Can't start up Windows - hal.dll missing

[Stridder44]

Just a little update on what I did when I had this issue. I was trying to install XP and came across this hal.dll error. The problem was the XP installation was installing/formatting over the little 128 MB "space" between the potential Windows partition (partition 3) and the OS X partition (partition 2).

Luckily I the Vista DVD is much smarter than XP and just reformatted partition 3 to NTFS and left the 128 MB space alone. Took the DVD out after it reformatted, put in XP disc, and it installed perfectly.

Then an hour later after realizing how crappy and old XP is, I installed Vista.

I've only ever had this "hal.dll" problem with trying to install XP.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

I've only ever had this "hal.dll" problem with trying to install XP.

Yeah. It's pretty common for an error during the installation of XP. It's a big pain the butt to diagnose because it's very misleading. The hal.dll may be perfectly fine, but the boot.ini is corrupt or not properly configured, or if the hal.dll is corrupt, then you have to expand the contents of the XP cd onto your HDD and copy over the hal.dll, all in the recovery console.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

Note about NTFS - I believe any partition > 32GB will be automatically formatted as NTFS for Windows, because FAT only supports up to 32GB.

-jim

 

[GimmeSlack12]

This may be unrelated to this thread but to get Boot Camp working (this is from the Apple support page):
After booting into Windows Setup you must format the partition you just created. Do not select Leave Unchanged!

 

[Craig3Q]

I'm stuck with this problem on my iMac. And I can't seem to get the system to respond to any keyboard input at boot time. For example, when I press the Option key after power on, I don't get any option to select a boot partition. All that happens is that the Windows boot loader runs, and then I get the message about a missing or corrupt "system32\hal.dll" file. Even when the boot loader says to hit any key to boot from a CD, that doesn't work either.

So I'm wondering how to even get to the Windows recovery console or to get the system to boot into one of my Mac OS X partitions. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[besttricker]

This error comes in the [Boot Loader] section of the Boot.ini file, the Defaultvalue is either missing or is invalid.To workaround with this. Rectify the Default Entry in the Boot.ini File

1. Open Start menu, select Run, type sysdm.cpl, and then press Enter.
2. Open the Advanced tab and then click the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section.
3. In the System startup section, click Edit.
4. Use File > Save as to save a backup of the boot.ini file and then close it.
5. Click Edit again to open the boot.ini file and then rectify the Default entry as required.


If still it doesn't resolve, install windows again and then recover your data using Stellar Phoenix Data recovery Mac utility.

Hope it help

 

[angryhive]

This is not always resolvable by modifying boot.ini. This problem might be caused by something like modifying the partitioning structure or other "hardware changes" that windows detects, either real changes or just windows playing up thinking you've tried to clone it or change the computer it's on or whatever. You can solve this by meddling about with the installation with imaging software and sysprep, make sure you read up on this tool first first though. Also, you can use some tool with a universal restore function like driveclone or ghost or something to make an image of the windows installation, minus the hardware dependencies that are causing alleged "hal.dll" errors. Then restore the image to the partition. You can even just literally drag the files that have been prepared in this way directly onto a freshly formatted partition, and it'll boot!

Well, it might. So yeah, this problem is normally stupid windows hardware dependencies. Get rid of the stupid hardware dependencies, you can boot again. Maybe.

 

[Stridder44]

Yeah. It's pretty common for an error during the installation of XP. It's a big pain the butt to diagnose because it's very misleading. The hal.dll may be perfectly fine, but the boot.ini is corrupt or not properly configured, or if the hal.dll is corrupt, then you have to expand the contents of the XP cd onto your HDD and copy over the hal.dll, all in the recovery console.

I found a fix for this guys. I installed Vista 64 and now things are much better.

 

[emojo]

Figured out the hal.dll issue on fresh install

After setting up a Windows partition in bootcamp and once it boots into the Windows installer, DO NOT DELETE THE BOOTCAMP PARTITION! This is what causes you to get the hal.dll error message. Instead, simply press enter to install Windows and THEN it prompts you to reformat the disk (and you can then format it as either NTFS or FAT32, either Quick or Full install).

If you delete the partition in the first step rather than just hitting enter to setup the partition, it erases the other little 200MB partition that bootcamp sets up as well, and this is what gives you the hal.dll missing error.

Just love Windows.

 

[renegade43]

I'm stuck with this problem on my iMac. And I can't seem to get the system to respond to any keyboard input at boot time. For example, when I press the Option key after power on, I don't get any option to select a boot partition. All that happens is that the Windows boot loader runs, and then I get the message about a missing or corrupt "system32\hal.dll" file. Even when the boot loader says to hit any key to boot from a CD, that doesn't work either.

So I'm wondering how to even get to the Windows recovery console or to get the system to boot into one of my Mac OS X partitions. Any ideas? Thanks.

Im having the same problem, and did not see an answer to the above in this thread.

I know what when wrong, I deleted the bootcamp partition becase I thought that was the only was to get it to format NTFS. Quite decieving if you ask me...because I used the same method as seting up a new PC with windows XP...boot camp no likey.

So now I cant boot to the XP disc, or my 10.5/10.4 discs...all I get to is the screen that says "missing hal.dll" etc.

and no os options at startup also....It just always tries to startup in XP

so im stuck..... help!

I have an Intel Imac and had 10.4/XP installed fine for almost a year with the "expired" version of bootcamp.

 

[renegade43]

Well I fixed it finally, thanks for all your help!

I know this was a long time ago...but care to share how you fixed this issue?

thanks,

 

[renegade43]

looks like I got it figured out. You can hold down the menu button on the apple remote during startup (if you have one), to bring up the boot menu!

I guess the newer thin alum. keyboard was causing my issue. (system did not see it) Its strange because its always worked before with windows....but this time the driver was not loaded yet.

now im going to start over with bootcamp

 

[Craig3Q]

looks like I got it figured out. You can hold down the menu button on the apple remote during startup (if you have one), to bring up the boot menu!

I guess the newer thin alum. keyboard was causing my issue. (system did not see it) Its strange because its always worked before with windows....but this time the driver was not loaded yet.

now im going to start over with bootcamp

Good luck. Sounds like you're on your way. I had trouble doing this with the newer thin alum keyboard on my older iMac because, as you said, the firmware doesn't know enough about the keyboard. I got around it by finding an older keyboard like the one that came with the iMac, and using it to get the boot menu. And I got into the problem the exact same way you did, by deleting the NTFS partition instead of just reformatting it.

As I said, good luck.

 

[mattydee87]

just wanted to say a big thanks to you guys, like others I deleted the BootCamp partition thinking it's the only way to get it formated as NTFS and found myself with the hal.dll error.