Keep getting hal.dll missing or corrupt file error message

I encountered this today on a OS X 10.5 machine with WInXP installed in a partition and Parallels installed as well.

The problem was that somehow the boot.ini got changed so that the timeout was 1 second and the Parallels configuration was first.

Changing the timeout allowed me to boot Win XP directly, I have not tried changing the order in the boot.ini file till I compare with all my other OS X/WinXP combo machines (I support several machines).

If your WinXP partition is NTFS you can view the boot.ini from OS X, if it is FAT32 then you can view and edit that file from OS X. To edit the boot.ini file from WinXP you have to make it visible using the folder options (system files).

The best explanation about this problem is on the Parallels forum:

"Almost always these problems are caused by Parallels setting up a custom hardware profile in the boot.ini file. The boot.ini is changed when Parallels starts up and restored when you exit cleanly. If Parallels crashes on the other hand you only have a 1 second window to switch to the default hardware profile when starting BootCamp. Obviously BootCamp can't start from the Parallels setup and complains about a missing hal.dll."

HERE IS YOUR SOLUTION AND PLS SPREAD THIS AROUND!!!
When you use bootcamp to Partion your MAC OS HD it creates an additional Partion. During the installation of Windows (When you get to the blue screen with the option to choose which Partion to Install Windows) YOU WILL SEE 1 UNPARTITIONED DRIVE & 3 PARTIONS, ONE OBVIOUSLY FOR WINDOWS AND THE OTHER 2 UNKOWN. One of those unknown is 200MB and the other is for MAC OS. The 200MB partition is your problem. That is where Windows installation starts and that is where the missing hal.dll crap is located.
YOUR SOLUTION:
1. SCROLL TO THE 200MB PARTION AND DELETE IT.
2. DELETE THE WINDOWS PARTITIONS AS WELL SINCE IT IS FORMATTED IN FAT32. THEN REPARTITION IT AND REFORMAT USING NTFS. NOTE THAT WHEN YOU INITIALLY PARTITIONED THE MAC OS HD WITH BOOTCAMP YOU MAY NOT LIMIT YOURSELF TO 32GB FOR WINDOWS. YOU NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO FORMAT THE DRIVE IN NTFS.
3. AFTER THIS, YOU SHOULD HAVE 2 PARTITIONS; YOUR MAC OS PARTITION, WINDOWS NTFS PARTITION AND THE UNPARTITIONED DRIVE.
3. CONTNUE WINDOWS INSTALLATION ON THE C PARTITION AND YOU SHOULD BE FINE.

OK,
i have been playing with this triple boot idea for a while now... i found one main reason that windows will give you the hal.dll error. Windows likes to be the last instalation on the drive, so if you have one partition with osx and one with linux + swap partition. then windows has to be that last partition. partition 4!!!
speaking of 4 partitions, thats all windows wants to see and wants to know about. one way i found to get these to work is to leave the 200meg partition alone (thats for osx to do what ever its little hart wants to do with it) then have your OSX partition as 2 and your linux as 3. (NO swap partition, you can set up a swap file later in linux) and windows HAS to be on partition 4.
if windows is not on partition 4 you will get the hal.dll error even though its fine/boot.ini working. its just picky on what partition it goes on.

You might want to try doing a google of the error "hal.dll missing or corrupt" and look at some of the things that come up. One thing I noticed was the possibility of one little thing being wrong in the boot.ini file. You could find your answer somewhere within the google search.

I'm pretty sure there is no hal.dll in the 200MB partition. Moreover, I have that partition and I have never had a hal.dll issue. But I also have never attempted to access my Boot Camp installation via Parallels--have you?

IF YOU FIND ANOTHER WAY AROUND LET ME KNOW!!!

As said above, the likely problem is a faulty boot.ini. This is the diagnosis of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477 which also gives several methods for correcting it. (Unfortunately for the original poster, all but perhaps the first of those methods involves the recovery console.)

You might also find http://www.twocanoes.com/winclone/details.html to be interesting reading.

This is quite easy to fix. Reboot your computer and keep pressing the ALT key to get into the mode where you choose windows or mac. Choose windows and start tapping the F8 key. You will get to a menu where you can choose how to log into windows. Here on my Mac I have:
Windows XP Professional
Parallels Desktop

Just choose Windows XP or the equivalent in your computer.

To change the how long this options are displayed or which one to select by default, after booting successfully on windows, right click your "my computer" icon -> Advanced -> Startup and Recovery -> Settings button -> Default operating system.

Hope it helps,
Cassiano

Message was edited by: cassiano

Here's what worked: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330184
I followed the instructions above and once I finished, After re-booting, I selected Microsoft Windows XP Professional and the System Configuration Utility came up.
On the “General” tab, it shows that the Start Up Selection is on “Selective Startup” with everything checked, but what’s marked “Using Modified BOOT.INI
Tried to change it to “Normal Startup – load all device drivers and services” then re-start.

Windows came back up, but so did the System Configuration Utility and still showing that it was starting up with “Selective Startup”
Now just need to figure out how to start it up in “Normal”, if in fact that’s possible. Will keep you posted and if anyone has any further suggestions, that would be much appreciated.

I do hope this will help all the others that have run into the same issue, which I have found is caused by the Parallels Desktop by they way, not Microsoft, and that start having issues by getting the dreaded " hal.dll " file is missing or corrupt on a direct Boot to Windows.

Very long and sleepless night….

Kitti

I tried modifying the boot.ini file from the terminal, and I keep getting the following message: the document boot.ini could not be unlocked because it resides on the locked disk Untitled

How can I unlock it ? Or just modify the file ?

I use Windows XP and I have removed Parallel, cause I thought it was the root of my problem 😟

Really? I thought I saw a thread in which deleting the 200MB partition created all sorts of problems.
Moreover, the explanation above about boot.ini actually makes sense and provides a solution to the problem. Messing around with partitions, on the other hand, is a recipe for disaster. If you don't believe me, just ask CDeath.

According to a Wiki article on EFI and GPL/GUID, it seems Apple isn't currently using the EFI partition (200MB) right now.

But you don't need to delete it either.

I have seen problems with Leopard and installing Vista that I never had before. And before I could both with or without resorting to use BootCamp Assistant.

Something - to me - is or got "mucked up" that makes it worse.

Yes, really. I tried installing Windows XP 20 times and got the same missing or corrupt hal.dll every time. The only fix was deleting that 200MB. My Leopard is up and running and Windows XP was installed perfectly the first time. As far as I am concerned that partition is doing nothing. Windows sees it (the 1st patition) and loads the initially files there then jumps to the C partition.
IF YOU FIND ANOTHER WAY AROUND LET ME KNOW!!!

So how do you fix this then so that it will boot up windows vista?