unable to start windows after installing red hat linux
 

hi ,
i was using win xp sp2 . i just installed red hat linux by making one of the windows drive as unpartitioned space . i kept windows as my default os .
my linux is working properly , but when i goes to start windows , it shows error " windows unable to start , hal.dll file is missing or corrupt " . so to solve this problem , i decided to repair windows , but when i isert win xp bootable cd , cd starts booting , after showing messege " setup is inspecting your hard ware " , black screen appears , nd nothing happens after that .
what should i do ? i want keep linux as it is and also want to start my windows again . tell me how to repair windows . what should i do to boot win xp bootable cd properly . please help me .

Not sure, since that's a problem with Windows and the Windows installer. I'd suggest checking the Microsoft website for information about it, or contacting their support people.

Also, what version of RedHat linux did you install? Did you follow the dual-boot instructions found on the web?

After installing Red Hat, did you check the /boot/grub directory for a menu.lst file (might be grub.conf file) to see if you had an entry there for your windows partition. If you are not familiar with Grub, boot your Red Hat and navigate to the menu.lst or grub.conf file to see if there is an entry for windows. If not, post the file here and also post your partition information by running the command: fdisk -l (lower case Letter L).

The error you get with your windows bootable CD is common when you have non windows code in the mbr.

Can you paste me the configuration of file /etc/grub.conf?

-Smahajan

sending /etc/grub.conf file. please help me.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,7)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda9
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,7)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.6.9-5.ELsmp)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.6.9-5.EL)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.EL ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img
title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

---------------------------------------------------------------------
posting file grub.conf as follow : waiting for your rep , please help me.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,7)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda9
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,7)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (2.6.9-5.ELsmp)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.ELsmp ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.ELsmp.img
title Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS-up (2.6.9-5.EL)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-5.EL ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.9-5.EL.img
title windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

--------------------------------------------------------------------
posting my fdisk -l information : please send me detail procedure to come out of this situation .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 637 5116671 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 638 1275 5124735 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 1276 9728 67898722+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2296 4717 19454683+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 4718 7139 19454683+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7 7140 9728 20796111 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda8 1276 1294 152554+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 1295 2164 6988243+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 2165 2295 1052226 82 Linux swap

Partition table entries are not in disk order

i m using red hat 2.6 version .

Do you understand what you did in that step?

Which Windows drive was it? Why did you think nothing important was on that drive? How did you make it into unpartitioned space?

The results imply you made a mistake in that step and deleted some important part of Windows.

Your menu.lst entries seem correct. I shows Linux on (hd0,7) which your fdisk equals hda8 and your windows entry is (hd0,0) which is hda1 and is marked as active partition.

I'm not sure what the following means: "i just installed red hat linux by making one of the windows drive as unpartitioned space", when you say "drive" do you mean partition? Which partition? Your fdisk output shows 5 windows partitions. If it was hda1, you probably have overwritten your windows system files. Are you able to mount any of the windows partitions and see folders/files? If you can, you may yet be able to save some files.

dont use windows installation CD,just create bootable disk for your OS,make sure ur bootable disk has hal.dll file, boot through that disk and copy hal.dll to C:/windows/system32/