XP Dualboot and missing hal.dll error

[ajsharkey 0]

At the moment I have two hard disks that I swap in and out of the one laptop ( Toshiba Tecra A2). Both have an XP professional image, one is mine that came with the laptop ( Toshiba only supply a recovery CD not a full XP disk) and the other is from my work laptop ( so I don't know the Administrator password).

 

I'd like to be able to use dualboot to choose at boot time which XP to use rather than swapping the disks out all the time. I've used Norton Ghost to copy the partions over to a new bigger hard drive.

 

I've tried using my work XP as the 1st partion and the Toshiba image in the first position also, but although the dual boot menu displays whichever one is the second choice XP fails to start with an error message like "Winnt_root\system32\Hal.dll missing or corrupt.

 

Boot.ini below.

 

[boot loader]

timeout=10

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

 

I suspect (but what do I know) that its because both images are used to being in the first partion of their own hard disk.

 

Can I achieve my goal ?

Do I need a comercial boot loading software ?( used to use Boot Magic from Powerquest Partition magic before to swap between 95 and 98).

 

I can get my hand on a copy of XP professional if I need to enter the recovery console if required.

 

I've tried to search for hal.dll errors but the solutions seemto point to genuine corruption or no default in the boot.ini file.

 

Any help gratefully received.

 

Tony

[danleff 0]

This question is for the Windows gurus, I'm a Linux junkie and could tell you how to do it with a Linux bootloader.

 

Anyway, to clarify. Since you are speaking of a laptop, I assume that you have both "images" on the same hard drive?

 

If so, what is the partition structure?

 

Quote:

I suspect (but what do I know) that its because both images are used to being in the first partion of their own hard disk.

 

Yes, if both are on the same hard drive. I did do this a while back, but forget how I actually did it using the Win bootloader.

 

Also, see this article.

 

[tomthetechy 0]

as far as i am aware you are sunk.

 

hal is hardware application layer.

 

I beleive if that is screwed then you have to reinstall.

 

i maybe wrong on this but am pretty sure i'm not

[ajsharkey 0]

Hi, thanks for the replies, yep both images are now on the same hardrive. I have two primary partions, one containing each image.The rest of the harddrive is unpartioned.