missing corrupt <windows root>system32\hal.dll

[south dakota]

had a virus antivirus xp 2008   scanned with norton's it quarantined it. when i powered it up. the next morning it said missing ntlrd file. i borrowed xp update and used the information from computer hope forum  and reinstalled that information now i have this issue.  my computer is a hp media center.  i ordered a hp recovery disk for the first problem  will it fix the second problem

[diablo416]

the second issue is "my computer is a hp media center. "

[SuperDave]

I'm not sure what you did with that borrowed XP update disk but you may have installed  a dual boot on your computer. Here's some information about your error that you're receiving: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
In any case the first thing you should do is go here to ensure that your computer is clean. http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,46313.0.html
After that is done we can start working on your other problem.

[south dakota]

would be nice to get past this problem to do that

[Dusty]

CH words of wisdom here...

Good luck

[joefido]

Let's see if I have this straight. You have a HP computer and you used a friends Microsoft XP Media Center installation disc to access the recovery console, but instead you did an install. Is that right? It sounds like you re-installed a different OS from the one you had before. Generally, the HP recovery disc doesn't neccessarilly recover the OS as much as it does a factory default re-install. The way it's supposed to work, though as in the case of Dell and HP, the OS is installed on (a generally) unaccessable partition, that the recovery disc accessess to do the new re-install. The OS isn't on the recovery disc, but resides on the Ghost partition. Will the new "Recovery Disc" fix that?? Only if you ordered a recovery disc for your particular make  and model of computer. But, ..If you reformated the entire disc when you installed XP Media Center, you may not be able to re-install from a recovery disc. I think at that point you can buy a new OS from HP and you download it from their site ...I think!

[joefido]

Dusty, question as far as replacing a .DLL file. If you have access to the CMD Prompt couldn't you just run SFC /scannow to repair the .DLL cache? Just wondered..

[drmsucks]

the second issue is "my computer is a hp media center. "

This seems less than useful, Diablo.

[drmsucks]

i ordered a hp recovery disk for the first problem  will it fix the second problem

The HP recovery disk ought to restore your computer to the condition it was in when you bought it.

[Dusty]

Dusty, question as far as replacing a .DLL file. If you have access to the CMD Prompt couldn't you just run SFC /scannow to repair the .DLL cache? Just wondered..

Sure, that might work, but how does South Dakota get to the Command Prompt window, his/her system won't boot because of the error message about which his post is kinda vague.  But then he/she could try Safe Mode with Command Prompt, it might open without hal.dll

However the Hardware Abstraction Layer .dll (hal.dll) may not be missing, it could be that the Boot.ini file is corrupt and pointing to an incorrect, or incomplete, Windows folder from which the OS is to be loaded.  It seems that S.Dakota did something which he/she has not explained yet, or perhaps he/she does not really know what was done.

Can't overstress the importance of posting the actual and complete error message(s).

Here is a tried and proved method of replacing hal.dll but the correct XP cd must be used.  FYI I have a bootable cd copy of some system files including my boot.ini, ntldr, hal.dll, ntdetect so that should a problem arise it's just a matter of booting from it to copy files, never had to use it yet.