[pandahead]

Those of you who were in Hardware recently will have seen me asking for help with my damaged PSU. My new unit has finally arrived, and after some hilarity with 'where the hell is the 12vP4 connector?!' installed.

I never thought I'd be happy to hear the system-boot beep.

However, now that the computer is turned on, I'm getting an error message as follows;

'Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.'

I have two problems with this: 1) My copy of windows happens to be slightly over 100 miles away. 2) I have issues with the word 'hal' and computers. The second isn't really a problem in this case, but I'm scared of it. Is there any way to fix this missing file without a 3 hour journey to and from home?

[EDIT] Hold off on the suggestions. It appears the computer isn't recognising my primary SATA hard drive on the system, which is possibly why it. I'll get back to you if fixing that issue doesn't help.

[EDIT 2] Mods, feel free to delete this thread. I'd managed to knock the cable loose as I installed the new PSU... You may ban me for sheer stupidity if you wish, I accept the punishment.

[Hybr!d]

He he, no problems, happens to us all.

[thingie2]

That's happened a few times with me, had the side off the case for various reasons, with a loose HDD on the base of the case, and accidently kicked the HDD knocking the wires out, luckily it was only the secondary drive, but maybe that was worse, because I was wondering why my computer couldn't see the drive when I looked for it, and thought it died. But if it was my primary drive, I would have noticed the computer die as I kicked it.

Anyways, back to you, glad it was something that simple, trust me, it is a real pain when a HDD dies on you (I've had 2 randomly go kuput)