>> The laptop does have two partitions, for reasons unknown. A giant NTFS
>> partition with the OS on it, and a tiny FAT32 partition also with some
>> kind of Windows-like files on it...)
>
> Probably a recovery partition. Make that one active and try booting off
> of it. You will probably be able to reformat and reinstall XP to its
> original state (including out of date bloatware). You may even be able
> to back some of the data from the NTFS partition.

Yeah, it's got a MININT folder in it with some plausible-looking files. 
It's also got a whole bunch of stuff that looks utterly random.

As I say, in the end I just copied it all to a VM, where I can access it 
any way I like. (Gotta love how VMware will only mount the /first/ 
partition on a disk though. Thanks for that, guys...)

> hal.dll?
>
> The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 has
> ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are in fact fool-proof
> and incapabable of error.

Being incapable of error is one thing. Being FOOL PROOF is much, much 
harder. You have literally no idea how dangerous fools can be. For real.

>> I swear to God that Windows NT had an option to replace core OS files
>> with the copies from the CD if they didn't match... I cannot find this
>> option anywhere in XP. *sigh*
>
> Because copying an 8 year old file over a system that has probably been
> patched every tuesday since then can not result in other problems
> elsewhere...

Oh, sure, it usually made the OS a little unstable. But it least it 
would /boot/...

As it happens, I don't think that's even what the problem was. I'm still 
baffled as to what "really" want wrong, but hey.

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