Trying to install XP home on new computer missing hal.dll

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I formatted the Seagate hard drive and proceeded to load the necessary files
from the xp home disk, after the required reboot I got this message "Windows
root\system32\hal.dll missing" and my system just hangs there.

What can I do to fix this?

Thanks
Shaun
 
hey donkee... google is your friend! dont be afraid to use it. the first link
that comes up when you type in "hal.dll" and do a search should do it for ya.
i could post the link, but just give google a shot!
 
I know about kellys korner website, however, their suggestions are based on
the fact that you already have windows xp installed. I unfortunately didn't
notice it until i decided to do a clean install of windows which means i
formatted my hard drive clean only then did I notice that hal.dll was
missing. I dont have option of going into the os and configuring the files.

Is there any other alternative?
thanks
 
Thanks for the link to the file, however, im not too sure how to install the
file into the system. Must I burn it to a cd and just boot from the cd and
let it find it?
 
Hi ... You can dowloaded on floppy or cd disk which ever one you like ,
Then put it in your computer , Then double click the " My Computer " If you
place it on a cd disk you should see it where you optical drive is ( CD
Rom ) Just double click on it and do the same with the file , it should
download onto your computer and windows should take care the rest ... Same
goes with the flop drive if you placed onto a floppy ...

...
 
you dont understand, windows will not load. Therefore I cant click on my
computer to start the process that u described. Is there any other
alternative? FYI Im using another pc to access this site to try to diagnose
the issue
 
ok i seem to be on a roll here. I found this guys recommendation:

----------------------------------------------

Final Solution:

Removed hard drive from system.
Added Hard drive to a 2nd WORKING XP PRO System. As Slave on Cable select.

***(all references to “D:\†are the Slave Hard drive damaged windows)***

Booted system and enabled - Explorer\tools\folder options

Display contents of system folders.
Show Hidden Files and Folders.
UN-check Hide Protected OS Files.

Go to “D:\†open Boot.ini in NOTEPAD, remove the Extra OS’s added with
option 1.
Close and Save changes to Boot.ini

Go to “My Computer†Right click on “D:\†select SEARCH “D:\â€

Search “All or Part of the File Name†= “halâ€

Hal.dll may or may not be found in “D:\WINDOWS\System32†either way it’s no
good.
A working copy of hal.dll WILL be found in “C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386â€
COPY THAT FILE “D:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386\hal.dllâ€
And Paste it to “D:\WINDOWS\System32†folder; if it asks to overwrite say YES.

You may now un-do the changes made to Explorer\tools\folder options to
RE-Hide files.
Shut Down the computer.

Remove the 2nd Drive and reinstall it to its own tower as Master.

You should Now be able to boot the computer up as if nothing ever happened.

With the exception that it will prompt you to reinstall some drivers, Just
say YES and let it auto detect …THEY ARE ALREADY THERE. And will setup fine.

This "FIX" assumes that the computer in question HAS at ther very least
service pack1, if not service pack 2.

If these patches have NOT been installed , I dont belive any such Reserve
copy of hal.dll will wxist on the drive!

Thanks for reading,
Shaun Gray

----------------------------------------

Im not sure what he means by "Go to “D:\†open Boot.ini in NOTEPAD, remove
the Extra OS’s added with option 1.
Close and Save changes to Boot.ini"
What does he mean by "remove the extra os's added with option 1". This is
what I have in my Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=signature(4de3f221)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
signature(4de3f221)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

though I think he means change the variables in the partition section to 1,
the options are already set to 1 but when i try to run it in its own pc i
still get the missing hal.dll

Please advise
 
I fixed it, well not exactly the way i wanted it. It turns out that there is
something wrong with the new hard drive because I took out an old 6 gig hard
drive from an old system and connected it to the new system and lo and behold
no missing/corrupt hal.dll messages nor had i had to change any boot.ini
files. The installation of xp home is running smoothly as I type this
message.

Question is, it is a brand new Seagate 200 gig hard drive that is causing
these problems right? That is a big dissapointment maybe its a new hard drive
that i had to prepare it for installation? I thought that formatting it would
be fine but i still got the hal.dll message after formatting it completely!

