Hi, firstly my knowledge on computer is pretty limited, my computer a hp pavillion t450 uk (what it says on the front) was working ok, it was a bit slow, so some clever sort suggested that i did a system recovery... When i now turn on my computer i get the message - "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".... When i enter anything it restarts my comp, please i really don't know what to do. What's wrong and how (if possible) do i fix it? Many thanks for any response i can assure it will be hugely appreciated.

By System Recovery do you mean you used an HP CD to restore your computer to factory conditions?

Or do you mean something else was done?

When you press f10 when i turn is on, that system recovery.

Did you try doing it again?

Did the computer come with any HP CD's?

When I got that message, my Raid option in BIOS was enabled. My friend had that same problem but he had to delete that 8MB storage. Doesn't HP have the option like dell to use Norton Ghost and restore the image to when you got it?

What 8mb of storage? I have this issue... I have tried reloading windows, formatted all 3 HDD's on my system, tried to enter Windows recovery from the OS disc... The only wierd thing was when I deleted the hdd partitions, and created new, one of the drives came up as 3 new partitions, when I only created one. It also will not let me use the full disc size, only 8 mb smaller than wholedisc, and the additional 2 partitions I did not deliberately create show 0 mb as their size.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I've reinstalled the OS 3 times, both XP and Vista, I can't boot into the OS DVD, I get a blue screen, from the DVD telling me HAL.DLL is missing. I can boot from a floppy, but the C: drive shows no valid media with a dir command...

Help...

This post appears to relate, but I can't post a reply there for some reason, so hopefully someone can help me here...

http://www.d-a-l.com/help/spyware-ad...ted-virus.html

Thanks

Is this a manufactured computer? If so who is the manufacturer?

What are you using to format?

Are you saying you cannot boot from your DVD/CD drive?

Are you using an OEM install disk or retail?

Depending on the answers to the above I would remove all but one hard drive; run KillDisk; boot OS DVD/CD; let the OS format the drive.

If the OS DVD/CD has any issue formatting try GParted first.

Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format.

GParted -- Welcome


Just BTW in the Security section only Moderators can reply to posts.

Is this a manufactured computer?

I built it. ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Mobo w/ q6600 proc, 4 gb crucial RAM and until this weekend a triple boot w/ Vista Ultimate, XP Pro SP2 and Kbuntu 6.1

What are you using to format?

Originally the OS disc for XP. I formatted all 3 HDD's, reinstalled XP, and was in the process of reinstalling drivers. When the first reboot for driver install happened, it rebooted off the driver disk (an ASUS utility disc).

There should have been 4 reboots, for the driver install, and from that point on, t will not boot to Windows. The first error was "This BIOS is not fully "ACPI (?)" Compliant. Get an updated Bios from the manufacturer".

I flashed the BIOS, with no problem. Then I reinstalled XP, but it blue screened again 2 hrs later with a different Windows related error, about missing system files. So I used the OS disk to delete all partitions, re-create them and format the drives. At this point, I noticed that the smallest drive had an anomaly, in that the drive created 3 partitions instead of the single partition I asked for, and deleted all 3 when I deleted the main partition. The largest partition would not allow me to go full size, reserving 8 mb that disappear. Also the size on the 2 magic partitions shows 0 mb.

Currently I am using Killmbr and Fdisk to try this process again.

Are you saying you cannot boot from your DVD/CD drive?

No. It will boot from any non-windows disc from the ODD. An OS disc, both Vista and XP, get through "loading files" portion from DVD to HDD, then Bluescreen, with the HAL.DLL error in XP and a similar error in Vista with a different file.

Are you using an OEM install disk or retail?

Retail in both cases. The Kbuntu is an ISO burn, but Ihaven't reinstalled that yet.

Let us know how it goes.

If I were trying this I would use KillDisk then format with GParted.

I would also install one OS to one drive at a time. Meaning disconnect the other drives during the process.

Install blue screens are typically hardware issues.

May I ask why you find yourself reinstalling 3 OS?

Did something happen to the old setup or are you doing this for the first time?

I'm trying Gparted now. Fdisk didn't work, no error, but although it successfully ran the partition creator, on reboot, it still shows no partitions.

As far as Hardware errors, 2 of the Hard drives I'm using are less than 2 months old. One is older, but shows no errors in chkdsk.

Could be a non HDD related error, but what?

I ran Gparted from the Live USB, and deleted created a single NTFS partition on my XP disc, with no issue. I just reattached the other 2 drives to do the same to them, and now it will not boot to the USB drive. Everything works the same, but when I select the USB drive, it comes up with a black screen with:

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.

WTF?

I'm going to remove power from just that drive, and try again... BTW it's the same drive with the magic partitions...

I did, and now it just asks for "proper boot media" when I select the USB drive I just booted from 15 minutes ago...