Formatting Disk in Vista

[NavJitsU4]

Hopefully someone will have some insight on this. I have a gateway laptop that needs it's OS re-installed (XPMCE).

I don't know how but the owner managed to delete some of the recovery data in the recovery partition because when I try to start a recovery it'll go through and then come back with missing files error. I have the Recovery DVD so I decided to try that, but by default the way Gateway has set this thing up it uses the recovery partition by default if it sees one, it'll totally bypass the media like it's not even there.

So, I formatted the drive completely in Vista based PC so I can use the media, It worked, the install goes smoothly but when it comes back up from loading the OS files I get a missing or corrupt hal.dll message. I've had this happen before when I formatted the hard disk in a vista machine, just want to know if this is a known issue or it's just a coincidence.

 

[bendixG15]

Microsoft says to reinstall the file.
see.....Error message 3 in..............

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477

 

[RebateMonger]

Sounds like a bad hard drive, controller, or cabling. I'd run disk diagnostics and also a full memory test. There should be zero errors in both tests. If there are any bad sectors, replace the hard drive.

 

[C1]

My advice is to set "boot from CDROM (then HDD)" in the BIOS. Then wipe the HDD using "WIPE"/"ZAP" (gets any/all trash off the HDD). Then reinstall.

 

[NavJitsU4]

formatted the hdd within an xp machine (did not format the hdd in the host machine because I cannot find any utility that can see the sata hdd without loading the drivers), that fixed the problem!! I don't know what it is but formatting a hdd within vista and then trying to load xp on the host machine yields the missing/corrupt hall.dll error.

thanks for all the tips guys