Bootup crashes. boot loaderi file modified

Hi all first up!

 

 I will be as detailed as possible so that we get to a solution.

 

Laptop Configuration:

Inspiron 1505

Windows XP

Two partitions of Drive, C: D:

 

C: has XP on it.

I had recently installed Windows 7 on D: and then formatted D: after a few days. I noticed that during start up my system was still showing two choices at the OS selection during bootup. (It still had Windows 7 though I formatted D:  )

SO, today I went and played a little with my boot loader file. I was amazed to find that there was no Windows 7 there.

So, I assumed Windows 7 was just left there for some reason on the bootup screen and because the option that was being selected as default was Windows 7 (and it would restart if you do nothing in the 30 seconds because it was not finding WIndows 7)

Because, it was always defaulting to Windows 7, I changed the "default =" from the existing one to the one below in the boot.ini file. I do not remember exactly what they read.

 

I changed it from :

 

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

 

TO

 

[boot loader]
timeout=30
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Now I don't even have any idea why I would move that default down :(  ( A little too much beer I guess to ruin my sick Firday night :(   )

 

Now after I restarted, my system just CANNOT start :(

I still get the same choices, but after I select : Previous version of Windows, it shows me two partitions with some names and then, irrespective of my selection it just restarts.

All it says is Windows cannot start because hal.dll file is missing

 

Isn't there a way that I could restart my system in DOS and modify back the boot.ini file back to the original position?

 

Please help!!!

 

Thanks !!!!