Bigtime windows install issues: Need help

I could have sworn I already posted in this thread.

Anyhow, if I remember correctly, the hal.dll file is the Hardware Abstraction Layer, which is responsible for hiding various hardware particularities from everything else in the OS, including the kernel itself. This essentially means that it gets loaded before everything else, so it's possible that other files are also corrupted but Windows just doesn't get to loading them. I suppose you could try downloading a copy of the hal.dll file since it probably doesn't change too often, but do make sure to get the right version. At such a low level, it wouldn't be surprising if even the slightest difference, even if it's only a longer string of text, could cause things to break. If it works, then good for you. If it works, only to halt when trying the next file because it's corrupt too, then it's likely that your install media isn't good, or that the data gets corrupted somewhere during the copy to the HD, or on the HD itself.

You could try a bootable linux CD, if it runs then your hardware, with perhaps the exception of the HD, is ok. I'd recommend Ubuntu, since I think there's an option to verify data integrity before actually loading the OS, so that could help you detect trouble with whatever drive you used to burn your CD.

If it doesn't work after getting a new hal.dll file, then try the linux livecd anyway. If anything it'll help you narrow down source of the problem.

EDIT: Yep, just checked with my Ubuntu CD, there's an option to verify its integrity. Also, it possible to make a memory test, so that might be useful, in case there's a defect in a memory location that doesn't get used by the Windows install to store instructions but does get used to store data when it gets copied, so it doesn't affect the install process per se but still corrupts your files.

Jam it back in, in the dark.