HELP!!!! I crasehd windows xp

[hehh]

Please help!!! I just crashed windows xp and I can't log in. I have a laptop with windows xp pro, it had 3 partitions: C (where windows is installed), D (a logical partitoin with half my HD for documents) and F (primary) with 3Gb of space and empty. Because I didn't know what the F unit was for I installed Partition Magic 7 form Paragon and I asked it to merge F in C, so I did but the software told me I can only do taht after restarting windows. I restarted and when Windows is about to begin it dis what it should, I guess, merged the two partitons and told me to restart. But when I restarted it says:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll Please re-install a copy of the above file.
Now what??? I inserted the windows CD and tries to run the repair software but all it does is to open c:\windows and from there I don't know what to do.
please help me!!

[Miz]

Do you have a retail XP CD or is it one supplied with the laptop? If it's a disk that came with the computer, it's possible that the F partition wasn't actually empty but held the files necessary for the recovery/restore CD to work.

If the laptop displayed a screen during startup with a line about pressing a key to "Restore your System" or "Recover Windows" or "Repair Windows" or anything similar, it's even more likely that's what that F partion was for. Computer manufacturers like to make sure users don't mess with that partition so they try to hide it and hide all its contents.

If the CD offers the option of getting into the Recovery Console, try it. If it will load the Recovery Console, you can try the steps in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article.

Even more information about the "hal.dll missing" problem on this page.

[hehh]

Hey, thank you for the tip. I'll see the links you told me but let me tell you what happened with F. It was actually my idea/mistake, when I bought my laptop it came with C, D and one extra partition hidden (the one now F) but the system was in German so I bought winxp in english, formated everything and installed but I didn't know what the extra partition was for and i formatted it too (sorry!), now I had the winxp in english in C and D and F, that's why. I'll try the link and I'll let you know. Thank you so much!

[hehh]

Hello again. I just followed the first link and I could start windows again!!! Thank you. However at the end it says that after I start windows normally I should be able to eliminate the incorrect entry, in the boot.ini file there are 2 operating systems, it says (after [operating systems]):
(1) "Windows XP Professional"
(2) "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin
\fastdetect

Any suggestion as to which one eliminate? Of couse I'll save the boot.nini file and folow the instructions in the page you told me.