HAL.DLL error - SATA & IDE drives

[compudog]

I have four SATA drives in my machine. 80GB SATA is my OS Drive. Machine boots just fine. When I connect an IDE drive (Primary Master) and boot the computer, it halts with the hal.dll error;

Windows\System32\Hal.dll missing or corrupt:

Please re-install a copy of the above file.

Shut down, un-hook the IDE drive and it boots fine. The IDE drive doesn't have an OS on it, nor did it ever, it was just a data drive. All drives are formatted NTFS. I would like to get this drive running again. I am almost tempted to buy a USB2.0 external kit and put the drive in it.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

 

[compudog]

Update:

• It doesn't matter what IDE drive I connect, I've tried several.
  It's not my boot.ini file (or at least I don't think so)
  Running Windows XP Pro
  Asus A8N-SLI Premium
  All of these drives worked on the last motherboard I had in this computer, an Asus A8N-E, I did a full format and re-install when I did the motherboard swap.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Possibly, you might have to edit the boot.ini file with the other drive connected, it sounds like it is bumping the drive numbers around.

 

[compudog]

I edited my boot.ini file (actually used msconfig from the run dialog) to edit the file. Rebooted the PC with the IDE drive hooked up, still halts at the hal.dll error. I had already installed a copy of the .dll but still had the same problem. $24 USB 2.0 external drive kit and now I have the data back again.

Hindsight being 20/20, I will make sure to have all my drives connected during the install of the OS.