Reinstall XP problem

[Guest]

I am using a system of Windows XP Home Edition SP2 Version 2002.

Recently, my system was quite unresponsive, so I decided to reinstall XP.
The system was booting up from the CD, then it loaded. I selected to install
XP, and done a partition on C drive which is the system drive. When Windows
was about to start, it came out a black screen with this text:

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

So I went back to select to install XP, but it happened to show that text
again. Then I decided to repair XP, which I have went to the Recovery
Console. Then I was told to type something. What text should I type? I heard
it is a number, but what? I read an article in Microsoft, "number
corresponding..." What number???

Anyway, which is better? Repair or install? If repair, please tell me the
number. If install, how do I solve the problem?

Thanks.

 

[Rich Barry]

Do a clean Install of WinXP. Check out this very simple guide
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

 

[Plato]

Do a clean Install of WinXP. Check out this very simple guide
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

Alternate Clean Install XP links:

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316941

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies. I have C, D, E drives, C is my system drive, D and E
is other drives which I keep data. I have already backed up My Documents and
My Favourites to D drive. So I can only format C drive and surely no others.
Does that mean a clean install? By the way I also think that the steps that
was shown in the websites given are about the same.

 

[Plato]

Thanks for the replies. I have C, D, E drives, C is my system drive, D and E
is other drives which I keep data. I have already backed up My Documents and
My Favourites to D drive. So I can only format C drive and surely no others.
Does that mean a clean install? By the way I also think that the steps that
was shown in the websites given are about the same.

Yes you can clean install to drive c:

 

[Guest]

I have tried the way that was shown in the website, but to no avail, that
error message kept showing during the reboot. What do I do now?

Error message to be repeated:
Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt"
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

 

[Guest]

OK, the problem is solved, because of some hard disk problems. Thanks everyone!