Hal.dll error

[dj_411]

Ok lets try to describe what I've done so far and what I am trying to accomplish. First I just installed windows 7 ultimate two days ago on a new clean hard drive. I was able to locate various driver to make my msi 661fm3-v motherboard work however one of the drivers I believe the chipset update driver seems to have caused my windows 7 to stop loading. missing boot disk error. I installed the windows 7 cd and ran startup repair and it seems to have fixed my original error but now it says missing hal.dll wtf. I search the net and found a site that said to make sure that my main drive(only harddrive) was set to active I checked and found it wasnt so I set it to active but that didnt change anything so I keep researching and found a site that says to bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot and bootrec/rebuildbcd which doesnt identify any operating systems [0] then another site said to export my bcd and change attrib on bcd then ren it then bootrec rebuildbcp this finds [1] operating system now but doesnt seem to change my startup issue, so another site said to bootsect /nt60 sec incase I had an older harddrive set for xp (didnt change anything) Lastly I found a site that said to down load windows diagnostic repair 32 bit which I did but it seems to be the same as the repair console on my windows 7 install cd ( I did try running the repair option just incase - Didnt find any problems)
Help!!!
Oh one more thing the guy that said to set the drive active then said I needed to xcopy bootmgr and bootmgr.efi from my install disk to my c: drive I only copied the bootmgr cause my cd not the new repair disk seems to come with any file named bootmgr.efi I changed my setting to show all hidden files just incase it was hiding but its not there?

just an additional note. I can turn my computer on with the windows 7 install cd in the cd rom drive its says load from cd press any button I ignore that and it just loads windows 7 normally with no errors and I can use the computer fine until I restart it again with out the disk in the drive. Then same old same old.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/hal/19411/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvMkt9fkHCI

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi there,

There are a couple of issues to address. Did you possibly have a second HDD attached to your computer when you installed Win-7? If so it may have placed the 'boot' partition (the the MS 100 MB reserved partition) there instead of on this new drive. You can check that out when you boot up thru the DVD, by going to Disk Management and seeing if there is the MS Reserved Partition in front of the Primary Partition. It should be listed as "boot and system". Also while booted, look in the system32 folder and see if the HAL.dll file is there or not. That would answer the second issue of whether it is present or the boot process can't start the Kernal Phase of startup to find it.

When you have to make multiple installation changes at the onset and still have trouble, probably better to go back and reinstall the OS anew with only the HDD and DVD connected to get a good clean install

 

[dj_411]

First, Thanks for the replies.
I tried to download and repair with that registry scan for hal.dll issues however the free version says it will only repair 15 error and apparently my install has 40(now 25 =) ) so it may have been able to fix it but I am hoping for a free solution.

As to worthier or not I had another drive when installing, no I only had one drive at that point. I do have a second drive but have yet to connect it since I was hoping to avoid any conflicts until after I knew the initial set was successful. As to worthier or not I see a second "boot" partition no I do not see this, how do I set one up any idea why it would be missing? Please advise Thank,
DeeJae

 

[John_VanKirk]

Hi DeeJae,

When you have a bunch of errors to start out, much better to regroup and strongly consider reinstalling.

The one problem that seems to be popping up with clean installation on the newer boards, is that the primary system HDD gets placed on a secondary controller on the MB and the system can't find the HDD because the MB secondary chipset drivers haven't been installed yet. And it's pretty hard to install them when you don't have the Windows structure windows\system32\driver store to install them into. So it is much safer to place the single HDD on a PCH SATA port, and after every thing works fine, move or add a HDD to the secondary controllers.

With a clean install, you need to choose Custom (Advanced) and where it shows the disk choices to install Win-7, there should be only 'Unallocated' space (not formatted). When you choose the Unallocated space, you can next step Partition the HDD if you want a second partition or unallocated space at the end.

When done this way, Win-7 places a hidden 100MB (ESP) partition first on the disk, where the boot manager, boot menu, bitlocker data (if used or chosen later) is located, and marks it the 'boot partition, system partition' which is used immediately after the BIOS phase completes. With a clean install, if you have a second HDD connected initially, frequently Win-7 places the boot partition and system partitions on the secondary HDD, which is dumb, and if you ever remove the second HDD, the system won't boot!

In your situation where there is a ton of data on the HDD, with a 'clean install' you would choose to 'Delete' all the partitions just after clicking on Custom (Advanced). Then choose the unallocated space to continue, or possibly restarting the installation again so the installationi process sees only a clean HDD with no formatting at all on it. If there is formatting on the HDD, or partitions already there, the Win-7 installation places the MBR and partition table and boot menu differently.

