Hi guys. Im a noob so please be gentle My knowledge is very limited. Ive looked elsewhere on this forum but cant quite seem to find the answer I need.

After having various probs with my pc crashing and being sluggish, I decided to do a reinstall of XP.

- I inserted the disc and selected a complete reinstall. After a minute or two of copying files and stuff, the system began to reboot.
- Then for some reason it gave me this message saying that "hal.dll" is missing or corrupt. So I could not continue

- To cut a long story short, if I now restart, (with the disc in the drive, it will not give me the chance to get into the recovery console) I get to the screen where it asks if I want to continue XP setup, or just boot my existing XP.
If I select continue xp setup, I get this:

"load needed DLLs for kernel"

and if I opt for booting my existing XP I get the message about hal.dll again!

- Theres more... Sometimes, but not every time, it gives me the chance to boot from the XP cd when I start up. I press any key and a blue screen comes up and it starts doing all sorts of normal installation stuff. Then it says it is going to start windows, but then another blue screen comes up and says it cannot detect any hard disk drives and cannot continue!

Basically, I cant get anywhere near the normal XP window screen or make any progress at all with the reinstall. I have tried getting into windows with safe mode as well and that does nothing.

Please help guys...I need my PC working! Some of my work depends on it. Luckily I did backup important files on my 2nd drive which does not have XP installed.

If you can help please keep it VERY simple language and if you tell me to do something please try to explain it step by step. Sorry but I really am way out of my depth here!

Much appreciated. What would we do without forums like this?

Hi and welcome to D-A-L

when you did a reinstall did you format your drive first?

you may be trying to install another copy of windows

This situation occurs when setting up a dual boot situation with Windows 2000 and Windows XP (it may occur with other setups). After Windows XP's install routine has finished copying files, and is ready to boot to the GUI portion of SETUP, you may receive the above error.


here's a bit more about it
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

Hi
No I didnt format the drive before I tried a reinstall. I am reading the link you sent me thank you
ANy idea why I cant get to system repair when I boot from the cd? All I get is the option to resume XP setup or to boot the existing XP!

In an internet cafe...have to go. Back later. Thanks again!

is your copy of XP a full version or do you have a recovery disc?

It says Windows XP Service Pack 2, recovery disk, yes. Thats all I was given when i bought my PC.

??