HI

When I boot windows xp I receive a notice that the windows root is corrupted and that the HAL.DLL file must be re-installed. I've tried to follow some instructions from different sources eg. to copy the file from the windows disk but it will not copy anything. I've also tried chkdsk and fixboot but to no avail. Any recommendations?

Hal.dll. Yeah. The first thing is to know which hal you want cos there are several; which one is right for you is determined by your BIOS capabilities and the type of hardware you have installed- ie your motherboard for a start. When you install windows Setup chooses and installs the one for your sys, and then calls it hal.dll. That is fine for the OS [one name fits all] but you have to find which one is actually installed. On a working sys that is easy - you got to system32, rclick hal.dll and choose properties. Select the Version tab, go down to the item name box and click Original File Name. And it pops in the Value box. This is the only way to find out the actual type of hal you have on your machine. You cannot do it via a command line such as in Recovery Console.
So you gotta find that out, and to do it you may need to slave your drive in another sys.
Then you gotta copy that actual file into your sys and rename it to hal.dll. Mostly it will be in a cab folder, that is, it will be a compacted file itself, so you also gotta expand it.
When you find that right hal the command you want is:
expand "C:\windows\driver cache\i386\sp2.cab" -F:halmacpi.dll C:\windows\system32\hal.dll

C:\windows\driver cache\i386\sp2.cab - this is where my various hal versions are....
-F:halmacpi.dll - this is my hal.... the -F: specifies files to expand....
C:\windows\system32\hal.dll - this is where it should go, and what it should be called....

Should be something like that, anyway. You may find a hal in some other source though, like an XP installation cd, so your source name would reflect that.

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