Utility to fix "missing or corrupted HAL.DLL" in Bootcamp

Hal.dll missing

I get exactly the same result as S Watts, when will parallels fix the hal.dll missing error?

I've emailed Parallels to ask their help, but so far have drawn a big blank & this isn't very encouraging!

Mike
 
Hey,

I'm having allmost the same problem.
Windows XP crashed (I only need it for office software... :( , so I had to force a stop of parrallels.
Ever since Parallels doesn't work anymore en when I try to boot the Macbook in XP I get a DOS screen for a second with a choice "boot from parrallels" (witch it automaticly takes and displays "can find hall.dll" and tops booting. The other option is XP Profesional, and when I'm very fast on the down arrow key (hitting the key like a fool...) I can normaly boot the XP...

I allready tried to change the hall.dll file, but no result however...

So I can still work work in XP, but no longer from inside the MAC OS...

Hope somebody brings the solution... or parallels wil fix this...

Greetz
 
I solve the problem reinstalling parallels and creating a new virtual machine (over bootcamp). This works for me, however I am not sure that all of us have the same problem.

Good luck!
 
I've long since moved over to VMware Fusion to do development on my Bootcamped Vista partition. They don't replace any critical system files and I can safely close the lid on my MBP, thus putting it to sleep, go to work, and re-open it to find both OSes still functioning.

Coherence in Parallels is better than Unity on Fusion, but I can't risk the "missing or corrupted HAL.DLL" problem. It seems more serious in Vista than XP because there is no quick keyboard action that I know of that saves the day.

In general, I prefer the user experience of Parallels over VMware. But until they fix this problem, I simply can't risk it.
 
I usually work on full-screen mode (combined with virtue desktop, this is very usable), i.e. I do not use coherence.

For the moment, I will give a second chance to parallels, because I really like it... but if it is unreliable I will switch (I am still in trial-period).
 
We have had the same problem. So much so that the only solution was to remove the Boot Camp partition, put it back on, and reinstall windows from scratch. This is simply not acceptable. We had very good luck with Parallels up until this last build.
 
Hey,

Seems that for the moment the anly thing I can do, is (as said above) remove the Bootcamp partion and reinstall XP... when I find the time to back it up...
Unless Parallels comes with the sollution in a short time...

Greetz
 
Parallels is dead to me until this is fixed. It is going to cost me thousands of dollars worth of my own time to reinstall my Vista boot camp from scratch to be usable again. My confidence in Parallels, and more importantly the company behind it, is completely shot. Saying that...
We have plans to develop this utility later
Click to expand...
...and then going silent for 3+ weeks when you know bootcamp users are being left with unbootable corrupted installs is just pure customer neglect. What is the status of this utility? When can we expect this to be fixed? I bought a MacBook Pro specifically because I expected this to work and now my $3,000 machine is sitting in the bag doing nothing.
 
Ynot said:
We have plans to develop this utility later. I'll control it.
Click to expand...
So you're aware of the problem but this isn't a priority? Would you like to buy my MacBook Pro from me because it's not doing much for me now thanks specifically to you guys and your software. Worked perfectly in bootcamp before you guys corrupted it. I need to be running in bootcamp 95% of the time.
 
If you are having this problem, try this. I'm not sure if the latest Parallels betas still cause this problem, has anyone had this problem after they started using build 5060 or 5120?
 
I'm using Vista too, so I need the fix for the Vista, which, as stated by mark-nc, is not repaired by the utility on the installation CD.

As for what mark-nc can do next, I know of no other fix than to reinstall Vista and use Winclone to backup the Bootcamp partition. I know nobody likes to hear it, but ultimately only you can be held responsible for running such a configuration based on beta software (Bootcamp) without a backup. I feel for you, man, but I learned the same lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ...

Someone mentioned doing a graceful shutdown to restore hal.dll. I don't know about XP, but this does not fix the problem on Vista.

As for going forward, I will only trust my bootcamped VM to Fusion + a Winclone backup. If you need Bootcamp 95% of the time, I do not think virtualization is worth the risk at this point. Parallels on its own? Never again. Fusion + Winclone, maybe. But never without a backup.
 
flipdoubt said:
I know nobody likes to hear it, but ultimately only you can be held responsible for running such a configuration based on beta software (Bootcamp) without a backup. I feel for you, man, but I learned the same lesson.
Click to expand...
Bootcamp didn't corrupt itself - Parallels corrupted Bootcamp! Parallels is supposed not beta software regardless of the state of Bootcamp. Bootcamp, btw, works amazingly. I am going to reinstall it and give the VMWare software a try. I really do like Parallels and I expect to come back to it as soon as they figure out how to prevent this from happening again or ship a utility to repair it.

Thanks for the tip on Winclone - I'm backup up my Windows partition right now!
 
mark-nc said:
I really do like Parallels and I expect to come back to it as soon as they figure out how to prevent this from happening again or ship a utility to repair it.
Click to expand...

I had tried to corrupt my Boot Camp partition but was unable to with build 5060. If I had been able to I was going to try to do a before and after comparison to create a simple repair utility. However, I'm not sure if Parallels actually still creates this problem or not in the beta builds (5060 and 5120). Can anyone confirm that they have had one of those betas create this problem?
 
@brkirch,

In trying to corrupt your Bootcamp partition, is your Bootcamp partition XP or Vista? I would love to hear your results with regard to Vista. Also, how did you try to corrupt it? Did you suspend or hibernate the VM in Parallels? Did you shutdown the VM via the Parallels UI rather than the Windows UI?

Using Fusion, I've accidently done terrible things with no corruption. One thing I did was have my startup disk set to Bootcamp, boot into Bootcamp, change the startup disk to OS X, then close the lid on my MBP to hibernate Vista. Upon opening the lid, my MBP booted into OS X. I ran the VM, shut it down, and was able to boot into Bootcamp without getting any error messages, let alone corruption.
 
Hey Parallels, care to comment?

1. Is there any news on when the utility might be released?
2. Is there any response as to whether Beta builds 5060 and 5120 get around the problem of foobarring a Vista bootcamp VM after a dirty shutdown?

Thanks.
 
Well this isn't a good sign. This has been reported by a large number of people and not a peep from Parallels on it in weeks.

This is eroding my faith and trust in the product.
 
See my comments about these issues here. It will resolve your BSOD issues (...the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM and Stop Error 0x0000007b), but I think Parallels should come up with a solution that avoids these issues altogether.
 
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