Encountered problem whilst attempting to reformat

[LisaLash]

I want to reformat my old PC because I've been having some minor problems with it, and I'm hoping to see if I can fix it to sell it on. So anyway, I followed this Tutorial: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic53502.html (How to reformat your hard drive and install/reinstall Windows by korrupt) and everything was fine, I deleted the "C: Partition 1" but then when I tried to install Windows on the "Unpartitioned Space" it said that there was not enough space on Partition 1 to install Windows and to choose a partition with enough space (cannot remember how much it was exactly)
So now obviously, every time the computer attempts to load Windows the following message appears:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

Anyone have any idea how I can fix this and reinstall Windows somehow? Can I install it on another Partition?
I'm not sure if this has anything to do with it but the PC (a Dell) didn't come with an actual Windows XP disk, I had to burn it onto a blank disk from the computer itself.

I have no clue when it comes to things like this so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks guys!

 

[pjamme]

LisaLash,
First, I didn't know you could create a Windows XP CD from the computer itself. Sounds very unlikely you had a working XP Setup CD.

Were there more than one partition? You might be trying to install into the Diagnostic partition.

I would contact Dell with your Service Tag number and request an XP CD and the Resource CD. Your XP product key should be on the computer itself.

 

[LisaLash]

pjamme,
Maybe I worded it wrong. Dell has this OS Recovery Utility which allows you to create one Windows Operating System Backup CD - just one for backup purposes... which is what I did (obviously, otherwise I wouldn't have even been able to begin the reformatting process in the first place).

Yes, of course there were more than one partition... and no, I wasn't trying to install into the Diagnostic partition, I followed the steps exactly.

Anyway, back to the problem... could anyone who knows more about this please help me? Why was there not enough space on Partition 1? And what can I do now?

 

[Archean]

Can you re-do the whole process of erasing partitions/creating just one partition with full space of hdd for re-installation of XP ?

That will lot easier for you; you can always make multiple partitions later on.

 

[LisaLash]

Can you re-do the whole process of erasing partitions/creating just one partition with full space of hdd for re-installation of XP ?

That will lot easier for you; you can always make multiple partitions later on.

Thanks for the reply Archean. I don't know, how would I do this?

 

[Archean]

You can use windows xp setup to delete all the partitions and then recreate just one; for your reference please see this on microsoft's site (How to partition and format the hard disk using the Windows XP Setup program)