Re: drive letters changed, system will not boot

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"Warren" <Warren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6E116A8A-41F7-46CA-8590-7409E9936208@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After a power outage, the drive letters changed! C:\ became E:\, and gives
a
error message that a file 'HAL.DLL' is either corrupted or missing and
must
be replaced before windows will start. I copyed the file and pasted to
E:\window\System32 which contains the op sys, get same message.

I have XP Home sp2, AMD Sempron 1800, three hard drives (2 IDE, 1 SATA).
The
Sata is 80 gig split 1/2 C:\ 40gig & D:\ 40 gig now E:\ contains Windows


"Warren" <Warren@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8698023C-679C-41E8-B018-D201FF03A430@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Your idea for unplugging the other hd's worked, almost, now it will boot
to
the main XP logo screen with the moving progress bar The bar just keeps
going
and going! I can now access the startup options (F8) It will not start in
safe mode it hangs up about 1/2 way through, will not start in normal
stops
at progress bar same for last known working state.
What else cant i try? I'm almost there!


Warren:
That all this, i.e., the drive letters reversal, happened as a direct
consequence of a power outage is quite odd to say the least. But if that's
the situation - that's the situation.

There's really not much you can do about this now in terms of some simple
process to reassign the C: drive letter to your current E: drive. I assume
one of your two PATA HDDs is the one containing the OS and is now designated
the E: drive.

You can either live with the current situation or make a fresh install of
the OS onto that HDD now designated as E:, understanding of course, that all
data will be lost so it will be necessary to reinstall your programs &
applications. If you take that course, be sure to disconnect *all* other
HDDs from the system prior to undertaking the XP install process. This is
the only practical way I know of to return your boot drive to a C: drive
letter designation.

Obviously since the system currently boots, I assume you would have no
problem copying whatever user-created data you need from the current E:
drive, but as mentioned above you will need to eventually reinstall your
programs & applications.
Anna


.

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