I have an aging x41 that has served me well. I've since replaced it with another laptop from Lenovo. Yesterday, I used the x41 for an hour or two. Just before turning it off, I did a properties check on it, and noted that the hard drive was very full...either 1meg or 1gig (probably the latter) left. I know windows has always gotten onery when the HD is that full. I turned it off with the idea of going back into it later and deleting a bunch of files.

Today, I turned on the x41, and it threw a hal.dll error, and wouldn't boot. I rebooted several times with the same result. Later, I rebooted, and it said ntkrnlmp.exe "could not be loaded," adding "The error code is 4096."

I looked around the net and found the most popular advice was first to make sure the boot sequence was correct. It was. Next, it advises that I boot from an xp cd and replace hal.dll. Can't. Don't have an xp cd.

2 questions:

1. Could the problem have been the result of a too-full HD that caused the system to over-write HAL.DLL while in the process of writing a buffer or cache?

2. Is there some way I can download and boot something else that will replace the needed file and, perhaps, delete some unneeded files?

Take the HD out and connect it to a USB enclosure's (PATA) HD connector.
Usually these come out easily from the case.
Connect that HD via USB to another PC or laptop, where you can delete stuff from it to your heart's content.
If that other machine also has XP, you can copy its C:\Windows\System32\hal.dll to the same spot on your X41 drive.

If I do that, does the other pc have to have xp installed to view and delete files from the x41's drive that runs xp?

Any OS should do.
But you should know what you can delete and what not!

PS: you can get hal.dll in a zipfile here: http://www.dll-files.com/hal.zip?0WGdXGVKeT

Thanks...but I can't gain access to the HD, so I can't install the dll file.

Ok, I acquired a win xp cd. I unpacked and installed hal.dll. Then, I restarted the system and got:
windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
windows\system32\config\system

Haven't been able to figure out how to get THAT restored.

Then I saw a tip on the microsoft small business support site that said to run: chkdsk /r. It's running now, very slowly. It's currently at 5%.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, was wondering...if I boot into the windows recovery module and tell it to reinstall
windows...will it only overwrite the sytem file, thereby leaving my data intact, or will it blow away my data?

Finally....in case anyone's wondering....the system won't boot into save mode via f8.

A restore will wipe out EVERYthing.

http://www.help2go.com/content/tutorial ... rrupt.html

The chkdsk /r ran all night, but aborted at 25% citing unrecoverable errors. I suppose the windows portion if not the entire drive is toast. Plan B. I want to get a USB external drive enclosure so I can remove the drive and see if I can salvage some data. What specific product is recommended for this purpose?

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I took your advice and bought a USB enclosure. I'm copying a post I left a minute ago below for your review:
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I bought a USB enclosure (IO Magic brand) with hopes of hooking my failing HD from the x41 to my w510. Problem is, the standard-looking IDE cable in the enclosure won't plug into the IDE jack on the back of the 60 gig Hitachi Travelstar, though it too looks like a standard IDE jack. The label on the back of the Hitachi says it's "ATA/IDE". Is there any other way to hook the Hitachi to the USB enclosure? It came with a SATA cable, but I see no jack on the Travelstar that will mate with it.
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Any ideas before I return the USB enclosure to Office Depot?

You probably bought a 3.5" (Desktop) case, instead of a 2.5" (Laptop) case.
The connectors look the same but 3.5" are a lot bigger than 2.5".
OR, the HD might be in a caddy, that needs to come off before you can connect it to your USB case.

Bummer. I took the caddy off...and it still wouldn't fit. Looks like it should, but it doesn't. Can't buy those other (2.5") enclosures locally. Will have to go mail order, which takes time.

Can you recommend a usb enclosure that will work with the Lenovo x41 60g drive? If I'm to do research on prices, what descriptors do I use? The drive appears to be IDE, and says so on the drive itself..but I see a lot of drive enclosures that list SATA. Am assuming those will not work with this drive..and that only enclosure descriptors that say "IDE TO USB" will work with this drive.

This is what it is supposed to look like inside: http://www.buyincoins.com/gallery/pc/id ... e01-02.jpg
If you are not in a rush: cheap from China: http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-2-5-inc ... 0665870977
Look at the "Y-splitter" USB cable, make sure you get one of these, if/when you buy another case.

Can you give us the link to what you have bought?

Yes. Here is a link that shows what I bought, though I bought it via another vendor:

http://www.iomagic.com/collections/peri ... -enclosure

What EXACT device did you buy that worked with your x41?

You DID buy the wrong 3.5" case instead of 2.5".
ANY 2.5" IDE-USB enclosure will work, just get the cheapest you can find.
I have 2 of those El Cheapo cases as mentioned in the second link (from China), as well as an Apricorn Drivewire universal adapter, such as this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apricorn-ADW-US ... 0915180879