hal.dll file missing or corrupt - fix it?

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Guest

Working on a friend's Gateway 500SE computer that had both Win Xp Home and
Pro installed. I got advice on how to get rid of the Pro version (which was
not working quite right) from Kelly (MS-MVP) and others. The computer was
bought with Xp Home and that looked fine. (The daughter's friend played
around with the computer; I don't know what the original problem was.)
Anyway, after following steps to edit boot.ini and just have Xp Home on
computer, I restarted and got message that Windows couldn't start because the
following file was missing or corrupt: <WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll.
I restarted in safe mode and restored Xp Pro from recycle bin; I found the
hal.dll file for Xp Pro - version 5.1.2600.2180, (xpsp2...) size 128KB, size
on disk 132KB. Then I found the hal.dll version for Xp Home (the OS I want to
keep) and that was version 5.1.2600.0 sizes 125KB/64KB. I also looked in my
own computer and found HAL.DLL (Xp Home) version 5.1.2600.1106, (xpsp1...)
sizes 124KB/128KB.

??? Can I copy my HAL.DLL and try to put it in the other computer?? Does it
make a difference if their files are small hal.dll?? What about that size
difference? Could that be the reason why it came back with "... missing or
corrupt..."? Should I copy the hal.dll from their computer's Xp Pro
version?? Please help. Thanks.
 
Interesting post, - You've got yourself the equivalent of untangling a
string of Christmas lights. HALs (Hardware Abstraction Layers) are
specific kernel level drivers for the type of PC that XP is installed on.
XP chooses which one, based on quizzing the BIOS at initial setup.
They (HALs) aren't something you can just drop in and expect to
work. My best solution is pick which OS you want and just do a
simple "Repair" install. Trying to piecemeal XP back together may
just lead to more issues and time to resolve them.
 
Barbara said:
I restarted and got message that Windows couldn't start because the
following file was missing or corrupt: <WINDOWS root>\system32\hal.dll.
I restarted in safe mode and restored Xp Pro from recycle bin; I found the
hal.dll file for Xp Pro - version 5.1.2600.2180, (xpsp2...) size 128KB, size
on disk 132KB. Then I found the hal.dll version for Xp Home (the OS I want to
keep) and that was version 5.1.2600.0 sizes 125KB/64KB. I also looked in my
own computer and found HAL.DLL (Xp Home) version 5.1.2600.1106, (xpsp1...)
sizes 124KB/128KB.

??? Can I copy my HAL.DLL and try to put it in the other computer?
Click to expand...


That message is rather misleading. It happens because the boot.ini file
that tells the boot where to look for 'Windows' is damaged, so it is
looking for files in the wrong place - hal.dll just happens to be the
first one 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.

Use
Attrib -H -R -S C:\boot,ini
DEL C:\boot.ini
to delete the bad one
BootCfg /Rebuild

to search for Windows installations and make a new one
 
R. McCarty said:
Interesting post, - You've got yourself the equivalent of untangling a
string of Christmas lights. HALs (Hardware Abstraction Layers) are
specific kernel level drivers for the type of PC that XP is installed on.
XP chooses which one, based on quizzing the BIOS at initial setup.
They (HALs) aren't something you can just drop in and expect to
work.
Click to expand...

This arises from a damaged boot.ini - hal.dll is just the first file
looked for and the entry is pointing to the wrong place. Correct action
is a Recovery Console and BootCfg/Rebuild to make a new file
 
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