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Alright well I have been having major problems with my 8300 dell so i decided to try and reformatt everything well I completed that I guess but when i got everything done and finished i restart it and what do you know another problem this is the same problem I had before and I took it to a computer shop couple months ago actually may and I dont want to pay another 50 bucks to get it repaired its a missing .dll im pretty sure ill tell you what it does when I start it up.

Alright well it starts up loads all the drivers dell screen comes up loads up the white bar then after its all done with that it says "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root> \system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file"


Now I have all the disks and stuff ready. I just need to know how to get the file back on and boot up the disk. Please Help guys....

Hi mrpoptart01, welcome to PCHF...

It looks like it's a fairly simple issue - but nothing is ever simple with computers

If you can insert your windows cd into your cd drive, log onto your computer
and select Start -> Run -> type in sfc /scannow

this scans all the windows system files and replaces/installs any missing or corrupt files.

Even though you've just reinstalled windows - it is possible this can still happen. Give it a try and let us know how it goes. If it doesn't work - we will still fix this problem

ps. is this a dual boot sytem? 2 versions of windows?

no, i said i cant boot up windows cuz it gives me that missing file so i cant log in at all its at the boot phase and i dont think im running 2 verisons of xp on it

any more help would be Appreciated

Oh my apologies. I miss read.
Below is 2 options to try and fix this issue. It is a known issue with Microsoft - which generally means there is a solution for it. If you need any help following these, we are here to do that as well. Good Luck!

HAL.DLL is Missing -

Option 1:
Boot from your CD and follow the directions to start Recovery Console. Then:

Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot

Option 2:
Boot from your CD and follow the directions below to start Recovery Console.

Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.

If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
When prompted, type the Administrator password. (if you didn't create one try pressing enter).

At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

Most likely you will need to expand the file from the CD. The command would be expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

Hey guys...this problem has been solved. Spoke with mrpoptat over MSN and resolved the issue.

What had happened, is he got infected with around 20 or so viruses and it had corrupt a few of his system files, including hal.dll.

The windows recovery console idea didn't really work because he only had the Dell Recovery CD which just reloads the factory image.

The solution was to plug in the hard drive to a working computer with XP installed (home or pro, it doesn't really matter)

And then to boot up and copy the hal.dll file from c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386 to x:\windows\system32 and also x:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386 (if it exsists).

Overwrite all files. X: is just the reference. replace X with the drive letter where the troubled operating system is isntalled.

While the hard drive was in the other computer, scanned the viruses and removed them all.


FYI - this is what the hal.dll file is all about.

HAL is Microsoft's abbreviation for the Hardware Abstraction Layer, the technology and drivers that let the Windows NT, 2000, and XP operating systems communicate with your PC's hardware. HAL is one of several features--along with the NT file system (NTFS) that replaced the much less secure MS-DOS--that make NT-based operating systems more secure and reliable than Windows 95, 98, and Me.

HAL prevents applications from directly accessing your PC's system memory, CPU, or hardware devices (such as video and sound cards)--a method that can prevent many device conflicts and crashes. Unfortunately, HAL sometimes also slows or stops DOS games and programs, which need to load their own memory managers or control hardware directly for better performance.

With HAL in the way, developers must rewrite or even abandon their older software in favor of newer, HAL-compatible versions. Microsoft has pressured hardware makers to provide or support technologies such as MMX, DirectX, and 3D graphics language OpenGL, all of which allow fast but indirect access to the advanced high-performance features of video, sound, and CPU hardware. Such access also makes for a better visual experience when using Windows for Web and productivity applications; improved graphics performance is evident all over Windows XP's new user interface.

XP also offers some new compatibility-mode features that let you run programs meant to run under earlier operating systems, but, frankly, most DOS-based and even some Windows-based games simply won't work with the new OS.

thanks so much garhar