I need to know if I damaged my hard drive?

Receiving a bad image checksum error message when upgrading a computer to Windows XP means that a Windows system file such as user32.dll is damaged. This error occurs when any damaged system file is encountered that isn't overwritten during Setup. The repair process for this error involves voiding the damaged dynamic link library file from the DOS command line prompt and replacing it with a new copy from the Windows XP disk.

Insert a clean Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (ME) or Microsoft Windows 98 Edition startup disk into the computer, and hold the reset button on the front of the computer until the system commences rebooting. Navigate the Windows startup menu with the keyboard's directional keys and select 'Start Computer with CD-ROM Support'. Hit "Enter" to continue. Write down your CD-ROM's drive letter on a piece of paper. At the command prompt, type "Drive:" without quotes (Drive should be replaced with the drive letter on which Windows is installed), and press "Enter." Type "cd windows\system32" without quotes, and press "Enter." Type "ren user32.dll user32.old" without quotes and again press "Enter." This renames your damaged user32.dll file so it is not recognized by the system, but still physically exists as a backup if needed in the future. Eject the Windows ME or 98 disk, and insert the Windows XP disk. At the command prompt, type "extract CDROMDrive:\i386\user32.dl_ Drive:\windows\system32\user32.dll" without quotes, replacing CDROMDrive with the CD-ROM's drive letter that you made a note of earlier, and replacing Drive with the system's drive letter on which Windows is installed. Hit "Enter" to execute the command. This process extracts a new copy of the user32.dll file to your hard disk, from the Windows XP CD. The new file will be found in the Windows/System32 directory. Restart the system by holding the reset button on the front of the tower until reboot commences.

There are a number of possible causes for BOOTMGR errors, including the most common "BOOTMGR is missing" error message.

The most common reasons for BOOTMGR errors include corrupt and misconfigured files, hard drive and operating system upgrade issues, corrupt hard drive sectors an outdated BIOS and damaged or loose IDE cables

Anothe reason you might see BOOTMGR errors is if your PC is trying to boott from a hard drive or flash drive that is not properly configured to be booted from. In other words, it's trying to boot from a non-bootable source. This also would apply to media on an optical drive or floppy drive that you're trying to boot from. make sure there are no disks in cd floppy usb drives Test all power and data leads that attach to your hard drive ,SATA the leads from your ((MOTHERBOARD TO YOUR HARD DRIVE)) make sure they have a secure dust free connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty
Make sure all power and data leads that are attached to your drives dvd\cd have secure connections and are not faulty or just replace them they could be faulty a computer needs Data and Power to travel through every working device and to continue its cycle and to have an end so any faulty leads will end up with a computer error. also make sure you have set it boot from you hard drive in BIOS Restart your computer and enter BIOS mode. On most computers this is done by pressing the Delete ot F2 key but will vary depending on your computers bios other keys Acer: - Ctrl+Alt+Esc , ALR PC: (F2) or (Ctrl)(Alt)Esc) , Award BIOS: (Del) or (Ctrl)(Alt)(Esc).

Scroll over to the "Hard Drives" tab, and make sure your computer has the hard drive assigned to be on. Often during BIOS you can select auto-detect or change options with your hard drive to make sure Windows can recognize it. Once you've selected your desired options, continue to boot.
Restart your computer repeatedly tapping the f8 key to enter safe mode while the screen is black once in safe mode where the only things working will be your keyboard and mouse allowing you to attempt to repair your computer
As the computer is booting repeatadly press the F8 key as the computer is booting If done properly the user should get to a screen similar to the below screen. Select the option for Safe mode command prompt only Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option: Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA mode
Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked)
Directory Services Restore Mode (Windows domain controllers only)
Debugging Mode Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu Use the up and down arrow keys to move the highlight to your choice. select safe mode with command prompt Then type at the C:\> prompt: type

DEBUG

and hit Enter. You'll see a dash (-) at the DEBUG prompt. Now type:

o 70 2e

which will show as -o 70 2e at the DEBUG prompt. Hit Enter. Then type:

o 71 ff

and hit Enter. Finally type:

Quit

and hit Enter one last time to quit DEBUG back to the C:\> prompt.
Now you're ready to reboot your PC, and press the appropriate key or key
combo (look it up in your motherboard manual if you don't know it) to access
your BIOS Setup. Youll notice the password is gone. If this fails try typing At command prompt type debug
you will get a - prompt where you can type the following (<enter> means press enter, not type enter*)

