Emachine Won't Boot Into Windows

[resevil83]

I am helping a friend get their e-machine (t6410) back up and running. She told me that it would go to the windows loadup screen and just stay there forever. I brought her computer to my home and started working on it. (Pushing the power button) the computer only boots up to a command line. The black screen with PCI device listing and such. It is stuck there. The white dash in the bottom left just flashes. I cannot figure out how to get it into safe mode, I cannot post a hijack on it, (because it won't boot into windows) She said that she thought she had a virus, but just ignored it. I'm at a loss. I even tried putting the windows xp cd in and changing the boot order to cdrom first. I did that and I never see the screen push any key to boot from cd. So no luck there either. Please help if possible.

[guestolo]

Have you checked all connections to the computer to ensure there tight
If comfortable with the inside of the computer
Open it and reseat all cables, also take a look at Memory sticks and video card
Ensure properly seated

Remove anything that is not needed to properly boot a computer
Any PCI device such as a network adapter, remove it and see if computer will boot

Only leave mouse, keyboard, monitor connected

[resevil83]

So, I opened the computer, reseated all the cables and wallah. The computer had the windows cd in it and it said press any key to boot from cd. Of course instead of pulling out the CD and seeing what the computer did upon restart I like an idiot pressed boot from cd. To make matters worse, I started going through the installation process. My whole goal orginally was to do this to repair the windows xp boot files. I was going along a guide on the internet, this is what I did:
At the windows xp professional setup screen where it shows the partitions of the computer, I selected the C: NTFS and hit enter to install. (Note: There was 1 other partition, FAT32 with 3146 mb on it 866mb free and then 8mb of unpartitioned space.)
LUCKILY on the next screen where it said format this and that, I chose the option to not format and leave the current file system intact. It then started loading things from the disk then gave the 15 seconds to restart prompt.

When it restarted I let it try to boot (by not hitting anything when the prompt: "press any key to boot from cd" came up) An error message came up of course. Windows could not star because the following file is mission or corrupt:
<Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the file above.

I know I should have been smart and not hit the key to avoid all this, but maybe it's possible to help me out. I just made my life much more difficult by being antsy. Any help on this would be appreciated.

[guestolo]

Try a repair install, it will leave all files/folders intact
Here's directions
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Scroll down to XP Repair install

[resevil83]

Step 5: I have a problem because, I do not have the option to select which windows installation to repair. The other warning steps are complicated because I go to this site where I have to type in this command
md c:\windows\tmpcopy c:\windows\system32\config\system
and it doesn't work.

So my question is, is it possible just to remove the hard drive and plug it into another computer that actually runs, and then just access the drive in windows like normal and just pull files off. (that would be soooo easy)

I'm assuming that it is not possible to do this for some reason, I just figured I should ask.

[guestolo]

Seeing as you didn't format the drive, your files may all be intact
If you have another computer
Sure, why not try putting the harddrive in the other computer
I assume the other is possibly using IDE cable, put in on the same chain
Ensure to set the drive as Slave, you will do this by moving the jumper on the harddrive to the proper location

If that works for you, back up whatever files/folders possible
Then put the harddrive back in the computer it belongs to
Replacing the jumper to the appropriate location
This time, do a Clean install

If it doesn't work for you
Take a look at the following link
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

[resevil83]

It worked for me... Thank you so much.

[guestolo]

Good work resevil83, I'm sure your friend will be happy you saved their files/folders
I always like to have a portable version of Linux around
Such as Knoppix or Ubuntu, for times like this

Saves the hassle of slaving the drive
You may want to download a copy someday, up to you

[resevil83]

I've never really dealt with Linux. I'd love to learn more about it though. I have one last question. For some reason when I reformatted the drive, it did not erase the partition. When I open my computer it says C: and then there is H: or something. It has about 3 gigs of space on it and it is a FAT32 structure. I went to format it and an explorer type windows says that I cannot because there is a backup of the system on it, or something along those lines. Do you know what this is? Can I just merge it with my C: drive somehow WITHOUT erasing everything that I installed and all that? I just want to format it and merger it, because 3 gigs on it's own doesn't do much.

[guestolo]

What's the Exact Make/model of computer your running?

Sounds like it's the hidden Recovery partition
On startup, do you see an option to hit like F12 as eg... to Restore computer?