Swapping the Hard drive to another computer

[bladder23]

I recently swapped my old Hard drive (with Windows XP OS) from my old computer and stuck it into my new build. i did not format or do anything to the HD.


I get a file missing error for "system32/hal.ll"

How I can repair this installation with my XP disk WITHOUT losing my files?

(or any other software required)

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[postmortemIA]

good luck with that, there's good reason why hal.dll is missing because motherboard chipset and platform are different.

 

[bladder23]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
good luck with that, there's good reason why hal.dll is missing because motherboard chipset and platform are different.

But it worked before for a bit.

Should I do a complete install now?

Do I have any other options?

 

[postmortemIA]

you can search this forum for others who asked same question.

 

[Navid]

You can disconnect the old drive and use a different drive for a fresh install.
Then, connect the old drive back and copy any files you need from it to the new drive.

 

[stevty2889]

Have you tried a repair install? That may work, and all your files/programs will be intact, but its still better to just do a fresh install.

 

[Schloonce]

A repair install is the way to go. It will just re-install Windows, leaving the file system and your applications intact. However, they may not work after the repair install. Office, for example, will still be "installed" but it probably won't work.

 

[stevty2889]

Originally posted by: Schloonce
A repair install is the way to go. It will just re-install Windows, leaving the file system and your applications intact. However, they may not work after the repair install. Office, for example, will still be "installed" but it probably won't work.

I have generally had the opposite experience, the whole reason to bother with a repair install is because the programs DO still work. The registry is generally left intact, and programs still function normally.