Cant start Windows

[I3rianL]

I just installed windows xp pro onto a blank hard drive. When I rebooted it says:

Windows cound not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file.

How do I re-install a copy of the file? I cant even boot up my OS so I cant just copy it over. Do I have to re-install the whole thing again?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[XnightshadeX]

1/ Place your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and Reboot your PC

2/ XP's setup program will automatically start and files will be loaded to memory

3/When you reach the Welcome to Setup screen choose the Repair option by pressing R

4/ This will start the Recovery console and the list of Windows installations will appear

5/ As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1

6/ Type in your Administrator password. If you are using Windows XP Home edition the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter

7/Now type bootcfg /list

8/ A list will now appear of all the entries in your boot.ini file

9/ Next type bootcfg /rebuild

10/ Your boot.ini file should now be repaired

11/ Finally remove your XP CD from the CD-ROM and then type Exit

12/ Reboot your machine to see if the the problem has been cured



source
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_repair_a_missing_or_cor.htm

 

[Job]

Make sure the HD you installed windows on is set to 'master' (if its an IDE) or that it is in the right SATA port. Had horrible issues with booting because of these 'duhhh' situations that you can easily overlook