Hal.dll error prevents installation of Windows XP Home Edition

Question

Unable to install Windows XP on new Maxtor 200GB hard drive due to missing or corrupt hal.dll file.

I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 10 (Model 6L200PO) which I have installed in my wife's Dell Dimension L computer. I need to do a new installation of the Windows XP OS. I had no problem installing using MaxBlast 4. to partition it to one large FAT32 partition. When I reboot the computer, the Disk Overlay blue banner comes up. However, when I press "C", insert the Win XP CD and press the spacebar nothing happens. My BIOS is set to boot from the CDROM. I cannot install the Win XP. This is as directed by the Maxtor instructions.

If I hit any key with the Win XP CD in the computer before the Disk Overlay banner, then Windows starts to setup the operating system. However, it then gets to a point when I get an error message "windows could not start because the following is is missing or corrupt: \ system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file." I cannot find any discussion of this issue on either the Maxtor or Microsoft Knowledge Base. The Dell Forum has some suggestions, but none have worked.

I have even reformatted & partitioned the new hard drive and tried several times to reinstall Win XP and always have the same problem.

I also tried the following suggestion Dell document TT1074120 from the Forum:

What to do if HAL is missing

Did you ever get an error message that says "HAL.DLL is missing or corrupt"? HAL is the Hardware Abstraction Layer; this is the operating system component that XP uses to interact with the hardware. If this file is really missing or corrupt, you won't be able to boot into XP. Often, though, this message appears when the real problem is a misconfiguration of your BOOT.INI file (the file that tells XP's boot process where to find important files.) If you get this message, try the following before you resort to reinstalling XP:

Boot from your XP installation CD.
Press the R key when you're given the option. R=Repair.
Press the number that designates the installation of XP that you want to repair (if you only have one instance of the operating system, this will be 1).
Type bootcfg /list This shows you the entries in your BOOT.INI file.
To repair the file, type bootcfg /rebuild
Type Exit

I also have the A14 BIOS update, which was also suggested as a solution.

The Setup still stops at the same error message.

What can I do to solve the problem?

boppo · Answer

maybe something here will help. http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

raboatman · Answer

After I had tried the above suggestions listed in the link, except installing Windows XP when configured as a slave on another computer, I tried the recommendation of Maxtor' technical support. He recommended uninstalling the dynamic disk overlay using their MaxBlast software. He then suggested reinstalling Windows and letting it format and partiton the hard drive

However,after doing that I thought that the idea to uninstall the Disk overlay would solve the problem, That was not the case in the long run.

After uninstalling the their dynamic disk overlay, Windows XP with SP2 seemed to install just fine. One curious thing was that every time the system rebooted, it asked which operating system I wanted to use, Windows XP or Windows XP. That made me wonder whether I had 2 partitions and 2 OS. I did not see that to be the case when I explored the hard disk, unless I failed to notice it somewhere.

After Installing WinXP, I installed Symantec's Norton System Works and then Go Back. I was unable to install the software and interface for the HP All-in-one Printer-Copier-Scanner (Series 220). When Microsoft's Automatic update downloaded 32 updates and security patches, etc. when it rebooted I got another error message that Windows could not start, because of another file that was missing or corrupted. It was not the same hal.dll that had been the problem before, but it was another, My wife went back to a state prior to the updates and has used the software temporarily. Prior to installing the new hard disk we had no problems with this file missing/corrupt problem.
My question is whether there was a remnant of the disk overlay, as indicated by the question which operating system ( WinXP or WinXP) might still exist. I uninstalled the overlay and WindXP used the existing partitions. Should I have formatted the hard drive after uninstalling the disk overlay ato completely remove anything left on the HD, priot to installing WindowsXP? Could this have explained by I got an errror message when start up Windows after doing the automatic updates (32 total)? If I must go through the painfully long, time consuming process of reformating the hard disk, do I need to uninstall Windows, Norton System works, etc or just reformat and then let Windows partition and format the hard drive?

It may be interesting to use install each of the updates individually to determine at what point the error problem occurs which prevents Windows from booting up, but I do not have the time. Just formatting a hard dick, installing Windows, then Sytem Workd, Go Back, HP printer tools and drivers, takes about 4 ho;urs or more, assuming no problems.

Fortunatley, I do not have any data, email, etc. on the hard drive, only the few programs I mentioned and the updated virus detection, etc. for System Works/\Norton Antivirus.

Thank you for any suggestions.

Windows General

Hal.dll error prevents installation of Windows XP Home Edition

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