Missing system32\hal.dll Boot Camp to install Windows XP SP2

Hi Dan, did you ever figure this one out? I'm having the same issue and I've tried the process over 4 times. Each time XP completes the install and reboots to the black screen with the Windows error message:
Windows could not restart because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<windows root.\system32\hal.dll

Thanks.

HAL is the Hardware Access Layer.

You may get HAL errors if there is some hardware Windows does not like.

If you have any non-OEM hardware conncted, temporarily disconnect it.

What happens?

I recall reading somewhere Windows sometimes voices displeasure at CPUs with more Ram than it can address.

Given you have 16gb installed, try removing 12-14gb temporarily. After the initial boot to windows and final automated configuration, reinstall the ram.

When i got that error, i thought it was a HAL issue but it turned out that the windows boot.ini was pointed to the wrong partition. I would boot into a BART PE cd or WINXPE disk and find out which partition number your windows installation is on and confirm that the boot.ini is pointed to that partition. if it is not then you will have to modify the boot.ini to reflect the correct partition number but you will first need to change the properties on the boot.ini file from read only, make the changes, and then change it back to read only.

Forgot to mention. i was working on installing windows from a imagex usb based image. I ended deleting the bootcamp 200mb partition and recreating the bootcamp partition that mac created so i could format it to NTFS. You can check which partition number if you boot into winxpe and use diskpart.

What do you mean by configuration? I have a MacPro Dual Quad with 16 gigs of ram but in XP 32 bit I only can see 1.99 Gigs. So would your answer also apply to me? I do not recall any RAM setting to adjust upon partition creation. Is there such a thing?

GregBs profile shows he has 16gb ram, so the temp remove ram comment was for him. If you have >2gb, and you are getting HAL errors during install, then to you as well.

The temp disconnect non-Apple hardware was for anyone getting HAL errors.

"automated configuration" is what occurs during the GUI portion of the install.
That is, the period after the files are copied (the blue background/white text screens) and the system reboots, and the actual first login to windows.

It is the section that asks about date/time, internet/IP settings, etc.

Short of physically removing it, there is no way to 'adjust' ram during setup. It is seen during the discovery ('windows is checking the system') portion of setup.

Since I had read some systems with >2gb ram complain, I thought it worth mentioning here.

However, if you are using parallels or similar, /after/ installation is complete, I believe Parallels and VMware both let you adjust memory and CPU allocation.

This issue for me was an MBR issue with BootCamp wanting to install and read XP from the last Boot Record (or partition) listed. I screwed the Boot Record up when I deleted the partition during the XP creation and recreated it. Boot Camp no longer could see the XP location because it was looking at the wrong partition location.

I resolved this issue by deleting the Boot Camp partition and recreating it. Then I made sure install to that partition that was created without doing any manipulation other than selecting NTFS formatting during the XP install. Works great now. Vista doesn't seem to have this issue but I can't stand Vista!!

BTW: I should have clarified from the beginning, this install was for my MBP not my Mac Pro below so I have 2gb of RAM installed on this machine.

So glad I found this thread, I think I am having the same issue as Greg B and it's driving me mad. I have annotated Greg B's comment below in hopes that someone can please help me, perhaps Greg B?

"This issue for me was an MBR issue with BootCamp wanting to install and read XP from the last Boot Record (or partition) listed. I screwed the Boot Record up when I deleted the partition during the XP creation and recreated it *[I BELIEVE I DID THIS AS WELL]*. Boot Camp no longer could see the XP location because it was looking at the wrong partition location.

I resolved this issue by deleting the Boot Camp partition and recreating it *[PLEASE ADVISE AS TO HOW EXACTLY TO DO THIS, IS THIS DONE IN LEOPARD? OR IS IT DONE FROM THE DOS SCREEN WHEN INSTALLING WINDOWS?]*. Then I made sure install to that partition that was created without doing any manipulation other than selecting NTFS formatting during the XP install. Works great now. Vista doesn't seem to have this issue but I can't stand Vista!!

BTW: I should have clarified from the beginning, this install was for my MBP

not my Mac Pro below so I have 2gb of RAM installed on this machine."

you should be able to delete the windows partition using disk utility.

I used an 8GB usb key as E:\ drive in the Windows Recovery Console on the XP installation disk, copied a good/known working hal.ddl to System32. On reboot just had the same missing/corrupt dll error.

I solved this problem by reading around and looking at my partitions, I have 160GB HDD in MacBook Pro, 200 Megs Partition 1 (apple something) 100 Gigs Partition 2 (apple OS) 57 Gigs Partition 3 (Windows XP NTFS) and critically UNFORMATTED 8 megabytes (a free 'partition 4'). I then deleted partition 3 from Apple BootCamp setup and recreated a 42 Gig Windows partition and I received something like the following;
200 Megs Partition 1 (apple something) 115 Gigs Partition 2 (apple OS) critically UNFORMATTED 200 megabytes 'Partition 3' and 42 Gigs Partition 4 (Windows XP NTFS).

By playing around with the partition sizes I got Windows to be the last partition and everything worked OK, it was trial and error, there may be more elegant solutions - editing master boot records etc, but at least there's something to work on here.

just DON'T delete any partition that bootcamp created, if you want to install on NTFS partition, you don't need to do it manually, just select the C:\(bootcamp) and press next. On the next screen, window will ask you if you want to format to NTFS or leave it at FAT32. At that time, you can select NTFS.

note: there are 2 small partition that bootcamp created, don't try to delete it, they are very important. If you delete it, you won't be able to delete bootcamp partition in mac. It happen on me once, the only solution is to reinstall leopard.