After running a complete recovery on my Pavilion a465c, the system came up with, "Can not start Windows, file Windows\system32\hal.dll is missing"! I got a copy of the file from another computer, and using a WinME disk to boot with, I was able to put a copy of the file in the Windows system32 directory. The system doesn't like my copy of this file!

Was the hal from the same version of windows operating system as the one you are using

As prior post aluded, the HAL must match OS versions, ACPI/non-ACPI, and uni/multi-processor system type. If you received a Windows Operating System CD as part of the recovery disc set, you can extract the correct file from the CD's i386 folder with the EXPAND utility.

You can also get this issue:

If the drive's boot partition or boot record is damaged.
If the boot.ini file is corrupted.
By installer interactions with dynamic drive overlay software installed on the hard drive.
Through other scenarios described by searching for "HAL" at Microsoft Help and Support (http://support.microsoft.com).


Myself, I'd backup the drive with imaging software to save any personal data and then wipe the drive and start recovery again.