Windows root\system32\hal.dll file missing or corrupt help!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

I am new to this site and this is my very first post here. this is my problem.
I had internet connectivity issues. I called the great tech support agent at
gateway where I purchased a 3 year warranty. the lady who helped me took an
hour to somehow install another copy of win xp home on my system. Now when I
try to log on it asks me to please select the operating system you want to
use. It gives me two options both whi say windows xp home edition the new
version boots up to the desktop fine with no trouble but all my files, photos
music, and business information is gone as well as all desktop icons adress
books and everything. It is basicly a bare bones brand new install. when I
try to access the other version of XP i get the following message
"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"

Of course those gateway techs have no idea what they did or how to repair
it. they keep telling me that I have to just reformat the whole thing and
lose all my info. I hate to do that so I decided I would check and see if
anyone here has any suggestions for me in order to restore this file that
seems to be missing
Thank you in advabnce for any help

 

[Rich Barry]

Daniel, it might be just a reconfiguring of the boot.ini file. You can
use the Recovery Console to do that. For more info
read this mskb article. You will be primarily interested in the bootcfg
command.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;314058

 

[Guest]

Thank you very much for responding but I am rather unsure how to proceed with
that information
please elaborate

 

[Michael Seidner]

Check out this site: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
or do a google search for "boot.ini"