Have you tried mounting XP on Fedora and simply inserting a hal.dll into its System32 directory?

Your problem isn't with your HD partitions or with grub, obviously. Something is going wrong when you get to the Windows loader.

Referring back to Post 7 of this thread appears to show your problem.

I suggest you copy off your master boot record to someplace safe in your Linux distribution using the dd command.
Of course, make sure it is hdc you really want; it could be hdd and I'm not troubling myself to sort back through the thread to figure it out.

Then load the Windows repair console from your XP CD and try to fix the Windows installation. Start by running chkdsk; that very well might take care of you. If you can't fix it, reinstall it.

Along the way, Windows will take the earliest opportunity to overwrite your master boot record. If it does this, you will no longer be able to boot Linux. Should this happen, after Windows is recovered, just boot from a linux live CD (your choice), then mount your /home partition, cd into your home directory, then issue this command:

and this will restore your (currently working) master boot record.

If you are really into pain, after running chkdsk and making sure the filesystem is sorted out, if Windows doesn't boot you can reboot into Linux and sift through the CAB files on the XP CD looking for the CAB file that has hal.dll in it (I don't know which CAB that is...someone else here might know). You then could extract hal.dll using Linux tools, and just copy it into the Windows installation. If that is all that is wrong, it will fix you up.

Actually, you shouldn't be using FAT anyway for XP; NTFS is far, far more reliable. And, given the recent capability of Linux to write NTFS partitions, the last remaining reason to avoid NTFS (can't get at it from outside) is now gone.

Yup I already tried that...but even replacing hal.dll with a newer copy didn't work.

As far I can remember, I installed win98 first.

hmmm, so it seems ultimately I've to reinstall Windows.


Well I just use the dd command as u said and keep a copy of the bootimage in my /home folder.
Replacing hal.dll didn't solve the mystery, I already tried that, if you follow my past threads, you can see that.
And I knew that Linux cannot detect NTFS file system, and I saw that several times....that's why I keep my filesystem FAT type. But I really surprised that you are saying Linux can do that now....well, may be now. Thats a good news.

I'll reinstall windows but then again theres's a questions in my mind that remains unsolved.....Should anyone really install linux on a WinXP machine? One of my friends asked me to install linux in his windows pc, but then again I'm hesitating to do so....who knows, the "hal.dll" thing would come up again. And then I've to reinstall windows. And then Linux'll be unusable and I have to restore the bootimage again as you suggested.

Well thanks a lot for your help, but in my humble opinion, do you really think this is an ideal solution? Thats means if I need to install Linux on a Windows pc, then from now on I need to do these things:-

(1)Install Linux first including Grub.
(2)Then Windows will stop working(as in my case).
(3)Install Windows again, thus you destroyed all of your works(as in my case, I'm afraid). I know, you'll say you can back up your files and stuffs. But it's easy to say....I cannot back up everything....specially all the software applications I downloaded from different sites on different times.
(4)Now after reinstalling Windows, it's Linux turn to stop working
(5)Now you'll need a Live cd.
(6)And then only, you can boot into linux , rstore bootimage and pray to God everything'll work again.

Uffff!! I see why people including my seniors warned me when I decide to install Linux and use a dual boot system with windows....I see this Linux/Windows thing is not a big hit at all. It's kind of dating with two gf's same time and naturally there will be a clash. As in my case, when the Lin baby comes, my good old gf Windows stop talking to me

Sorry, just kidding.

I mean if anybody asks me now what to do when I've to install linux on a windows pc? Do I need to install grub or not? Is it safe? Are you sure my windows won't be unusable after installing Linux?
How could I answer them? After all I myself is in such pain....this "hal.dll" thing is really making me mad. And without your kind helps and suggestions, I might not even know how to solve this thing.....

I just said these things because I feel these things...no hard feelings to anybody meant.....But what I meant to say, if everybody needs to install Windows again after installing Linux, then it'll be such a pain and people'll stop even thinking about it.

Anyhow, I'll try your solutions and come back if anything happens...thanks again.

99% of the time, if you install windows then linux, they will be bootable, or you might have to do some small editing of menu.lst. In your case, I don't think Linux had anything to do with hal.dll being corrputed, I think it just corrupted itself without any hand from grub

Here's another idea: have you tried hiding the windows system that you are not booting? Grub has a (hide) label to do that.

And to answer your question whether installing Linux is tricky... I'd say, search these forums to get an objective idea and I'm sure you'll find that your issue is quite unusual. Most of the time all is fine, sometimes GRUB fails to pick up XP or does it incorrectly so that some slight editing is required but it is extremely rarely (and frankly, I don't recall a single such case) that we see reports of GRUB eating up windows. If you ask me, the crux is that you were dual-booting windows and that such a combination may be trickier than what is found in the large majority of pcs (only one windows). I currently have six operating systems on my pc (BSD, Solaris, XP, 3 x Linux) and I'm yet to experience my first GRUB problem.

