Samus Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 I started KOTOR as usual, but the computer spent a very long time reading the CD-ROM, and the game didn't start. I tried to turn the computer off from the start-menu, but it just wouldn't turn off. This has happened once before, and that time, I just turned the computer off by pressing the power button. I did that this time as well, but when I started the computer again, I got some weird rythmic sounds from the harddrive, and I got a message saying that Windows XP could not start because of a missing or damaged file: <windows root>\system32\hal.dll. And please reinstall the file. I tried booting from the Windows XP CD, and chose the option for system repairs. But I got something like: "...this contains functions for sytem repairs...blahblahblah. Type EXIT and press ENTER to quit and reboot." Then there was a DOS command-line C:\ and that was it. I tried typing dir. "An error occured." Tried opening a folder (spill, it means games) that I knew should be on my C-drive by typing: cd spill. But that folder was invalid. Using a win98 boot floppy (or whatever it's called), the dir funtion worked, but all folders were missing, and there were just some files on the drive, like scandisc.exe. I tried running that, but it finished the moment I started it. That does not bode well. To me, it would seem like the whole drive has been erased. I can try reinstalling Windows, but I don't know if that's a good idea before I know what's happened to the harddrive. Are there any experts who could help me out here? (I can call tech support, but they are closed until monday. EVERY time I get problems with the computer, it's the end of the week. So frustrating!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eidospsogos Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 uhm, geez. you're probably not going to be able to get much help for a problem of this nature from a game forum. personally i suggest, if you are fairly certain nothing much remains on the hard drive anyway, that you merely use your dos boot disk to format the hard drive and start over. BUT problems this big are seldomly caused by a game. you could have gotten a virus. but if practically everything on the hard drive is goneit should be as well unless it's of the memory resident variety. anyway, i wish i could be of more help, but it's hard to tell someone what to do in this situation without actually being able to examine the problem firsthand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samus Posted January 2, 2004 Author Share Posted January 2, 2004 Well, I decided to format the harddrive and reinstall Windows. Formatting right now. Luckily there were not a lot of important files on it. And also very luckily, I copied my KOTOR save files to an USB harddisk a week ago to bring to a friend of mine, so I'll only lose about 10 hours of progress. I just hope everything will work when I reinstall Windows, and that there's not some physical damage to the harddrive or anything. It just seems extremely weird that turning off the computer with the power button should cause such a mess. I've had to do that many times with my old computer which I used for three years, and sure, some errors have occured, but nothing worse than scandisc can fix, left alone the whole harddrive being erased. It could have been a virus, but that's unlikely, as I have anti-virus software that updates automatiacally whenever there is an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.AbusivePanda Posted January 2, 2004 Share Posted January 2, 2004 This happened to me today too, i'm not sure if i can help you but the reason my game couldnt start was because i had this forum running (it kinda stalled and wouldnt let me restart, my system is 2600+ amd) ... try and make sure all other programs are closed or something thats the best advice i can give you, hope it helps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samus Posted January 3, 2004 Author Share Posted January 3, 2004 The same thing happened to you? Did your entire harddrive get erased as well? It sure is weird. Well, I'm getting things up and running. There's an insane amount of things I have to install, like drivers and security updates and software that I need all the time. I sure hope this doesn't happen again. I'm tempted to resort to a no-cd crack to skip the CD check that caused me all these problems. It's a shame, though. But since I own the game, there's nothing wrong with doing that, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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