I am using Win XP Pro on a Dell Latitude C510/C610 laptop.

I am getting the message that 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.

The BIOS is setup to run CD-ROM first and will not autorun either my Win98 or WinXP discs. It doesn't have a built-in floppy disk, just an external (USB) one. I've tried using the Win98 startup disk, and it doesn't want to autorun either. I just want to format the hard drive so I can put either Win98 or WinXP on it again (it doesn't matter to me which copy of Windows I have on it).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

From the Dell Support site:

# Tap <F12> during startup when the Dell splash screen appears.

The Boot Device menu appears listing each boot device by number.

# Insert the CD into the CD drive.

# Press the <Down Arrow> to highlight CD-ROM Drive, and press <Enter>.

The computer boots to the CD drive for this time only.

Thanks for the reply.

I tried that to no avail. The CD-ROM drive lights up, but doesn't autorun either the Win98 or WinXP discs. I know for a fact that the Win98 disc works, as I have used it before. To me, it seems as if the discs will only autorun on this laptop, if you are already working in Windows.

Any help I get is greatly appreciated.

The Win98 CD is not bootable, requires a boot diskette to install.

Is the Windows XP disc a full, hologrammed disc, is it a copy or is it the recovery CD provided by the manufacturer? Sometimes copies have problems. Can you boot it in another system to see if it's good?

May be time to try a different CD drive. Can you borrow one from a friend to try it you don't have another.