Can't start up Windows - hal.dll missing

[Hugbees]

I don't know what caused this, but it won't let me boot into windows. I get the error "hal.dll is either missing or corrupt." I may have done this with a game I installed, since this happened the day after I installed. I believe it may have replaced one of my .dll files with an older version which is why it won't work now.

It tells me to replace the file, but I have no way of using Windows. I can't run safe mode because when I get to the menu, nothing I hit works. It says to use the arrow keys to scroll but when I do nothing happens, it's like it locks up and won't do anything.

Is there any way to replace the missing file without reinstalling Windows? I'd hate to lose everything I have on there if I can help it. I tried seeing if there was a way to do it from OS:X but I can't find anything

[GimmeSlack12]

Just reinstall Windows. This is the sort of crap that makes people love OS X.

[Hugbees]

Just reinstall Windows. This is the sort of crap that makes people love OS X.

You got that right. Well I'm a complete noob when it comes to this and it's the first time ever having to uninstall windows so... How do I uninstall it? ><

[arkitect]

You got that right. Well I'm a complete noob when it comes to this and it's the first time ever having to uninstall windows so... How do I uninstall it? ><

No need to uninstall Windows first.
Just run Install from the CD/DVD.

[Hugbees]

No need to uninstall Windows first.
Just run Install from the CD/DVD.

I do that in OS:X with bootcamp right? Just like I'm installing it in the first place?

[XianPalin]

You can just reinstall overtop of it.

Seems like there are already a few threads on the subject, I thought I'd seen it before. Are you using parallels or vmware or just boot camp?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=317524&highlight=hal.dll
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416791&highlight=hal.dll

One of those links to this if you are using parallels:
http://kb.parallels.com/entry/63/526/0/

[arkitect]

I do that in OS:X with bootcamp right? Just like I'm installing it in the first place?

Correct.

[Hugbees]

You can just reinstall overtop of it.

Seems like there are already a few threads on the subject, I thought I'd seen it before. Are you using parallels or vmware or just boot camp?

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=317524&highlight=hal.dll
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416791&highlight=hal.dll

One of those links to this if you are using parallels:
http://kb.parallels.com/entry/63/526/0/

I use both, the problem started when parallels wouldn't boot up windows and caused my computer to crash.

[Hugbees]

Alright reinstalled windows and now it won't start up.

It says:

Disk error
press any key to restart

in which, it doesn't do a single thing :(

Is there something I forgot to do? When I installed I installed it to the bootcamp partition which had 51,000mb which is what I partitioned to it.

I can run it in parallels which gives me the same error, and hitting any key just brings up the message again. Please tell me I can fix this ><

[GimmeSlack12]

Alright reinstalled windows and now it won't start up.

It says:

Disk error
press any key to restart

in which, it doesn't do a single thing :(

Is there something I forgot to do? When I installed I installed it to the bootcamp partition which had 51,000mb which is what I partitioned to it.

I had that problem too when installing BootCamp-Windows XP Pro. I said screw it and just went with Parallels. Sorry man.

[Raid]

<snip>
It says:

Disk error
press any key to restart

in which, it doesn't do a single thing :( </snip>

That's because Mac keyboards don't have an 'any' key! ;)

Ok seriously, on your bootcamp reinstall did you use the bootcamp assistant? You might have to go back to the beginning to get everything back to normal.

[Hugbees]

That's because Mac keyboards don't have an 'any' key! ;)

Ok seriously, on your bootcamp reinstall did you use the bootcamp assistant? You might have to go back to the beginning to get everything back to normal.

I went into bootcamp assistant, chose to install windows and let it do its thing. I got rid of windows first then put it back on because I wanted more space, even though I lost everything (which wasn't much)

Are there certain steps I need to use to ensure this works?

[Hugbees]

Alright I'm going to remove my windows partition again and retry it.

I apparently have no idea what to do and I'll need a step by step instruction of how to properly install windows with bootcamp ><

[cohibadad]

I had that hal.dll thing soon after Leopard came out. I think I resolved it by formatting in FAT32. It might have started after I installed parallels and used the boot camp partition. I searched the parallels forums and googled and it was a common problem without any clear solutions at that time.

[Hugbees]

I think I resolved it by formatting in FAT32.

How do I go about that?

I don't get why Windows won't install anymore. It worked the first time I ever tried to install Windows it worked no problem. Now it won't boot into it or something.

