[bev2]

Thank you to oreofudge for all his helpful posts and replies on the corrupt hal.dll issue. I have an XP Professional op sys running on a Dell Latitude D800 laptop. We ran a disk cleanup and partial defrag (probably ran out of batteries B4 it was done), which is what I suspect caused the error.

Now I can't boot to windows - says corrupt boot.ini and hal.dll. Was able to understand and get into the recovery mode tool on the reinstallation disk but not can't copy hal.dll to windows\system32 because it says access is denied. I was able to successfully delete the boot.ini file. Can't use attrib to change attributes on hal.dll because apparently the recover utility only allows access to the root of C.

I do have attrib.exe and hal.dll loaded on my thumbdrive and can get to it as drive D when I boot from recover CD. Don't have an original XP CD, only this reinstallation CD and a driver and utility reinstall CD. I don't want to lose the data on Drive C if at all possible.

Thanks in advance.

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The missing or cannot find hal.dll, \windows\system32\hal.dll, or \winnt\system32\hal.dll error message may be experienced on a Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP system when the boot.ini becomes corrupted.

Verify that the computer boot.ini is present and not corrupted

1. Verify the boot.ini file is found on the computer by using a boot diskette or use your Windows CD to get to the MS-DOS "C:\>" prompt.
2. From this prompt edit the boot.ini, verify that it is pointing to the correct operating system, and that no anomalies are found within the file.
* If only one operating system is on the computer verify that the boot.ini only has one operating system listed. In some situations an alternate configuration line may be added for the same operating system, leaving the improper line.
* Verify that the "default=" line as well as the operating system line are the same and that they are pointing to the correct operating system.

The above information is from this website.

http://www.computerh...es/ch000490.htm

For more information see this webpage.

http://www.computerh...es/ch000492.htm

A very long read of a forum article on the hal.dll problem is here.

http://www.hardwarea...nt/topic/14666/

Kelly's Korner also has a article on hal.dll.

http://www.kellys-ko...dll_missing.htm

I hope these can help you,
SRX660

[SRX660]

The missing or cannot find hal.dll, \windows\system32\hal.dll, or \winnt\system32\hal.dll error message may be experienced on a Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP system when the boot.ini becomes corrupted.

Verify that the computer boot.ini is present and not corrupted

1. Verify the boot.ini file is found on the computer by using a boot diskette or use your Windows CD to get to the MS-DOS "C:\>" prompt.
2. From this prompt edit the boot.ini, verify that it is pointing to the correct operating system, and that no anomalies are found within the file.
* If only one operating system is on the computer verify that the boot.ini only has one operating system listed. In some situations an alternate configuration line may be added for the same operating system, leaving the improper line.
* Verify that the "default=" line as well as the operating system line are the same and that they are pointing to the correct operating system.

The above information is from this website.

http://www.computerh...es/ch000490.htm

For more information see this webpage.

http://www.computerh...es/ch000492.htm

A very long read of a forum article on the hal.dll problem is here.

http://www.hardwarea...nt/topic/14666/

Kelly's Korner also has a article on hal.dll.

http://www.kellys-ko...dll_missing.htm

I hope these can help you,
SRX660