Windows 7: wierd missing hal.dll problem

Hello,

I run a dual boot of Windows 7 ultimate and xp, each on a seperate physical hard drive. I had the bootmanager conigured properly and never had any issues for months, until just recently. When I try to boot to xp, i get the <windows root>\system 32\hal.dll is missing or corrupt error. I tried to fix it, but couldnt figure it out so i reinstalled a fresh copy of xp. this worked well for a week, and then just now when I tried to boot to xp I got that message again.

I am currently checking the physical hard drive for flaws. I have had no software changes and few updates of late that I could possibly pin the problem on.

Any thoughts as to what might be happening? My first thought is that there is something in windows 7 that is deleting that file. or else it might be the physical drive that xp is instaled on.

Thanks,
Page Russell

Since you have separate hard drives, I would recommend that you eliminate the boot manager and make each OS totally discreet, by installing each while the drive for the other OS is disconnected. This would mean setting your preferred OS as first in boot priority, and accessing the other using the BBC Popup Menu by entering the key shown on the first screen of the BIOS (F1, F8, ESC,). Of course, since you are still able to boot to Windows 7, you could leave it as it is.