<windows root>\system32\hal.dll file is missing or corrupt

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SultanGris

Posts: 158   +1
Here is how i arrived at this error message.

I have 3 hard drives in my pc, a 30gb IDE, a 80gb IDE, and a 250 gb sata.

windows was installed on my 30gb set as master, and 80 gb set as slave.

I was having problems with my windows on the 30gb, I physically unplugged the 30gb from my system, formated my 80gb and installed windows xp, installed fine, I have a slipstream cd with xp 1 on it. so immediatly after getting it installed and at desktop, i installed sp2, rebooted, installed vid drivers, then i noticed that my instalation cd for windows was still in the drive, not that it should matter, so i removed it and restarted after installing the vid drivers, when it restarted i got that error, so i physically unplugged the 80gb hd and plugged the 30gb in, leaving the 80 unpluged, rebooted, and same error. my computer will boot, to either installation, only if i leave my xp install cd in the drive, if i take it out, i get the error.

so i got back to windows, did some research, tried this

http://www.compphix.com/corrupthal.html
didnt change anything, then i tried this,
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1105013&highlight=hal.dll
that didnt work either, but i can still boot to either of my windows installs only if my winxp install cd is in the drive,

i cannot figgure this out, it makes absolutely no sence to me how one install can affect annother install on a HD that isnt even plugged in, anyone have any clues as to whats going on? I may try annother complete format and reinstall, but i doubt that will help me as thats what caused this problem in the first place. any ideas?
 
Hi

Do you have a boot.ini on the root drive of any of the Drives,

You may have to open explorer and click tools > Folder Options > view , then show all files and unhide protected operating system files, to see it

it should be a txt file like this
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

post yours in the next post

Regards
 
Yes, but i edited it till i was blue in the face, per those links i posted above, to no avail.

I got the install working on my second HD after i unplugged my sata drive, and had only 1 ide drive connected, format reinstall, then plugged in the sata and its working fine, but now im scared to plug in my second ide, as it will probably toast this fresh install.

so it seems somehow related to having an ide and a sata drive.
 
Hi

It may be related to what you have set as your primary boot device, and the jumper settings on the drives that you add.

Regards
 
yea, i know nothing about sata drives, as this was my first one, and ive done this before many times with no problems, and no sata drive, so near as i can figgure, when i was switching my ide drives around, the sata somehow mustve took over as primary, it has a boot.ini on it, but no windows installation.
 
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