Boot Camp will not start, after creating Virtual Machine.

Hello,

I had set up on my Macbook Pro Intel core 2 duo, Boot Camp with windows xp and it worked fine. I then today installed Parallels 5060 and set it up to run xp via the virtual machine it created. The problem is now if i turn on the computer and try to just start up Boot Camp directly, it won't do it and gives me this error message.

"Windows could not start because the foloowing file is missing or corrupt. <windowsRoot>\system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file."

To quote the Parallels manual, it says once installed "you can use Boot Camp as usually to boot into the Window's partition or you can boot into it via Parallels virtual machine."

I am not an IT guy and would love some suggestions as to how to resolve this.
XP will still run through Parallels but there i times i need to work directly through Bootcamp and i hate that this is screwed up now. It only started after i installed Parallels and created the VM .

I have my original XP install CD disk if that can be of help.

Hope someone can help.

Kind regards.

 

I've been having problems with a Bootcamp paritition (Vista Ultimate) working within parallels but not being able to boot directly for months, trying teach new release including the beta in hopes it would resolve it. In my case it dies while windows is starting up with the green progress bar dots stopping... and a safe mode boot showing crcdisk.sys as the last thing it does. I've used the repair windows option on the Vista install CD and it finds no problems. The only suggestion I saw searching around was to run parallels with no USB devices before rebooting into bootcamp.. and that didn't help (and I unplugged the USB drives I had connected before rebooting).
I have been able to makedo just using the partition from Parallels or I'd have tried reinstalling vista, but didn't want to risk needing to waste time to restore files being unsure if installing vista again would likely force me to need to restore files from a backup. I've uninstalled and reinstalled parallels tools and bootcamp drivers, including now version 1.4 of bootcamp and the parallels beta.
I noted a post in the beta forum that parallels may have trouble with Macs with alot of memory, though I'm unsure how this would cause this type of trouble (I posted about some glitches, but if I use 1400MB RAM it works fine in non-multiple display modes), this is a Mac Pro (8 core) with 9 gig of RAM.

I've seen other posts regarding the crcdisk.sys related error but no solution or reasonable interaction regarding it from Parallels and so it would seem appropriate for Parallels to provide some general guidance on how to deal with these Bootcamp issues in the public forum and/or knowledge base to help users debug/work around Parallels bugs. btw, I can't remember for sure, but I may have created the bootcamp VM initially with version 2 trial or whatever public beta of 3 was out, 3 is what I bought, though I'm unsure what difference that could make. I didn't try booting into Bootcamp rather than through parallels for several weeks, through a few parallels updates, so I'm unsure which version broke the Bootcamp install.

 

Same problem here. I had a completely clean install of Boot Camp and Windows XP which was working very smooth. I created a new Virtual disk w/Parallels for the Boot Camp partition and everything is working great under Parallels. Now when I reboot the machine into Boot Camp it loads Windows all the way to the desktop then everything freezes. No mouse or keyboard control. I never receive any errors as most people here do, it just freezes at the desktop.

I saw one hint to try pressing the down arrow immediately before Windows loads and that actually worked so I'm assuming my problem is with the hal.dll file. What is the workaround for this problem? When will there be a solution?

I'm using the newest build 5060.

 

Always Need To Have A Proper Parallels Shutdown

I had this problem and several similar problems and read many discussion boards and tried many different things until I came up with a workable plan. Parallels customer service was no help at all - ZERO. Other users and discussions like this one were helpful and then just trying different things until I figured a fix that works, etc...

The short answer is (1) once you get this error you are screwed. There is no way to recover from it and you must redo your boot camp partition with a fresh install, etc.. (2) Parallels is a very buggy/quirky program at best. When it functions properly it is truly amazing. However, lots of little things can make it snag. So if you understand this and are willing to work with it having this understanding then there are some long, pain in the ---, ways to get around some of the issues such as this. (3) Read below on how to prevent this from happening again.

I can't tell you why this particular problem arises but I can tell you one way to get around it and avoid it.

THE GOLDEN RULE of PARALLELS: When running Parallels using a Boot Camp partition running windows - NEVER, NEVER, NEVER natively boot up to your boot camp partition until you are absolutely positive 100% you had a proper shutdown after using parallels.
If you do this then you will never hurt your boot camp partition.

What is a proper shut down? There is only one acceptable proper shutdown when running parallels: start menu --> shut down. Windows shuts down and parallels flips to the long on screen for the VM. Anything different is an improper shutdown - period. And if you try natively booting to windows boot camp following an improper windows shutdown you will almost certainly corrupt and destroy your boot camp drive.

So to do to get around this? It is time consuming and a pain, but this is what you need to do. Natively Boot to Mac OS. Once Mac is booted, run parallels again (might have to create a new virtual machine, just depends). Parallels will try booting Win/BootCamp VM and in the process the blue screen running scan disc will come up and say windows didn't shut down properly and scan disc will check for errors. THIS IS IMPORTANT _ LET IT DO THIS. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING. Following scan disc windows should boot and come up properly. Once, windows boots up in parallels then shut it down properly. On parallels windows shuts down properly, then it is safe to natively reboot to your Bootcamp drive.

Example...
Every time I install Parallels (updated or install fresh) and then run the virtual desktop for the first time it automatically installs the Parallel tools and drivers, etc... This goes well and following installation of the tools and drivers the computer (meaning windows inside parallels using your bootcamp drive) wants to restart.

This seems to go well until the virtual machine actually tries to restart. I am not sure why but restarting the VM through windows start button --> restart always makes my machine freeze on restart - always! What works for me is to go to start button --> shut down. Once the system shuts down then just manually restart. I have now problems when I do this - never (knock on wood). The problem with the restart is not the initial shut down, this almost always goes fine, the problem is following shutdown when the computer tries to automatically restart - always freezes. It freezes the VM and it freezes my Mac. This is may be the only program that ever freezes my Mac. Anyway, after the freeze I have to do a manual hard button shutdown and reboot. This is a problem since VM tried to reboot windows and crashed it recognizes this as an improper shut down. If I were to go directly to a native BootCamp - Win boot up at this time it would fry and corrupt the boot log (or something like that) so that now boot camp will not boot correctly and there is no way to fix it except to reinstall the OS. I speak from lots of trial and error before I figured this out, etc...

NOW - if following the shutdown and subsequent automatic restart the computer freezes on a black screen and locks up everything (the VM, my Mac, everything freezes - one of the few things that will lock up my mac) requiring a hard button restart, then boot to MACS OS. Run or Reinstall parallels - boot up windows through parallels, let scan disk run, etc...and eventually windows will open in parallels. If this doesn't work try creating a new VM and if this doesn't work reinstall parallels (over the current copy). Do what ever you need to do to get parallels up and running and then do a proper shut down. What every you do do not natively boot to windows bootcamp until you have achieved a proper shutdown through the parallels system.

There are many different ways parallels and/or windows can cause itself to freeze or not shutdown properly. Regardless the cause the same principal applies you must go back and startup parallels, boot up windows using parallels, let scan disk run if necessary, and then shut windows down properly in parallels. Once a proper shutdown has been achieved then you are safe to natively boot to your win bootcamp drive.

Hope this is helpful, and prevents this from happening to others.

 

Same thing happened to me. I got the " . . . following file is missing or corrupt: <windows>root>\system32\hal.dll." when trying to boot into WindowsXP via Boot Camp. But after using the "down arrow" trick above, I was able to get past the error message and launch.

And when I re-booted and tried again, I booted right up without the error message or needing to press the down arrow. Apparently the down arrow procedure "fixed" the problem permanently.

 

See my comments about this issue 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 this issue altogether.