"Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows Could Not Start" - Microsoft Knowledge Base Artic

> XP Professional can't boot up and I got the following
> error messages as in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article -
> 330184 :
>
> Invalid Boot.ini
>
>
> Windows could not start because the following file is
> missing or corrupt:
>
> Windows\System32\Hal.dll
>
> - I followed the instructions given in Article - 330184 to
> try to rebuild bootcfg, but I got the errors that there
> might be errors in my disks and asked me to do chkdsk. I
> finished the chkdsk and cleared up the errors, but still
> bootcfg /rebuild doesn't work and bootcfg /list outputs
> nothing.
>
> - The problem began after I tried to use partition magic
> to relocate free space from my Win 98 partition to my XP
> partition. Now I got 3 partitions: 1 for Win 98 which is
> working, 1 is the partition that is supposed to have XP
> running, and 1 new partition which contains the free space
> that I want to move from Win 98 to XP.
>
> Is that anyway I can have my XP restored without any loss
> of data? How can I possibly check that my data is still
> there in the XP partition? In the Recovery Console when I
> did DIR, there is only 1 single file remaining in my XP
> partition. Looks like everthring else was gone.
>
> Thanks a lot.