Windows XP startup problem - can't repair it.

Can anyone help please?

My Dell desktop failed to start windows after shutting down while I went away for the weekend. I have tried various things so far to no avail:-

Used recovery disk to repair the windows installation - got so far then stalled. I switched off after about 2 hours.

Tried to rewrite windows over existing disk partition - failed

Went into recovery console I get the option of C;/Windows or G:/minint. Selected C:/Windows and tried bootcfg /rebuild but only G:minint being listed for selection

Tried copying various files from C:Windows\repair in C:windows\system32\config as suggested by someone on internet. Seemed to have got further but got missing or corrupt hal.dll file. Followed instructions to solve this but C:\windows still not being listed when I run bootcfg /rebuild (only G:\minint)

Tried again rewriting windows over disk partition  - boot.ini error message.

Any ideas please before I have to take the decision to reformat the hard drive?

Regards,

Dave.