I was unable to connect to WHS so I attached a monitor to the server and saw "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll
I believe this issue is further complicated by the fact that I have applied SP1 and don't have a slipstreamed disk. My question is how do I recover from this and still preserve my backup and shared folders. I have a total of three separate disk drives on the server. Any help would be appreciated.
First, my guess is your primary hard drive is failing. The first thing I would do is pull the primary drive out of the server, connect it to another computer and run chkdsk /r on that drive. If it finds and corrects any errors, you could try putting it back in the server and starting it up to see if it works. However, I would start looking for a new drive to replace that one ASAP.
In any event, to answer your question, you want to boot from the WHS DVD. When you get to the installation selection screen, you should see 2 options: New Installation and Server Reinstallation. You want Server Reinstallation. It will wipe the OS partition but leave the rest of the data in tact. Once the reinstallation is complete, all you need to do is re-create any users and re-install any add-ins. (NOTE: If you don't get Server Reinstallation as an option, don't go any further. Please post back here for suggestions on how to get the reinstallation mode to appear.)
