My laptop is an Acer Aspire 3680-2682 and it has windows vista installed.It is about 1 year and a half old.Whenever i try to turn on the laptop it asks me whether i want to go into safe mode,last known good configuration,or start windows normally. Whenever i press either one of the options it takes me to page that says the following:
"The file: \windows\system32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt please load your windows installation disc to repair.
Status:0xc00000e9"
The only vista disc that came with the computer is a disc that says Windows anytime Upgrade. I have tried putting in the disc and it just takes me to a screen that say select your operating system and i click vista but it starts the whole cycle again. The last time i was able to use the computer i was installing Avira Antivir and then we had to go somewhere so i turned off the computer but when i came back the screen was still there just like i had left it before i left except there wasnt any desktop shorcuts. The mouse was frozen and i couldnt do anything so i resorted to turning it off manually by pushing the on button. When i tried to turn it back on all these messages came on.i dont know if that could have corrupted anything. i really need this laptop to be working but all the fixes require me to be able to log on to vista but i can't.Please Help!!
This is likely hard drive trouble. It is pretty common for laptops to experience hard drive trouble because they are banged around so much. Usually it is not too significant, and it is a matter of locking out a bad sector or two. Other times it requires replacing the drive all together.
First of all, it sounds like you are unable to boot the Windows Vista "Anytime-upgrade" (which will work for all practical purposes to do anything you need to do). This is probably because you need to enter your BIOS setup and reconfigure your boot device order so that it boots from the CD/DVD rom first. Or, there is usually a special key you can press when you turn the laptop on that allows you to select a different boot device.
about how to access and use the startup/repair options from the Vista installation disc or from the built in options the manufacturer provided for you.
Once you get to the system recovery options menu, choose to open a "command prompt." At the command prompt, type chkdsk c: /r and press ENTER. Allow the tool to run completely (could be an hour or longer) and pay special attention to bad clusters that it might detect. Bad clusters are a sign of physical damage to your hard drive. More than a few and you can be sure that your drive is most likely failing. chkdsk will also repair any file system problems. Once the scan is done, you can "EXIT" the command prompt console (type exit, press ENTER) and reboot the computer. See it boots properly now. If it doesn't more will be involved. You will need to start considering if there is important data on this laptop you want to save or not.
EDIT: While chkdsk is running, if it continues to prompt about bad clusters being found you need to shut the computer down (press and hold the power button 4 seconds or longer). The drive IS failing at this point and data recovery options will be your next decision if there is important data. The longer you run a drive in this condition the more chance you have of losing valuable data. This is why you just kill the power if you start seeing several bad cluster warnings.
Ouch. Stop the scan now. The drive is bad and needs to be replaced. Data recovery will most likely need to be performed by a professional if there is anything important.
Ok i dont have anything really important in this computer. I just want to be able to use it again. what should i do now?
Also i forgot to mention that my baby cousin had kicked the computer and stepped on it. I think that might have been the cause.
Hi
I wouldn't do that. The HD is probably dead. 40-50 bad clusters are not very good to say the least.
Best thing to do, would be to investigate prices for a new HD. If it have suffered severe damage
from the kicks and steps from your baby cousin, shorts may be possible, to the extend that it could
damage other internal components as well, rendering the computer completly useless. Other damage
may already exist, besides the HD damage, for all we know.
Regards
i am going to just reinastall windows altogether. Is it safe to do that?
As already stated, you cannot reinstall Windows on this drive. The drive is bad and needs to be replaced. Even if you try and it works for a short time, it will soon fail again.
Ok ok by that time i had already reinstalled windows but i am no longer going to use the laptop until i replace the hard drive. Then after i replace the hard drive i will just reinstall windows onto that drive. Do you have any recommendations for a hard drive that is cheap but good?
I prefer Western Digital drives. They are one of the best in my opinion. They are a little more expensive than some of the others.
check out www.newegg.com for deals on hard drives. Hard drive prices recently dropped dramatically.
These are all Western Digital, 7200RPM, 16MB Cache SATA 2.0 drives so you will reap maximum performance. They are not the cheapest drives but well worth the money. The smallest they have available is 160Gb.
Any 2.5" SATA Laptop hard drive will work for you. But remember, you get what you pay for.
