Help! Missing or Corrupt hal.dll file

[AwesomeO]

Ok first I need to provide a little back story to my problem.
Sorry for wall of text.


I have a very old HP laptop from like 2001.
The laptop is very slow and the disc cd/dvd drive optical lens no longer works so I can't use CDs anymore.
Its a 330mhz 256 ram laptop with a 20GB HDD and I can't get it to connect to the internet because many settings are deleted (long story)
Currently I use a virtual disc drive software to mount CDs (sadly it gets unmounted when I restart so I can never boot from disc)
The PC has very old setting in the bios bootup menu and only allows me to bootup or repair from Harddisk, Floppy or CD.
I can't from a USB connected device.
It has Windows XP Home Edition SP3 installed.

A few days ago I decided to bring out this old hp laptop and install a light linux based distro like Lubuntu.
So I used Unetbootin to mount the iso of Lubuntu on a usb pendrive and restarted my laptop.
When I went to the partition option and chose Lubuntu it said something like "Missing or corrupt System 32 \ hal.dll file etc..."
I can easily reboot and load windows xp home but I can't get it to start lubuntu from my pendrive.
Funny thing is hal.dll is not missing and or hasn't been modified since 2008 it says and its still located in System 32...

To make matters worse the only info I have found on the internet has been either use the windows xp repair/recovery cd to fix and reinstall hal.dll.
Too bad I no longer have the xp installation cd and even if I did my disc drive doesn't work.
I heard I could mount it on my USB pendrive and boot it that way but sadly as I mentioned before my old pc only has options to boot from harddisk, floppy or cd there is no usb option.



Any advice on what I should do?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

If there's no USB boot option in BIOS then your laptop is incapable of booting from USB. Given its age that laptop isn't much use except as a doorstop.

 

[AwesomeO]

so then there really is nothing else I can do?
I just wanted to install something linux based and get it to run programs and use it as a web browsing pc.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Unless you replace the CD/DVD drive no.

 

[skittle]

if you cant boot from usb or cdrom and you have no floppy drive(you can boot to usb from the floppy), then you either must try to get a external USB cdrom drive or install linux onto the hard drive from a different computer (remove drive, plug into different compter).

 

[AwesomeO]

if you cant boot from usb or cdrom and you have no floppy drive(you can boot to usb from the floppy), then you either must try to get a external USB cdrom drive or install linux onto the hard drive from a different computer (remove drive, plug into different compter).

Well the laptop does have a floppy drive and the ability to boot from the floppy drive in the bios menu.
I don't have any floppy disks anymore though...

How would I go about booting from the floppy drive and then getting it to boot from the usb pendrive?

I found my windows xp home installation disc and I know how to extract the files and use a software to make my pendrive function as the windows xp cd since my disc drive is broken.

All I need is to figure out is how to make windows boot and recognize the pendrive.


I found this great youtube tutorial that pretty much sums up my current problem and what I need to do.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMkt9fkHCI

The only difference is the guy in the video has a working disc drive and I have to boot the cd from my pendrive.

 

[skittle]

you do not need windows or the windows cd if you are just trying to install linux.

Basically it involves writing a minimal linux kernel and bootloader and boot strap it to the flash drive.
Can achieve this using 'plop linux'
video for you plop linux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q3zsYCE5gA
to install 1.44meg version of plop to a floppy:
http://www.plop.at/en/plopkexec.html#download
download the 'plopkexec.img' floppy image and write to a floppy using rawrwite:
http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite or use dd if on linux.

here are steps for puppy linux (which will work better than lubuntu on older hardware)
http://askubuntu.com/posts/87353/revisions#

 

[AwesomeO]

you do not need windows or the windows cd if you are just trying to install linux.

Basically it involves writing a minimal linux kernel and bootloader and boot strap it to the flash drive.
Can achieve this using 'plop linux'
video for you plop linux
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q3zsYCE5gA
to install 1.44meg version of plop to a floppy:
http://www.plop.at/en/plopkexec.html#download
download the 'plopkexec.img' floppy image and write to a floppy using rawrwite:
http://www.chrysocome.net/rawwrite or use dd if on linux.

here are steps for puppy linux (which will work better than lubuntu on older hardware)
http://askubuntu.com/posts/87353/revisions#

hmmm well since my disc drive is broken I can't boot from a disc.
So I guess booting from a floppy is my only choice.
Guess I have to go visit some stores in hope that there are still floppy disks for sale :lol:

I was just hoping that there was some easier way like installing software so my old laptop could add a usb boot option in the bios menu...

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I was just hoping that there was some easier way like installing software so my old laptop could add a usb boot option in the bios menu...

Nope, requires a whole new BIOS be written. Not gonna happen with a laptop that old.