Missing HAL.DLL file, Win XP Home, SP3

[bisleyroo]

A friend suggested I try this forum for help on what appears to be a common problem, but I've found no info on any forum since I updated to SP3.

I have Win XP on a Dell desktop, SP2. I 'upgraded' to SP3, ran defrag a week later when things were slowing down, the next boot up I got a 'missing or corrupt hal.dll file' error. I can't boot, tried many repair options, safe mode, etc., listed on other forums but to no avail. I think the update to SP3 keeps me from using my SP2 recovery CD. Dell tech support said they had no idea how to fix it without losing my existing files. I could pull hard drive, save data to another computer, then reformat but was hoping for another fix.

Any ideas? Thanks for looking at this!


Moved from Software For Windows to Operating Systems.

AnandTech Moderator
mechBgon

 

[postmortemIA]

hall.dll is one of first files that XP loads durong boot up, meaning there's problem with partition itself... are you able to access partition using some linux live cd?

 

[bisleyroo]

Thanks...I do not have anything other than the standard recovery CD to work with. I've tried partitioning the HD as detailed on some various tech forums but got other errors. In fact, after trying some of the repair methods, the error message changes upon reboot to give the standard unmountable_drive error, or something to that extent.

I read that it's likely it's not the hal.dll file, but probably a missing boot file. Doesn't help to know that from my point, but that seems to be a consensus among the techies.

 

[redbeard1]

I would run your hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool. The SP3 portion of this may just be coincidental to the HDD failing.