I now have xp home running fine on a 6 gig hard drive=( Is there anything I
should know about before going for a exchange? anything I can do to the
200gig hard drive to make it work?

Thanks for any suggestions
 
donkee said:
I fixed it, well not exactly the way i wanted it. It turns out that there
is
something wrong with the new hard drive because I took out an old 6 gig
hard
drive from an old system and connected it to the new system and lo and
behold
no missing/corrupt hal.dll messages nor had i had to change any boot.ini
files. The installation of xp home is running smoothly as I type this
message.

Question is, it is a brand new Seagate 200 gig hard drive that is causing
these problems right? That is a big dissapointment maybe its a new hard
drive
that i had to prepare it for installation? I thought that formatting it
would
be fine but i still got the hal.dll message after formatting it
completely!

I now have xp home running fine on a 6 gig hard drive=( Is there anything
I
should know about before going for a exchange? anything I can do to the
200gig hard drive to make it work?

Thanks for any suggestions
Click to expand...


donkee:
If I correctly understand your problem, it seems that for one reason or
another you could not install a viable copy of the XP operating system on
your new Seagate 200 GB HD. When you boot to that drive you get the "missing
hal.dll" message and you can't access the OS. Is that the gist of your
problem?

If so, my guess (and it's only a guess!) at this point is that your problem
is not due to a defective HD. It's possible, of course, but from your
description of the problem I don't see it as a defective HD, at least not
yet. It sounds to me like a faulty installation of XP.

In a previous posting, you stated "i formatted my hard drive clean". I
assume from this that you undertook a partitioning/formatting process prior
to the installation of the OS. This is unnecessary & undesirable in nearly
every case. Is there any reason why you would not use the XP installation CD
to install the OS and at the same time partition & format your drive during
the installation process?

Have you tried to reinstall the OS in a straightforward manner simply using
the XP installation media? This time, of course, it will be necessary to
delete whatever partition(s) have been previously created. But that too, is
simple enough to do during the install process.

Naturally you're certain that your Seagate is correctly connected and
configured, right?

If you still have qualms about whether your Seagate HD is defective,
download their diagnostic utility from
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ and test the drive.
Anna
 
Anna said:
donkee:
If I correctly understand your problem, it seems that for one reason or
another you could not install a viable copy of the XP operating system on
your new Seagate 200 GB HD. When you boot to that drive you get the "missing
hal.dll" message and you can't access the OS. Is that the gist of your
problem?

If so, my guess (and it's only a guess!) at this point is that your problem
is not due to a defective HD. It's possible, of course, but from your
description of the problem I don't see it as a defective HD, at least not
yet. It sounds to me like a faulty installation of XP.

In a previous posting, you stated "i formatted my hard drive clean". I
assume from this that you undertook a partitioning/formatting process prior
to the installation of the OS. This is unnecessary & undesirable in nearly
every case. Is there any reason why you would not use the XP installation CD
to install the OS and at the same time partition & format your drive during
the installation process?

Have you tried to reinstall the OS in a straightforward manner simply using
the XP installation media? This time, of course, it will be necessary to
delete whatever partition(s) have been previously created. But that too, is
simple enough to do during the install process.

Naturally you're certain that your Seagate is correctly connected and
configured, right?

If you still have qualms about whether your Seagate HD is defective,
download their diagnostic utility from
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ and test the drive.
Anna
Click to expand...
If it is an OEM installation disk it may be necessary to partition the
new drive so that the OS is installed on a partition that is the same
size as the original OEM disk.

Don't ask me why - it is better to ask the computer brand holder/reseller
 
donkee said:
I formatted the Seagate hard drive and proceeded to load the necessary files
from the xp home disk, after the required reboot I got this message "Windows
root\system32\hal.dll missing" and my system just hangs there.

What can I do to fix this?