A <ENTER>
MOV AX,0 <ENTER>
MOV AX,CX <ENTER>
OUT 70,AL <ENTER>
MOV AX,0 <ENTER>
OUT 71,AL <ENTER>
INC CX <ENTER>
CMP CX,100 <ENTER>
JB 103 <ENTER>
INT 20 <ENTER>
<ENTER> just hit enter on this line
G <ENTER>
Q <ENTER> Basic BIOS password - works 9.9 times out of ten
If this fails you will need to Select safe mode with networking to download you could download all of these or just one save them to a usb drive for later use if one fails to remove the password http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.html At some stage you might need to press Ctrl+Enter rather than just Enter if on a Dell Latitude E5410 http://majorgeeks.com/CmosPwd_d239.html A CMOS BIOS password recovery tool Editors note: This tool should only be used by experienced computer users. Please see the enclosed read me if you would like to run it from Windows. Failure to follow instructions (from Windows) will cause your anti-virus to flag this as a virus. Hope this helps.

I/O error means that computer is having difficulty in reading and writing the data from that hard drive it could be because of some software or hardware malfunction.
Try using Chkdsk. If it doesnt work I am afraid you'll lose it so just try to recover the data.

If your hard drive was running at the time you dropped it, your hard drive might have crashed. Sorry to tell you this buy you most probably need to replace the hard drive.

I don't know much about computers but sounds like a problem I had. Where to start? Well I happened to wife's laptop. I ran norton came back with nothing. Did this several times I even tried downloading firefox from work comp and flash driving it over. Nothin. Bought a new laptop at pc micro center, worked great came with a two comp. Antivirus that's called eset Antivirus. Deleted norton off her comp. And put eset on there than boom internet worked. Come to find out norton became the virus. It couldn't fix the problem so it just blocked it from using Internet. In doing so it blocked us as well. I really recommend using eset not norton or maceffe. We have not had any problems since and it seems to catch a lot more threats than norton ever did. Hope this is helpful

run a norton disk doctor... it will fix this hopefully

CauseCauses of the "missing or corrupt hal.dll" error include, naturally, a damaged hal.dll DLL file or a hal.dll file that has been deleted or moved from its intended location. Additional causes may include a damaged or missing boot.ini file or possibly a physically damaged hard drive.
Resolution

1. Restart the PC. The hal.dll error could be a fluke.
   
   
2. Check for proper boot order in BIOS. You might see the hal.dll error if the boot order in BIOS is first looking at a hard drive other than your main hard drive.
   
   Note: If you've recently changed your boot order or recently flashed your BIOS, this may be what's causing your problem.
   
   
3. Run Windows XP System Restore from a command prompt. If this doesn't work or you're receiving the hal.dll error message before you're able to complete this process, move on to the next step.
   
   
4. Repair or replace the boot.ini file. This will work if the cause of the problem is actually Windows XP's boot.ini file and not the hal.dll file, which is often times the case.
   
   Note: If repairing the boot.ini does correct the hal.dll issue but the problem reappears after a reboot and you've recently installed Internet Explorer 8 in Windows XP, uninstall IE8. In this specific situation, IE8 could be the root cause of your hal.dll problem.

I hope it's simply a diskette in the diskette drive...
Otherwise, your hard drive may be bad.

If you moved the computer, the power or data cable may have come loose.

Open the case and check the cables. If you find an "extra" power cable in the case, swap that power cable with the one in the hard drive.

To fix the problem
Disable the S.M.A.R.T error detection feature in the CPUCool program or similar utility.
Boot to the Windows 2000 or XP installation CD, and at the Startup menu, press R for repair.
In the Recovery Console, type the following:
chkdsk /p
When the CHKDSK process has finished, reboot the computer.
Run the program again.
The error should no longer be reported unless you start using the S.M.A.R.T error detection feature again.

Error occurs with PartitionMagic 8.0
If you encounter Error 1516 with PartitionMagic 8, first run CHKDSK /F on the affected partition. For instructions on how to run CHKDSK, read How to Run Microsoft's CHKDSK from the Command Line. If this does not fix the error, try running PartitionMagic with the /IFC switch, which causes file system errors to be ignored.
To run PartitionMagic with the /IFC switch
Boot from the first PartitionMagic rescue disk.
When you are prompted to insert the second rescue disk, press Ctrl+C to drop to the command (A:>) prompt.
Insert the second PartitionMagic rescue disk and type the following:
pqmagic /ifc
Press Enter.
please go ahead and try the above steps may be it will fix it

get in touch with symantec make sure you would be able to redownload it after you format your drive. Use file and setting wizard from start->programs->accessories->system tools to transfer your settings to removable media. Once you format and reinstall use wizard again to import your previous settings from removable media.