Today I turned on my computer and I could not load up Windows because it said some system32 files are missing. (hal.dll nto…) Anyway, I have avast on the computer and I want to use it’s boot-time scan to see if it is a virus that is doing this to me. Is there any way I can do that? Thanks
-Jon
Open Avast>Menu (usaly top left hand corner)>Boot-Time Scan.
Note Boot-Time Scan is only avaliable in Windows 2000/NT/XP, Not Win9x/ME
–lee
snakeEater,
can you give us some more info please?
O.S. and also if you are “dual booting” or have changed any hardware lately?
I’m running windows xp home. I didn’t install anything new. I just came to my computer (i was currently logged on) and one of my programs notified me that some network files were missing that it needed to run. Then it froze and when I started it up it said i was missing these system32 files.
Basically, windows won’t even start to load, so if I am going to do any scan it will probably have to be from a boot cd or from the recovery console.
Thanks for the help.
-Jon
Have a look here to see if there is any relevance to your problem.
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
I’m guessing that a “safe mode” start is also not possible?
btw, further down the link (boot.ini) are commands for the recovery console.
The avast 4 home boot-time scan can only be scheduled from the avast menu. So if you can’t get into windows you wont be able to do that.
You could download the avast DOS version (free) this may not help you if your HDD is formatted to NTFS and not fat32.
If you have got your original XP CD then you can do a repair install of XP from that. You would need to change the boot order in the BIOS though to CD drive first, HDD second.
Sorry I can’t be of more help, I’m about to log off for the night.
Jon, this happened to me before… twice or three times.
I had a dual boot system, so I could boot with the second operational system and copy & paste the missing files.
I think it’s a problem into the MFT (Master File Table) or any other trouble with the HDD.
Did you install Recovery Console as a boot option? If not, do you have the XP CD?
I think the best will be overinstalling Windows… You won’t lose your data and documents.
Only the windows updates patches…
Better I can’t imagine 
:-[
I booted with the cd and when into the recovery console. Using my Flash Drive, I took the “missing” (it’s actually there) file from a different cpu and overwrote the corrupted file. However, it just asked me for another file, and I am afraid going back and forth replacing the files could do damage, and even if not, it would certainly take a while.
But you are saying I won’t lose “My Documents” if I over-install windows? When I attempted over-installing earlier there was a warning saying that “you may lose your ‘My Documents’,” so I didn’t want to risk it. But, you are sure I won’t lose them? If so, then I will just go ahead and over-install.
Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate this.
-Jon
For sure you can backup (copy) all your files to the flash disk you have… or burn a CD.
You can copy to another folder in the computer too.
You won’t lose your documents IF you install a Windows Update (overinstall), using the same folder C:\Windows.
If you install a second instance of windows (this is NOT an overinstall) in another folder, then you can have trouble…
I had a similar problem to this a few months ago, just by switching off my PC at the mains switch (it was the only way I could get it to shut down after a freeze). When I switched back on, Windows XP would not load. I had to do a bit of research on the Internet to find out how to run the Recovery Console. I’ve since loaded the Recovery Console onto my hard drive to make it easier to use if I ever need it again. I also wrote down all the steps I took while they were fresh in my mind. One other thing - I think backing up of valuable data is absolutely essential. I use a great program (IMHO) for this from a UK firm called Aquarius IS Consultancy (www.aiscl.co.uk). It runs once a day automatically at bootup (although you can set other schedules) and although the program isn’t free (upgrades are though), it’s very reasonably priced with lots of features.