Missing hal.dll file

[silentnswift]

I recently installed Windows XP Professional on a new hard drive to replace my old Windows 2000 set up. After installing all the updates, SP2, and some games, I decided to run COD4. The game crashed later and I decided to restart my computer. Then I got "Error Message: Cannot Find \Windows\System32\hal.dll". I read http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm and noticed that this is a problem caused by incorrect boot.ini files when dual booting. However, my problem is that when I went to Windows 2000 to try see what happened to the Windows XP installation, it automatically ran a chkdsk, and removed corrupt files and recovered other files, and now when I look at the Windows XP G: drive, the Windows folder isnt even there anymore. There is another added folder in the G:drive with a bunch of recovered files it looks like, but the Windows folder is completely gone. Is there anything I can even do anymore besides a full reinstall?

 

[Nenu]

That doesnt sound too good.
It looks like your XP drive has suffered from some form of failure.
No doubt due to a hardware issue whether it be heat, bad PSU, power glitch, hard drive dying, overclocked but unstable etc...
Win2K might have repaired it (then again it might not) but the repair work has left XP in a non usable state.
Its unlikely you will recover the old Windows install unless you can replace all the faulty files and can fully recover the registry and other config files.

I had a problem that sounds almost exactly the same while overclocking a C2D system I had just built.
It wouldnt go much over 330MHz FSB so I started playing with voltages to the motherboard.
One of them caused a crash on boot which left Windows in a sorry state.
I set the voltage back and booted again, this time it ran scandisk and it repaired a hell of a lot of damage.
Subsequently it was so knackered I deleted the partitions and started again.


If the above doesnt turn out to be your situation, its possible your problem is hard drive failure.
This could be caused by an overclock without locking the PCI/PCI express bus speeds or the drive running too hot. Either of these issues can damage a drive.
A faulty power supply is suspect too as this needs to be stable and in spec for the drive (and the rest of your PC) to function correctly.

Alternatively, the drive might just have developed a fault.
I'd reformat it after getting your data off.
If that is successful, get Win2K to scan it for bad sectors.
Should no problems show up theres a fair chance its ok so try installing Windows.

 

[silentnswift]

I have a feeling that it might be a faulty hard drive, since I just received this hard drive from newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148247) and within 1 week this error has shown up. I have done no overclocking, and Windows 2000 has been stable for more than 2 years on my other hard drive. If I scan that hard drive for bad sectors, will it identify whether or not the hard drive is faulty? I'm also thinking that the power supply might not be able to handle the 2nd hard drive, is that a possibility?

 

[Nenu]

The drive might be ok if it passes a bad sector scan but then again it could still fail depending on the fault.
You'll have to try it and see.

Another hard drive is very little extra load on a PSU.
It could have tipped the balance but you would have already been pushing your PSU to its limit for this to trip it up.

 

[Azhar]

HAL is corrupted? I sure hope you don't depend on your computer for your life support