No, it seems that you HAVE TO run chkdsk. After running chkdsk, and letting it fix up the file system errors that you almost certainly have, you can try again to copy in hal.dll.

THEN, if it isn't working, you can reinstall Windows.

*shrug*. I dual boot WinXP and Kubuntu on my laptop. When I travel with the laptop, there are times when I simply must run Windows (trade shows, demoing my product mostly). Works without any trouble at all.

And I don't think it is hal.dll which is corrupted. The WinXP file system is corrupted and Windows can't find anything. How far this corruption extends is anyone's guess, but given that the system won't boot and it is FAT it is probably pretty bad, with data loss and all that good stuff. The first step in recovery is to run chkdsk. Period. That is the very first step. With luck, the system will then boot.

NTFS is a much better, far more recoverable file system.

Well, the sad thing is, I run chkdsk....but the problem remains as it was before....windows didn't boot.

There is risk of putting Dos, Windows and Linux in a hard disk and I do it all the time.

The OP has never clear a mystery for us. There is a Win9x partition "C" in the first partition of the 20Gb disk
The fdisk -l show it is hdd1 and the star "*" show it is the only bootable MS partition in the PC.
Grub gets the information from the Bios and it is the second disk (hd1)
Therefore the Wind9x partition, marked blue, should boot as Win9x initially.

When the OP installed XP it was installed into hdd5 which is a logical partition (marked green). MS system cannot boot itself alone from a logical partition. It need a boot loader residing in a primary partition to pull it up. Therefore XP in hdd5 is "wholly" dependent on the well being of hdd1. If there is something wrong in hdd1 then the OP will lose both systems.

Now the OP keeps complaining XP is not bootable in hdd5 but how about Win9x in hdd1? That is a MS Windows too. Does it work?

The OP original arrangement was to have the 20Gb working alone when installing both Windows. To rescue them the other disk should be removed temporarily. Verifiy Win9x working in the 1st partition first and then check the XP. If XP doesn't but Win9x works then use the XP installation CD to repair/re-install XP.

I see it a pure booting problem between MS systems. XP must be bootable before another boot loader can fire it up.

Good point, Saikee. One thing I noticed reading over a few posts here is that OP did not use "makeactive" for either of his windows entries. For all I know, it may be all that is missing.

My dear saikee, I'm sorry to say that you are really overlooking some of my earlier posts and keep complaining.....
I have written SEVERAL TIMES that Win9x is WORKING FINE BUT XP ISN'T. Please check my earlier posts kindly, will you?
FOR INSTANCE CHECK POST#25
Here is the linkhttp://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...068/page2.html

Now I'm really done with it
Whats wrong with you people? I did use the "makeactive" entries....please read all of my earlier posts and I mean ALL of my earlier posts and you will find it.
For instance check post#25, here is the link
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...068/page2.html
See you all are very cooperative with me and very patient with me...I can't tell you how much I appreciate that..but please, before posting anything like "OP didn't did that or say that to us"....please take a little time and read all of my older posts...if then again you find that what you want to know from me is missing than I'll be more than happy to provide that info to you.

WIth this post of mine, the thread is now 60 posts long.

Everyone here is a volunteer; we look at your problems and we offer suggestions for no reason other than we are interested.

I come wandering by, and I can assure you that I DO NOT re-read the entire thread every time. I merely pick up where I left off and depend on my memory to support me. I am sure that pretty much everyone here does the same thing.

You should expect in this case exactly what you are getting, which is a discussion among people who know a lot more about this than you evidently do, as we look it over as merely a part of our busy days. If you look through the thread, what you see is a dialogue. If one or another of us misses some fact that proves critical, then you have every right to point that out to us, but you have absolutely no right - at all - to EVER shout at us.

To put it bluntly, there is nothing wrong with me, there is nothing wrong with jay73, and there is nothing wrong with saikee.

You yourself have posted incorrect information (when you hand copied fdisk output rather than cut/paste), and you yourself have posted several long posts in a row about this and that, and often not on the point of questions you have specifically been asked. You yourself have therefore led us off of the track in this thread.

If you want help, what you say is: "I did previously post this information; see for instance post 22". And that is all you say.

In other words, YOU WILL BE POLITE IF YOU WANT HELP.

Clear?

Personally, I am done now with this thread. I won't be shouted at or insulted by someone who comes looking for free help, the more so when that very someone has himself led everyone off the track by providing false information.