Hal.dll and NTLdr

[Ed H]

I have arrived at a couple of black screens when trying to install XP, "can
not load Widows hal.dll is missing..." or NTLDR can not be found is there a
way to resolve these from setup?

Thank you,

 

[Ross Durie]

Resolve the hadware issue that is causing the problem. My guess is that the
hard drive is faulty.

 

[Ed H]

I guess that's possible. Seems it had something to do with Partition Magic
and Boot Magic. After I formatted a partition containing an OS, and returned
after boot expecting a blinking dot, I saw the message seeking NTLDR. I then
tried to install the new OS anyway, after the first boot--blue screen and
the disks stopped spinning. Used PM's floppies to go back to an OS on
another partition but it would not load because hal.dll could not be found.
I don't know if this is a hardware or a soft ware or a 'dummy' ware problem.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Ed,

Some info.....and good luck!

HAL=Hardware Abstraction Layer

How to Move a Windows XP Installation to Different Hardware
http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBJ/tip4800/rh4839.htm

Situations in Which Windows May Not Start in Safe Mode
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q199175

How to Troubleshoot Hardware Abstraction Layer Issues
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q237556

More information and a workaround here:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_h.htm#xp_hall.dll

 

[Ed H]

Your article about 'hal.dll missing' sounds like my exact situation, thanks
very much,

 

[Alex Nichol]

I have arrived at a couple of black screens when trying to install XP, "can
not load Widows hal.dll is missing..." or NTLDR can not be found is there a
way to resolve these from setup?

That indicates that there is corruption of the boot.ini file (at least):
That tells the boot where to look for windows components, and it is
looking in the wrong place. Hal.dll just happens to be the first file
it looks for.

Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard Disk. Boot the XP CD and, instead
of Setup, take the immediate R for Repair. Assume any password
requested is blank, and TAB over.
Give:
ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
(thus deleting the old one)
BootCfg /Rebuild

Also, while about it, get clean copies of the other boot files by giving
(if your CD drive letter is x: )
copy x:\i386\ntldr c:\ntldr
copy x:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ntdetect.com

and also do a check of the file system by giving
chkdsk /f c:

But of course the damage may go further than this

 

[Ed H]

Thanks allot, I've got some good ammo now. Wish I could figure out why this
keeps happening so I can avoid it next time. oh well.

 

[Kelly]

Good luck, Ed. )