hal.dll missing/corrupt message after xp pro install on reformatted RAID 0 partition

I am trying to perform a fresh install of XP Pro on a completely reformatted RAID 0 array ("striping") composed of two identical 160gb EIDE HD's. I have gone through the following steps a couple of times: (1) ran setup from the XP disc, loading the RAID files when prompted, (2) deleted the existing partition, (3) requested a new install, which setup informed me would require the entire disk to be reformatted (I didn't create a new partition, on purpose). I noticed that the install program would not allow me to reformat 8MB of disk space, which it apparently reserves for installation files. The formatting took >24 hrs so I was never around to see what happened after it finished, but what I did see (in a DOS-like screen, white on black) was a "HAL.DLL is missing/corrupt" message.

Since then I have gone into the XP install disc's recovery console and tried re-installing XP over the existing (incomplete) install, ignoring the warning that that wasn't a good idea. Same 'hal.dll' message appeared after the XP files are copied onto the HD and the system reboots. I also deleted and then rebuilt the boot.ini file. Also attempted to copy hal.dll from the install disk's i386 folder but recovery console doesn't see my cd-rom drive. Anyway, I can see via the recovery console that hal.dll is there, and I'd be surprised if it was corrupt since this is a fresh install. I'm using the original disc from Microsoft, btw, not a copy.

The original configuration of the computer was RAID 1 ("mirroring") and dual-boot (XP and Win 2K Server, which was what I used primarily), and the computer worked fine until I tried to change the RAID configuration from "mirrored" to "spanned". When I did that, the machine took a LONG time to boot. I restored it to "mirrored" and performance went back to normal. But I didn't need the redundant storage nor the dual boot configuration since I only needed XP Pro, so I decided to set up RAID for "striping" and reinstall XP as my ONLY OS. And that's how I got to where I am.

I am running chkdsk /r right now.

Would appreciate any help. Thanks.

Martin

 

I was reading about HAL yesterday and ran across this article at Microsoft. Thought you might find it interesting.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299340/

 

Re: hal.dll missing/corrupt message after xp pro install on reformatted RAID 0 partit

Interesting - I'm pretty sure mine's a 'standard pc' which is apparently the default, but it's worth checking out. That article also had some useful links to other articles. Thanks.

 

What do you have under Device Manager > Computer? Is your motherboard ACPI compliant? Just curious because I was following this thread
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=89137
about ACPI in XP.

 

Re: hal.dll missing/corrupt message after xp pro install on reformatted RAID 0 partit

no device mgr because no operating system...

 

Re: hal.dll missing/corrupt message after xp pro install on reformatted RAID 0 partit

Good news! I was able to get past the error message and install XP. Bad news: I had to revert to RAID 1 (mirroring) configuration to do it. That's how the machine was originally set up. So I guess changing from RAID 1 to RAID 0 involves more than just going into the RAID BIOS, deleting the existing array and then creating a new one. Any idea what additional steps I should have taken?