Thanks
Shaun
Click to expand...
I had that problem, i can't remember if the problem was

a)a partition issue - make sure that teh partition you want as C, is
the active partition
or
b)a problem with boot.ini

You can check both. I strongly suspect boot.ini

For a, use software like partition magic.
For b, there are 2 solitions
b1: Does Win XP Home have a repair option on the cd? you go to the
repair console and enter those commands, there are 3 related ones, try
them all. fixmbr, bootcfg /rebuild, fixboot. That should fix your
boot.ini, so, now you restart
b2: You use a 3 file win xp boot disk e.g. floppy disk. the way it
works, is one of the 3 files on the boot disk is boot.ini, and it's
just a basic one. Often hal.dll errors come from boot.ini getting a bit
long and wrong.
For help making a 3 file boot disk, see this thread
"can't make the '3 file boot disk'"
basically.
You have to
a)format the disk as a win xp boot disk i.e.e put a special win xp
boto sector on it. To do so, you format the floppy disk within xp.
b)put the 3 files on the disk NTLDR, boot.ini, and NTDETECT. Now, to
put boot.ini on a disk, don't copy it, use this 'pure' one.
If it works with that disk then it was a boot.ini issue. Now you're in
win xp, copy boot.ini from the floppy to the C drive of the computer,
overwriting the boot.ini there.

Use this as your boot.ini file, it's the default one, courtesy of a MS
KB article

Sample Boot.ini File
This is a sample of a default Boot.ini file from a Windows XP
Professional computer.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect

-
And report back!
 
donkee said:
I fixed it, well not exactly the way i wanted it. It turns out that there is
something wrong with the new hard drive because I took out an old 6 gig hard
drive from an old system and connected it to the new system and lo and behold
no missing/corrupt hal.dll messages nor had i had to change any boot.ini
files. The installation of xp home is running smoothly as I type this
message.

Question is, it is a brand new Seagate 200 gig hard drive that is causing
these problems right? That is a big dissapointment maybe its a new hard drive
that i had to prepare it for installation? I thought that formatting it would
be fine but i still got the hal.dll message after formatting it completely!

I now have xp home running fine on a 6 gig hard drive=( Is there anything I
should know about before going for a exchange? anything I can do to the
200gig hard drive to make it work?

Thanks for any suggestions
Click to expand...

that is v. interesting.
I originally thought it was a boot.ini problem, maybe it is, but it's
unlikely.
Supposing that you did partition and format the 200GB HDD correctly,
there is another possibility. i've never experienced it. I have a
solution btw. I think it was scott mueller that mentioned it. but he
didn't mentioned if it causes a hal.dll error message.

I have heard that some early versions of xp. maybe HOME, maybe SP1. Do
not support a partition > a ceratin amount like 137GB.
So here's the plan
Delete the partition, all partitions on the drive
Go to install Win XP on the HDD, - may as well let win xp cd create
the partition . Create a 6GB partition (that is safe!) it may then
isntall and get into windows perfectly.
Then, upgrade windows xp to sp2 then use partition magic or some
other software to resize the partition to 200GB
perhaps you can even resize the partition after installing it, no need
to upgrade to sp2. that'd work if it's just a bug in early versions of
win xp installation.
 
Ok, i'm gonna try to diagnose the drive with seagate's utility like Anna
mentioned! As far as the installation disk goes, it is an OEM disk with
service pack 2 included.

To Anna: I sort of know my way around computers, however, im not that
knowledgeable about the technical troubleshooting aspect of computers. That
said, I always thought that to install Windows xp, it was always necessary to
format clean the hard drives. And that it is unnecessary to partition a hard
drive if you are using NTFS.

You are right, when I boot up i get error message after the display of
memory, hard drives have passed, right before when you are suppose to see
windows loading with the little moving bar at the bottom thats when it says
missing hal.dll. The seagate hard drive is also connected properly.

I did install windows xp at same time while formatting, but i did not
partition. Like I said above, I thought that its ok to install xp on the
whole drive without partition

going to try the dianostic tools right now..
 
donkee said:
Ok, i'm gonna try to diagnose the drive with seagate's utility like Anna
mentioned! As far as the installation disk goes, it is an OEM disk with
service pack 2 included.