There are several U-Tube videos online that demo this clean installation process.

 

[dj_411]

Funny you should push for a clean install I had just gotten feed up and did that right before checking back here and seeing your reply a moment ago. Here is what I did
custom install not upgrade
I see two partitions yes one is the 100 mb you mentioned. I didnt know what it was at the time I was reinstalling so I just left it alone. The other was my old c drive which I verified by the drives size. Selecting this drive I went to advanced and formatted it followed immediately after thinking it over by deleting it all together. Back on the original screen it then said unallocated space and showed my 500 gig (480ish actual space) I selected it by clicking it once then clicked next. I followed all windows prompts nothing out of the ordinary and now I just rebooted for the first time. This time removing the Windows 7 dvd immediately so as to not confuse myself again into believing all was well. Good thing I remembered to remove it this time cause sure as anything with out it in the drive my comp went straight to disk boot failure insert system disk and press enter I restarted it with the disk back in the drive and as earlier it boots into windows 7 without issue.
I am now thinking after reading your post that maybe what ever files windows places on the that extra partition or perhaps the actual partition itself is damaged so I am going to try reinstalling one more time but this time I am going to delete both partitions. I assume this will force windows to recreate the extra partition and reinstall what ever files that go with it. Ill post back in about 20 mins when this completes to let you know if this changed anything in the mean while if you have any other ideas please let me know and I will try those as well.
Thanks,
DeeJae

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

You should always delete that 100 mb storage partition if you are doing a clean install, because with win 7 pro and ultimate it will create it again while you are doing your new clean install.If left in place , sometimes it will screw up your boot!


Welcome to the Forum !

 

[dj_411]

Thanks yes I deleted both storage partitions this time and the actual drive partitions so it showed only unallocated space. The install is going right now I will post back shortly if this resolved the issue. Thanks
DeeJae

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

It should be fine !

 

[dj_411]

Ok two points of note. First I was starting to think my install disk might be damaged in some way and I had been meaning to run boot camp on my mac laptop to dual boot into windows so I installed it on my mac and it installed just fine. Second the install on the pc just finished and rebooted to the same error DISK BOOT FAILURE. INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. I am now thinking back to my original process of installing driver for win7 on my initial install. If I remember correctly and I think I mentioned this error I was thinking that this issue started when I installed the drivers from msi for my chipset. The site says the board is win7 compatible but it didnt list any Win 7 drivers so I search around and found several sites that stated to use the Vista drivers and all would be fine. Could one of those Vista driver have change the way my mb identifies boot drives?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Is your bios up to date ?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Is it set to boot from hard drive in the bios !

 

[dj_411]

yes

 

[dj_411]

ok guys thank you all for your help I have solved the problem ok fine Ive resolved the issue. Since I dont truely know what the problem is I cant really say I solved it but here is what I have done and it works so thats all that matters lol.

In the system Bios under boot sequence it looked correct to me it stated
boot 1 Cd Rom
second LS-120
Third IDE1
Check for additional possible boot device = no
I changed this to yes. I have not idea why my harddrive would be considered an additional boot device and not the ide drive that it is but guess thats a question for another day since I am now installing all my drivers and hopefully done with my issues =)
DeeJae


FYI - I have seen on other posts the word SOLVED in the title im not sure how to edit the title so if someone else can please do. Thanks

 

[John_VanKirk]

The important thing is that it is working!

When complete change your Boot order back to HDD, then DVD, then whatever.

When you get finished, check in Disk Management to see under Disk 0 you should have the 2 partitions, the 100MB (boot, system) and your Basic Primary healthy C: partition.

If it looks good, then you are good to connect any additional HDD back on the system.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Your OS hard drive should be first in the boot order !

 

[dj_411]

Yes thank you I have my:
primary boot disk (c on Primary ide Master
DvD RW on Primary ide Slave
LS-120 On Secondary ide Master
soon to have secondary harddrive on Secondary ide Slave

I normally don't like place my primary hard drive and my cd/dvd on the same cable I have had conflicts with that in the past however for as long as I have dealt with LS-120 drives I have never successfully made one a slave. I have no idea why but they either crash the system or just don't appear but I have never succeeded in making one work properly so that why I have the dvd and hard drive together here. Any I think I am fine now, you all been great. Ciao

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Vote for your best answer ! Pick the Forum member that helped you the most !

 

[dj_411]

Best answer selected by dj_411.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Thanks !

Come back soon !

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

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