# Unable to boot into Ubuntu



## gramesh (Jun 9, 2010)

Hi

Sometime back I installed Ubuntu 10.04 thru WUBI on to one of the partitions of my HD (which is already installed with Win xp sp3).

Y'day when I tried to boot into Ubuntu the following message is displayed:

"
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.
"

1. I checked up under " C:\WINDOWS\system32 " the file with the name HAL.DLL is present.

2. My boot.ini file is as follws"

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\wubildr.mbr = "Ubuntu"

what could be the reason for non starting of Ubuntu?

I am able to boot into windows xp pro.

Is it ok to have wording noexecute in boot.ini file?
The third line shows WINDOW S ---SPACE BETWEEN WINDOW AND LETTER S is ok?


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## celldweller1591 (Jun 9, 2010)

HAL is Hardware Abstraction layer, lets XP to communicate with your system hardware and prevents conflicts and system crashes by preventing other programs from randomly accessing any hardware. 

If hal.dll is corrupt then, replace it by correct file from xp cd. 
Boot from XP cd and enter recovery console by pressing R when installer asks you to Install ,repair xp . Then type :-
expand h:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll.
(Note: Replace C:\ by your XP partition and H:\ by CD/DVD drive letter)
OR 
Download hal.dll from here and replace the actaul file in C:\Windows\system32


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## gramesh (Jun 10, 2010)

thanks Celldweller for your reply.

1) when tried to use recovery console , it is showing C:\> after some time.
Then I issued the command as mentioned in your reply i.e  expand h:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll.  

2)Then it displayed " Access is denied ". 

3) When I rebooted and tried  it is showing  <Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt, please reinstall the file.

4) At other point is displayed system32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is not found?

Then I tried to run chkdsk with /r option after 50% completion is showed "the system has unrecoverable errors"

At last I booted thru a live CD of Ubuntu 10.04 and checked for computer. It is displaying the three of my original partitions of my HD but none of them are being mounted and are showing the following message:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.

Please tell me whether my win xp has gone bust?


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## gramesh (Jun 11, 2010)

celldweller1591 said:


> HAL is Hardware Abstraction layer, lets XP to communicate with your system hardware and prevents conflicts and system crashes by preventing other programs from randomly accessing any hardware.
> 
> If hal.dll is corrupt then, replace it by correct file from xp cd.
> Boot from XP cd and enter recovery console by pressing R when installer asks you to Install ,repair xp . Then type :-
> ...



For this when I run the recovery console it is simply displaying C:\> prompt and not showed any installed OS. At prompt when I tried above command it is showing :

Access is denied



celldweller1591 said:


> OR
> Download hal.dll from here and replace the actaul file in C:\Windows\system32



Unfortunately I could not replace the dll file as now I am not able to boot into win xp.

Please tell me how to proceed?

I am ready to install xp again if required but I want to recover the data on the other two partitions, is it possible?


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## debsuvra (Jun 11, 2010)

Is the Windows boot menu with two options appearing on your screen? 

If Checkdisk is showing error then there might be some problem with the HDD itself.


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## celldweller1591 (Jun 12, 2010)

> Access is denied


You have to type your admin password over there before you access it. After the “Welcome to Setup” screen. Enter the letter “r” and a prompt will appear asking for the admin password. Users of the Home edition or those without an admin password can just enter a blank. Type your password and proceed further as it told you  in above post. 



> Unfortunately I could not replace the dll file as now I am not able to boot into win xp.
> Please tell me how to proceed?


In that case, boot from a live Ubuntu and browse to C:\windows\system32 and replace the file and see of it works. 



> I am ready to install xp again if required but I want to recover the data on the other two partitions, is it possible?


In that case, just format C:\ and dont touch any other partition. Your data will be safe. Only C:\ drive will be wiped out.



> When I rebooted and tried it is showing <Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt, please reinstall the file.
> At other point is displayed system32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is not found?


You have to Repair your whole C:\ drive by replacing all CD contents into C:\. All your settings and programs will remain same. Only your Windows folder will be rewritten. Follow These steps very very caerfully :- 
Boot the computer using the XP CD. 
When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below  
This portion of the Setup program prepares XP

Windows XP to run on your computer:
-To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

-To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

-To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.Do Not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press  R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, Do Not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press  R". 
Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.
Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, END setup. After the reboot.
Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. *Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears*. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your data,programs and settings will remain intact. This is the best method to nearly reinstall XP


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## unigen (Jun 12, 2010)

Hi,

This happened to me as well: unable to use either winXP or ubuntu.
Live CD etc dint work either.

I used the winXP setup cd to get to the command prompt and ran fdisk /mbr
so I could atleast run windows. Ubuntu was unaccessible because the grub loader was now unavailable. Then installed ubuntu 9.10 (the previous version that was installed before i the upgrade to 10.04.). It's a fresh install so your files within ubuntu are all gone.

