File Problem

[doubledragon5]

During start up of WinXP Pro I get this message.

**windows could not start because the following is missing or corrupt**
system32\hal.dll

best way to restore this without complete reinstall. Thanks a bunch

[Panama Red]

Try this. Remove the hard drive and put in in another machine as the slave. Explore to the defective file and rename it to Haldll.old. Then add a new Hal.dll file from this download. Good luck.

[ChromWolf]

Forgive me for dredging up an old thread, but I had a quick question for you, Panama Red:

How does this new, downloadable Hal.dll work? ...Is it essentially just the very basic hardware driver list, and then you either have to (A) let Windows automatically re-detect everything or (B) you have to manually run "Add New Hardware", or what? ...This isn't an active problem I've got, but I wanted to look into how to "refresh" the HAL.DLL file for doing a major system change (like moving a hard drive with Win2000 into a different system, for example). I've seen the "Moving a hard drive" thread, but it essentially says "good luck" for win2k/XP systems, as I recall....

[Panama Red]

Think of the Hal.dll file as any file or folder. All you're doing in this case is copy/pasting a replacement file in the same location within System32 as the old one. The download is just a replacement file for the one that may be damaged or missing. There's no new hardware to add. You're just replacing a file. This isn't a method of moving a hard drive, just a way to fix a "missing file" notification.

[ChromWolf]

I've been told that HAL.DLL is somewhat akin to the Enum key for Win9x systems----wouldn't replacing the current HAL.DLL (assuming it's corrupted/erroneous, and not simply missing altogether) with a different one cause problems, or is it self-repairing? ....Or have I been misinformed about just what exactly HAL.DLL is/does?

[Panama Red]

Good questions and info I've not heard before, CW. Time for some research me thinks!