ntoskrnl.exe error at boot

[OsakePenguin]

Hi, I'm not quite sure what's wrong. I haven't changed any hardware or anything, I was just surfing the FireFox normally. When I was done, I shut down. When I came back and booted up, I was presented with a nasty BSOD ntoskrnl.exe 'missing' error. The BSOD suggests restarting in safe-mode, so I tried, no luck (back to the same error).

I've looked around the web for tips and they all say to use a backup source, which I don't have. I'm guessing there's a place I can download it, but not only do I not know where, I don't know how to fix it from DOS.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

P.S. I run Windows 2000 - Built on NT, if that helps.

[Murf]

Welcome to CTH

This can be caused because the Hal.dll file can be corrupted or missing.

To fix a corrupted Hal.dll file, restore the Hal.dll file from a backup to the %windir%\sytem32\ folder.

Start your computer with the Windows Setup floppy disks, or with the Windows CD-ROM. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10, or press R to repair, and then press C (Windows 2000 only) to start the Windows Recovery Console. Select the appropriate number for the Windows installation that you want to repair, and then type the administrator password. If the administrator password does not exist, just press ENTER.

After you start the Windows Recovery Console, you receive the following message:

Windows NT(TM) Boot Console Command Interpreter.

WARNING:

This is a limited function command prompt intended only as a system recovery utility for advanced users. Using this utility incorrectly can cause serious system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows to correct them.

At the MS-DOS prompt type the following command:

expand x:\i386\hal.dl_ y:\windows\system32\hal.dll

In the above example "x" would be the letter of your CD-ROM drive and "y" the letter of the drive your operating system is installed on. If you need to determine the drive letters of your devices type "map".

Reboot

[OsakePenguin]

Thank you, Murf. I will have to borrow the setup discs from a friend. But just in-case I cannot, do you know any way I can fix the problem without? I've found a downloadable Hal.dll (and put it on a floppy), but I'm not sure how to continue the process from there.

[Murf]

If you have the Windows 2000 CD then you can do it this way:

1. Start your computer by using the Windows 2000 CD-ROM if your computer supports starting from a CD-ROM.

2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to repair.

3. At the Windows 2000 Repair Options screen, press R to repair using the emergency repair process.

4. Press M to manually select repair options and ensure that "Verify Windows 2000 system files" and "Inspect startup environment" features are selected, or press F to run all repair options.

5. Once complete, the originally installed HAL and associated files should be restored. Remove the CD-ROM or floppy disk and then restart your computer.