[Hugbees]

Don't mean to keep double posting but:

When I went to install Windows through boot camp assistant it would act like it was rebooting my computer, stay at the white screen for a while then eject the disc. After that it would say there is no disk to boot from and I'd have to put the disc back in, restart the computer and hold alt and run off of the Windows CD to install.

Is that supposed to happen or is there something wrong with my computer?

[cohibadad]

when you install windows with boot camp you set the partition size and it reboots into the windows install. You must reformat that partition before you install windows. During the windows install it gives you a choice of which partition to use. If you just choose that partition without formatting it first Windows will not work. Boot Camp instruction manual says the same.

[Hugbees]

when you install windows with boot camp you set the partition size and it reboots into the windows install. You must reformat that partition before you install windows. During the windows install it gives you a choice of which partition to use. If you just choose that partition without formatting it first Windows will not work. Boot Camp instruction manual says the same.

Hmm, when you say reformat do you mean deleting the partition, because thats what I did.

Now when I choose the partition to install to it says BOOTCAMP (FAT32) and it gives me options to reboot into NTSC. Do I want that?

[mshin.mac.pro]

Hmm, when you say reformat do you mean deleting the partition, because thats what I did.

Now when I choose the partition to install to it says BOOTCAMP (FAT32) and it gives me options to reboot into NTSC. Do I want that?

When you say "deleting the partition", do you mean under the Windows Installer?

If so, you must then re-allocate space on the correct partition again under the Windows Installer. This operation (using key commands under Windows Installer) allocates space on the physical partition to install Windows. Then, once you have allocated the space on the partition, you continue with installing Windows.

Select the Quick Format (NTFS) option... Why anyone would want to install Windows XP under FAT32 is beyond my comprehension.

[Hugbees]

When you say "deleting the partition", do you mean under the Windows Installer?

If so, you must then re-allocate space on the correct partition again under the Windows Installer. This operation (using key commands under Windows Installer) allocates space on the physical partition to install Windows. Then, once you have allocated the space on the partition, you continue with installing Windows.

Select the Quick Format (NTFS) option... Why anyone would want to install Windows XP under FAT32 is beyond my comprehension.

I'm not too sure how to do that in the installer, I know that when I choose to load windows on the boot camp partition it defaults to FAT32. I'll try it again with NTFS

I have no knowledge of doing this so I'm having a bit of trouble understanding. I hope it works this time.

[Hugbees]

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

[Stridder44]

When you say "deleting the partition", do you mean under the Windows Installer?

If so, you must then re-allocate space on the correct partition again under the Windows Installer. This operation (using key commands under Windows Installer) allocates space on the physical partition to install Windows. Then, once you have allocated the space on the partition, you continue with installing Windows.

Select the Quick Format (NTFS) option... Why anyone would want to install Windows XP under FAT32 is beyond my comprehension.

See, I selected the Quick Format option too and now I have this error as well. Funny thing is I've ran/installed Windows on my MBP many times and has always ran fine. Im gonna try it again but this time a full reformat, none of that "quick" crap.

[Diabeetus]

i'm having this same problem, with hal.dll missing

i did notice that for a split second upon windows startup, you can choose the parallels configuration or the standard windows xp config

so my theory, when you start it up, you may be able to get into windows by mashing the down key to select the standard boot camp installed way

and if i reinstall windows, will i lose all my stuff previously on there, or will the system be on there twice but my items still be intact? i'm never using parallels again.

[AuroraProject]

That's most commonly a boot.ini problem. Not sure how it works in Bootcamp or Parallels, but on Windows boxes you would boot to the Windows disk and start the recovery console, then type:
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot

or you may have to copy the hal.dll file from the install disk, like this:

Enter the recovery console and type:
expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

[The Flashing Fi]

That's most commonly a boot.ini problem. Not sure how it works in Bootcamp or Parallels, but on Windows boxes you would boot to the Windows disk and start the recovery console, then type:
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot

or you may have to copy the hal.dll file from the install disk, like this:

Enter the recovery console and type:
expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.

Repairing the boot.ini is what fixed it for me. Oddly enough, I've only had it happen under XP, and only when I've had a different boot loader (for Mac OS X, it's Apple's own boot loader and when I triple booted between XP, Vista, Ubuntu). It seems that the boot.ini for XP is easily corrupted when using 3rd party boot loaders.

[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 (http://www.macintosh-data-recovery.com) 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. :cool:

[emojo]

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:o

[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:o

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.