hal.dll missing... but it's there!!!

[Uberg]

When i boot up my sisters laptop which i recently installed XP on, it complains that XP is missing. The only way to boot it is to have the USB stick with windows on (which i installed it off) in the laptop.

I checked system32, and hal.dll is sitting there quite happily. Why can't Windows see it?

 

[KSoD]

This means the ARC paths in the [operating systems] section or the default entry in BOOT.INI is incorrect. Double-check that multi() and disk() are both set to 0, and verify that rdisk(x)partition points to the correct partition where Windows XP is installed.

The boot.ini information is incorrent. It is using the floppy as the boot source. When it should be using your hard drive. Fix your boot.ini to show the correct path to the ahrd drive your problem should be solved.

 

[Uberg]

Thanks!

That's led me to figure out that it's to do with Windows having a fit because it's installed on drive D: instead of C:. But Windows won't let me change the drive to C: and it won't let me edit the boot.ini

 

[KSoD]

The only real way to fix Windows not being installed to C:\ is to reinstall it.

 

[Nick]

hal is the hardware abstraction layer which is needed to boot your system, does this have anything to do with the hal.dll which is missing mak?

 

[KSoD]

Yes that is exactly what it has to deal with. As i quoted in my first post that is what the hal.dll does on boot. The hal.dll queries the NTLDR which queries the NTDETECT which then loads the boot.ini for XP.

I know it seems like a lot. But it happens so fast. By him saying it ws there then there is either a issue with the boot process not recognizing the file or the boot path that it leads to is not correct.