To Anna: I sort of know my way around computers, however, im not that
knowledgeable about the technical troubleshooting aspect of computers. That
said, I always thought that to install Windows xp, it was always necessary to
format clean the hard drives. And that it is unnecessary to partition a hard
drive if you are using NTFS.
Click to expand...

Files go on partitions. When for format, you are formatting selected
partitions.
Yuo hav to partition and format regardless of what OS and which file
system you use. Win XP, NTFS, linux, e.t.c.

The WIN XP setup does partition and format the partition. It actually
lets you choose the size of the partition. From my experience, It
won't let you install win xp over win xp. (unilke the w98 installation
cd).


If you have such funny ideas, maybe you did do something wrong in the
installation. You can use Win XP to DELETE all partitions. Create new
ones, format them. Properly starting again.

If you have partition magic, then you can easily try to install Win XP
on a 6GB partition and resize it afterwards. But it's better to know
what you're doing if you're doing that.


You are right, when I boot up i get error message after the display of
memory, hard drives have passed, right before when you are suppose to see
windows loading with the little moving bar at the bottom thats when it says
missing hal.dll. The seagate hard drive is also connected properly.

I did install windows xp at same time while formatting, but i did not
partition. Like I said above, I thought that its ok to install xp on the
whole drive without partition

going to try the dianostic tools right now..
Click to expand...

I stronlgy doubt it's a HDD problem. But worth a try.

hal.dll is a windows file. So of course windows is failing to load. It
has actualy got further than you think. You don't need a picture of
the win xp screen to tell you windows is in the middle of loading. But
it hasn't got far. I got hal.dll error when it failed with boot.ini
But maybe a hal.dll error can happen in cerain cases when the partition
is too big for certain Windows versions. I haven't used Win XP Home,
maybe win XP Home sp2 also has this problem.

I sugest that along with whatever diagnostic method you are doing now,
you try installing it ona 6GB partition (which you know should work),
and see if it loads windows.
If it does, then you can go about getting partition magic and learning
how to resize the partition to 200GB
 
donkee said:
Ok, i'm gonna try to diagnose the drive with seagate's utility like Anna
mentioned! As far as the installation disk goes, it is an OEM disk with
service pack 2 included.

To Anna: I sort of know my way around computers, however, im not that
knowledgeable about the technical troubleshooting aspect of computers.
That
said, I always thought that to install Windows xp, it was always necessary
to
format clean the hard drives. And that it is unnecessary to partition a
hard
drive if you are using NTFS.

You are right, when I boot up i get error message after the display of
memory, hard drives have passed, right before when you are suppose to see
windows loading with the little moving bar at the bottom thats when it
says
missing hal.dll. The seagate hard drive is also connected properly.

I did install windows xp at same time while formatting, but i did not
partition. Like I said above, I thought that its ok to install xp on the
whole drive without partition

going to try the dianostic tools right now..
Click to expand...


donkee:
We're going to give this one more shot, OK?

Here's my previous response to your original posting which I think gives
sufficient background information re your problem...

donkee:
If I correctly understand your problem, it seems that for one reason or
another you could not install a viable copy of the XP operating system on
your new Seagate 200 GB HD. When you boot to that drive you get the "missing
hal.dll" message and you can't access the OS. Is that the gist of your
problem?

If so, my guess (and it's only a guess!) at this point is that your problem
is not due to a defective HD. It's possible, of course, but from your
description of the problem I don't see it as a defective HD, at least not
yet. It sounds to me like a faulty installation of XP.

In a previous posting, you stated "i formatted my hard drive clean". I
assume from this that you undertook a partitioning/formatting process prior
to the installation of the OS. This is unnecessary & undesirable in nearly
every case. Is there any reason why you would not use the XP installation CD
to install the OS and at the same time partition & format your drive during
the installation process?

Have you tried to reinstall the OS in a straightforward manner simply using
the XP installation media? This time, of course, it will be necessary to
delete whatever partition(s) have been previously created. But that too, is
simple enough to do during the install process.

Naturally you're certain that your Seagate is correctly connected and
configured, right?