The upgrade actually installed in a new partition (which I dint know) so whiie reinstalling 9.10 i had to get rid of the previous partitions. Be very careful... You don't want to delete the wrong partition!

If you've already experimented trying to fix winxp you may have to reinstall winXP too. I hadn't, so my setup was OK. Also, while there are utilities to access linux partitions from XP (so you can get to your linux saved work) I would suggest you save all your work etc to a separate--perhaps shared--location that is accessible from XP directly. Makes things easier IMO.

Despite the misadventure, I'm still using ubuntu and win xp, for different reasons though.

Best of luck.

PS: I'm not too fond of reinstalling/fixing XP by copying files off the CD. In all probability if FDISK /MBR doesn't work, you'll need to reinstall XP anyway using the setup program.
But if you need help, the best starting point for windows users is bootdisk.com.


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## gramesh (Jun 12, 2010)

celldweller1591 said:


> You have to type your admin password over there before you access it. After the “Welcome to Setup” screen. Enter the letter “r” and a prompt will appear asking for the admin password. Users of the Home edition or those without an admin password can just enter a blank. Type your password and proceed further as it told you  in above post.



As I mentioned earlier it is not prompting for any password, simply C:\> prompt is displayed, what to do in this case?




> In that case, boot from a live Ubuntu and browse to C:\windows\system32 and replace the file and see of it works.



After booting from a live Ubuntu CD, I am not able to mount C: drive and the following message is displayed:

Error mounting: mount exited with exit code 13: ntfs_attr_pread_i: ntfs_pread failed: Input/output error
Failed to read NTFS $Bitmap: Input/output error
NTFS is either inconsistent, or there is a hardware fault, or it's a
SoftRAID/FakeRAID hardware. In the first case run chkdsk /f on Windows
then reboot into Windows twice. The usage of the /f parameter is very
important! If the device is a SoftRAID/FakeRAID then first activate
it and mount a different device under the /dev/mapper/ directory, (e.g.
/dev/mapper/nvidia_eahaabcc1). Please see the 'dmraid' documentation
for more details.


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## celldweller1591 (Jun 12, 2010)

seems like your hdd is at fault. get it checked at a hardware specialist.


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## gramesh (Jun 12, 2010)

celldweller1591 said:


> You have to Repair your whole C:\ drive by replacing all CD contents into C:\. All your settings and programs will remain same. Only your Windows folder will be rewritten. Follow These steps very very caerfully :-
> Boot the computer using the XP CD.
> When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the options below
> This portion of the Setup program prepares XP
> ...



There was no repair option but it was showing three partitions and showing them as unknown. As mentioned by you I quit the setup and rebooted the pc and did not press any key to boot from from CD. Still the setup did not copy the files as mentioned above. Please tell me what is the next step?


I am sorry not to mention this :
At the boot up, pc is still showing option to boot in to either win xp or Ubuntu.

Of course  for either of these oses it is showing hal.dll error.


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## celldweller1591 (Jun 13, 2010)

Strange....then a reinstall seems to me as last option. Your xp partition is corrupt. Its normal that XP setup is showing Ubuntu partition as unknown bcoz ext3/4 Filesystem is not known to xp installer. But Xp's C:\ is unknown then, you have to format it. Backup and format C:\ and reinstall. You are not getting any repair option coz the installer cant find any preinstalled windows that is corrupt. Instaed it is not detecting partition correctly. May be an Hdd error. donot format Ubuntu partition, it can be recovered later on. The Grub will be overwritten by Xp, we can fix it later if you like.


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## gramesh (Jun 13, 2010)

celldweller1591 said:


> Strange....then a reinstall seems to me as last option. Your xp partition is corrupt. Its normal that XP setup is showing Ubuntu partition as unknown bcoz ext3/4 Filesystem is not known to xp installer. But Xp's C:\ is unknown then, you have to format it. Backup and format C:\ and reinstall. You are not getting any repair option coz the installer cant find any preinstalled windows that is corrupt. Instaed it is not detecting partition correctly. May be an Hdd error. donot format Ubuntu partition, it can be recovered later on. The Grub will be overwritten by Xp, we can fix it later if you like.



thanks for the reply.
Above you said " Backup and format C:\ " , how to backup?


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## celldweller1591 (Jun 14, 2010)

Save your private data somewhere on some other drive or an external HDD or other partitions you have. This can be dine using live Cd and then moving imp. files from c:\ and then format it and Reinstall XP. IMO if your computer is good enough, install win7 this time. XP is old by now.


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## Naveen.S (Jul 2, 2010)

*Re: Paraguay not content with quarter-finals*

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD and post the output of sudo fdisk -l command here.
You can use force option with mount command to mount Windows OS partition(s) forcefully.


```
mkdir temp
sudo mount -t ntfs-3g  /dev/<win_partition> temp -o defaults,force,umask=0
ls temp
```

Replace <win_partition> with device name assigned to Windows OS partition.


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