  Thanks.

[Quads]

Do you have Safe Mode??

Quads

[huskertech]

Wow, I do have Safe Mode.  I should have checked sooner.

What do you recommend from Safe Mode?

[Quads]

OK, the problem is the Boot.ini, trying to remember where the backup copy is.

If you have Safe Modde with Networking then you will be able to have the internet.

Quads

[Quads · Accepted solution]

Set to 'Show hidden Files and Folders' in Control Panel => Folder Options => View
Then go to this folder

Windows\pss

Look for a file named boot.ini.backup  or boot.ini.bak in the pss folder

Copy it to C:\ and Rename it to remove the .backup extension leaving just boot.ini


If the backup file doesn't exist, follow the instructions in this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184

Quads

[huskertech]

Thanks so much.  I found backup copies of BOOT.INI in the root directory as well as Windows\pss and the more recent one worked perfectly. 

I was going to blame NPE for the corruption, but it appears to have been a fluke.  Or was it?

[Bliberg]

I have the exact same issue after attempting to run NAP. I do not have a windows safe mode. When I Try the Norton disk, it is talking Windows 98 in it's safe mode (I am running Windows XP). I can try the HP Pavillion a810n Recovery Disk, but I think I will loose lots of other patches the the Operating system that we hard to come by over the years. What is a good way to the Windows safe mode? Is there another way?

[Quads]

The instructions are above, including by Microsoft.

Quads

[Bliberg]

Thank you for attempting to help. I am a little slow, and figured out how to get to safe mode in windows by pressing F8 consistently after the boot screen options. I have set the control panel,folder options,view,show hidden files. I also needed to uncheck the "hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". In order to rename the boot.ini original to something like boot.ini.broken, and rename the boot.ini.backup to boot.ini as you suggested. I have to post to see the rest of the instructions (on my iPad). I will write back with the results.

[Bliberg]

It worked! You are a genius! My computer was asking me to again run NPE.exe during the windows safe mode ( which I did not do). When my normal windows screen came up, the norton icon came up with a need to run the scans. I am doing this now. Not being able to run the Norton scans before lead me to run the NPE, which got me into this mess. It seems you have the fix. Thank you again!