If you still have qualms about whether your Seagate HD is defective,
download their diagnostic utility from
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ and test the drive.
Anna


As I previously indicated, I really don't think your problem involves a
defective HD, but it's fine to check it out with the Seagate diagnostic
utility just to make sure.

Did you attempt a fresh install of the OS as I recommended? Your comment
that "I did install windows xp at same time while formatting, but i did not
partition. Like I said above, I thought that its ok to install xp on the
whole drive without partition" is puzzling, to say the least. Please
understand that before a hard drive - any hard drive - can be used in a
computer system it *must* be partitioned and formatted. In the case - *your
case* - where you're installing the XP OS on that hard drive, you partition
& format the drive during, repeat *during* the installation process. In your
particular situation at this point it probably would be best to delete the
present partition(s) on your drive as you undertake a fresh install of the
OS. After doing so, you'll be given the opportunity of creating (and
subsequently formatting) a partition on your drive and installing the XP OS.
All this is done during the installation process. There is no need to use
any other program other than the XP installation media to accomplish your
goal of installing the XP OS on your Seagate 200 GB drive.
Anna
 
Anna said:
donkee:
We're going to give this one more shot, OK?

Here's my previous response to your original posting which I think gives
sufficient background information re your problem...

donkee:
If I correctly understand your problem, it seems that for one reason or
another you could not install a viable copy of the XP operating system on
your new Seagate 200 GB HD. When you boot to that drive you get the "missing
hal.dll" message and you can't access the OS. Is that the gist of your
problem?

If so, my guess (and it's only a guess!) at this point is that your problem
is not due to a defective HD. It's possible, of course, but from your
description of the problem I don't see it as a defective HD, at least not
yet. It sounds to me like a faulty installation of XP.

In a previous posting, you stated "i formatted my hard drive clean". I
assume from this that you undertook a partitioning/formatting process prior
to the installation of the OS. This is unnecessary & undesirable in nearly
every case. Is there any reason why you would not use the XP installation CD
to install the OS and at the same time partition & format your drive during
the installation process?

Have you tried to reinstall the OS in a straightforward manner simply using
the XP installation media? This time, of course, it will be necessary to
delete whatever partition(s) have been previously created. But that too, is
simple enough to do during the install process.

Naturally you're certain that your Seagate is correctly connected and
configured, right?

If you still have qualms about whether your Seagate HD is defective,
download their diagnostic utility from
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ and test the drive.
Anna


As I previously indicated, I really don't think your problem involves a
defective HD, but it's fine to check it out with the Seagate diagnostic
utility just to make sure.

Did you attempt a fresh install of the OS as I recommended? Your comment
that "I did install windows xp at same time while formatting, but i did not
partition. Like I said above, I thought that its ok to install xp on the
whole drive without partition" is puzzling, to say the least. Please
understand that before a hard drive - any hard drive - can be used in a
computer system it *must* be partitioned and formatted. In the case - *your
case* - where you're installing the XP OS on that hard drive, you partition
& format the drive during, repeat *during* the installation process. In your
particular situation at this point it probably would be best to delete the
present partition(s) on your drive as you undertake a fresh install of the
OS. After doing so, you'll be given the opportunity of creating (and
subsequently formatting) a partition on your drive and installing the XP OS.
All this is done during the installation process. There is no need to use
any other program other than the XP installation media to accomplish your
goal of installing the XP OS on your Seagate 200 GB drive.
Anna


alright I will give it a try like you mentioned. Before I do, I did the diagnostic check and the "ATA Full Test" result showed a pass but the "File Structure" showed a "Failed with Critical Errors" what does it mean?
Click to expand...
 
Anna continues...

It's probably telling you that the initial installation of the operating
system was faulty in that there is system files corruption affecting the
file structure on the drive. But deep down, we really knew that, didn't we
donkee?
Anna
 
All i wanted to do was try to fix it. This has never happened before except
this once and it got me offguard. I installed windows xp home on the 200
gig HD the exact same way i did on the old 6 gig HD. The 6gig HD went
perfect and the 200 gig did not. That's just the way it turned out.

Thanks for your help
Shaun
 
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