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Boot problem: If I add an SATA hard disk drive to my PC/Computer using an IDE hard drive, it won't boot. It gives error message "hal.dll is corrupted"

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Problem

I have Windows XP Professional installed on an IDE hard disk drive. Everything works fine, but if I connect an SATA hard drive to the PC, it won't boot. It gives this error message: "hal.dll is corrupted" - I have tried reinstalling Windows with no luck. The same thing happens with or without Service Pack 3 (SP3) installed. - Strangely enough, the PC boots from a CD if the BIOS is set to use the CD/DVD drive as the first boot device and the Windows XP installation CD is in the drive at startup.

Answer

The first action to take is to enter the BIOS setup program. If necessary, click here! to go to information on the BIOS on this site.

The SATA and RAID settings are usually in the section of the BIOS called Integrated Peripherals. Here are the settings in the Phoenix Award BIOS of an MSI K8N SLI Platinum motherboard:

OnBoard Sil3132 RAID - This setting controls the onboard Sil3132 RAID chip. Setting options: [Enabled], [Disabled].

OnBoard Sil3132 Mode - This setting allows you to select the Onboard Sil3132 mode. Setting options: [SATA], [RAID].

SATA1/SATA2 & SATA3/SATA4 - This item is used to enable or disable onchip SATA controller. The settings are: [Enabled], [Disabled].

nVidiaRAID Config - Press to enter the sub-menu and the following items appear:

RAID Enabled - This item is used to enable/disable the onchip RAID function. When you set to enable and the following fields will be selectabled. Setting options: [Enabled], [Disabled].

IDE Primary/ Secondary Master/Slave RAID - This feature allows users to enable or disable the RAID function for each IDE hard disk drive. Settings: [Enabled], [Disabled].

SATA1/ SATA2/ SATA3/ SATA4 RAID - This feature allows users to enable or disable the RAID function for each onchip SATA hard disk drive. The settings are: [Enabled], [Disabled].

You only have one SATA hard disk drive, which can't use RAID because a RAID configuration only works to make two or more drives function together in one of several different schemes, such as one drive mirroring the contents of another, etc.

Click here! to go to information on RAID on this site.

Therefore, check to make sure that the SATA options are enabled and that the RAID options are disabled. If you had two or more IDE hard disk drives that you want to use in a RAID configuration, you would enable the IDE RAID options.

The PC would boot if the BIOS is set to boot from the CD/DVD drive first and the Windows XP installation CD is in the drive, because the hard drives are not in the picture as boot devices.