I have a hp pavilion 6330 desktop amd processor p3. It had windows 98 on it. I erased the hard drive and formatted it. I'm trying to load windows xp pro ,it loads xp until it gets to loading the files.then I get an error message saying FILR\I386\HAL.DLL could not be located ERROR CODE,256. Thanks for your help

How far into the install does it get? (IE: how many reboots - still in the blue and white text, or further along?)

Check your bios - make sure that the hard drive you're trying to install to is the first boot device after the floppies and cdroms.

What steps did you do to start the installation?

Try and follow steps below and use the format option durning the install process

How to Format Drive and Install Windows from Scratch
Geek to Live: How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch - Feature - Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/software/windows/geek-to-live-how-to-format-your-hard-drive-and-install-windows-xp-from-scratch-157578.php)

Do you have a full, licensed version of XP or an upgrade version?