XP boot failure - HAL.DLL missing

[Christoff]

Windows XP Pro does not want to boot, reason being the
following file "<windows root>\windows32\hal.dll" is
missing.

Booting from the CD and extracting the relevant DLL from
the *.CAB file on the Cd into "<windows root>\windows32"
does not resolve the issue.

 

[Kaylene/Taurarian]

Here are some links that may leave the solving the problem, hope one of them is
at least of assistance.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;330184
"Invalid Boot.ini" or "Windows Could Not Start" Error Messages When You Start
Your Computer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320252
Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because the Following File Is Missing or
Corrupt...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654
How to Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314477
Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because of a Computer Disk Hardware
Configuration Problem

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=298898
How to Determine the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) That Is Used in Windows XP

Error Message: Cannot Find \Windows\System32\hal.dll
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
Also see http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_h.htm for troubleshooting issues
with HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer).

 

[Guest]

I recently experienced the same problem, when I interrupted a Windows XP installation. I'm working on multiboot for this particular system and already had Windows ME and linux working. I realized that I did not have the disk partitioned properly to allow me to install XP. When I subsequently tried to boot into ME I saw this same message. I was able to fix this by booting from my ME startup disk and using the following command

system c

I hope this works for you.