Hey all, I just built myself a new computer: P4 3.0, DFI Infinity motherboard, a gig of memory, and a whole bunch of other stuff that makes it a sweet computer. I was having trouble building it myself so I had to take it back the shop, I was lucky after putting the processor in the wrong way round! I would've been £150 down but miraculously it worked. Anyway, now here's my new problem. After getting it back home I tried to install windows xp pro, but my friend gave me a copy of it and not the proper version, and when trying to install it, it got so far and then said there was a file missing. Ever since, whenever I switch on I get the dreaded, "NTLDR file missing, press ctrl+alt+del to continue." I almost got through that by using the format floppy and "try this first, try this second... " routine but when I, "try this first," I get another error message saying: Windows could not start because the following file is missing <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of the above file. And on that note I am completely stuck. Any help is much appreciated.
Make sure the jumper settings are set on Master on the HD! I'm not sure why you are getting that message since it’s a new HD! Anyway have you formatted it? If so, boot from the XP CD and everything should install fine!
Like Sniper said if its new then you just install from the cd. If you can't then try formatting your hd. I've had problems installing xp before and I found that for some reason its sensitive to read errors. Try swapping the cd drive and see if it installs.
What I think you have is the Upgrade version of Windows XP. To do a clean install you must have the Full version. If that's the case, then you need to have an older version of windows (98/ME/2000/NT4.0) installed on your computer so you can upgrade it to XP. If that still doesn't work, maybe there's an issue related to the hard drive (cables, jumpers, controllers, etc.)
Actually, you don't even need to have it installed IF you have the CD with the older OS on it. If it's the upgrade version and XP doesn't detect an OS on there, it'll ask for a CD with what is okay to upgrade from. Pop that in, XP setup will read it, then go about it's business--and it will eventually want the XP CD back, but you'll know when you do.
I cracked it! Thanks guys for your help. I did like said and booted straight from the E drive. It was then just a case of re-installing windows, which this time went fine. Nearly went badly for me though after my mate wrote the serial down wrong, but with a bit of Trial and error I managed that as well... okay in the end I just downloaded a keygen on my other, working computer, but anyway I got there in the end. Cheers.
The hal.dll file is rather important. It's a major system file that works between the user and the hardware. HAL=Hardware Abstraction Layer.
