System Recovery (missing hal.dll file)

[S-Kid]

Hi, just last night my mother restarted our computer and as it rebooted she said it showed a file saying something about a missing hal.dll file, she went into system recovery and all seems ok - most files are still intact but re-installs for everything are needed

Anyway, when the system recovered I noticed all of the users were gone from the welcome screen but their files all remained intact but needed you to go through documents and settings to use the files. Is there anyway of recovering these users - and if not how do I go about making new accounts and transferring the files?

Also, after checking some files I decided to delete a few usless things and I had a folder in another user with nothing in it. I can't seem to delete the file, rename or enter the file. I tried using a few little bits of software like "MoveOnBoot" and things like that which allow me to rename but still no delete - what a horrible night
I also tried changing the ownership but I don't think I did it right.
Any ideas?



Thanks a LOT for the help - in advance

[asa_sniper]

Howd S-Kid,
Do you know if you did a destructive recovery or not?

As for the Hal message, that means (Hardware Abstraction Layer) just windows takes a pic when you install it and when you change it to much yoiu need to reinstall it. But need to know what type of pc you have dell etc.. And what recovery disc you used.

[S-Kid]

Hey thanks for the help,
I'm not sure about the destructive recovery - I wasn't home at the time, my mother initiated the recovery thinking it was the same thing as system restore. As I said before, all my files are intact but most of my apps needed to be reinstalled.

I have a HP Pavillion a1140a
My mother tells me she didn't use a disc, it just did everything itself.

Thanks again.

[asa_sniper]

Have you tried going to control panel...user accounts..change the way users log on..then use the quick log in? Seems somthing just changed the way the users log on.

[S-Kid]

The fast log on is activated. It's as if all the users were deleted apart from one, but the files remain available through Documents & Settings folder. I will do some more searching around - see if I can find something.

Edit: Ok I found a few links, the first explains my problem pretty much perfectly but asks for money to see how to fix it But the second one suggests I just copy files from the old user profile to the new one.

Link 1
Link 2

Do you think the method mentioned in the 2nd link is correct?

[asa_sniper]

Yes I would try the second link.. I wouldnt pay to have somthing fixed.. Not for that at least., Try it it anbd let us know if it worked for you

[S-Kid]

Ok, so I created a new user account just to test the second method. All I did was basically copy everything from the old account which was located in Documents & Settings (copied everything: my documents, my music, etc.) and pasted it into the new account, replacing it's own files. Apart from missing internet bookmarks and few tidbits here and there everything is back to normal.

Thanks for the help