Missing Hal.dll

While trying to fix my webcam driver for my HP notebook I came across a site that was genuinely friendly. SO I THOUGHT! I blindly followed the instruction asking to delete hal.dll in c:\windows\system32 directory. What a sucker. The next thing I know my windows had gone kaput and it gave me the message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file."
I panicked because my notebook has tons of years of works that translated into $$$. The last backup I made was months ago. I spent the whole night googling for help on my son's PC and nothing came close. Not even Microsoft sites. To make matter worse, for an unknown reason my CD/DVD-ROM drive was not recognized by the Phoenix BIOS. I was not able to use my Windows CD for Quick Recovery. Needing to keep my head cool, I had a pack of "Salem Light" within reach. You know, the Source of Inspiration! ;-)

Not giving up, at dawn I stumbled upon the Avira NTFS4DOS Personal 1.9 software and that was my answer. I downloaded the software, installed it on the harddisk and run the program to create the miracle floppy disk. I also copied HELL.DLL.. err.. I mean HAL.DLL onto the diskette. Lucky thing I had a USB floppy drive handy. Back to my troubled notebook, I set the floppy drive up as my first bootable device so that I'd get the A:\ prompt. I then rebooted my notebook and after a while the next thing I got was the NTFS4DOS screen. I jumped for joy and quickly copied the hal.dll file from the a: drive to my c:\windows\system32. Sensing victory, I plugged out the floppy drive from my priceless notebook and rebooted it. Wallah!! up came the XP screen. Holly Molly!! It caused me 15 sticks of "Salem Light" and a sleepless night to bring it up again!! By the way, if you have not heard of a Floppy Drive before, sorry dude.. try wikipedia for explanation.

My 1st Blog

I have attempted a few times in blogging my way through the information superhighway.