laptop problem - please help?

[bill of oz]

i have a compaq laptop with xp on it....when i try to boot it comes up with this....

windows can not boot because the following file is missing or corrupt
<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
replace or re-load this file

i have booted the computer using an xp install cd, and when i push F3 to try and repair it says there is no hard drive detected on my computer and setup can not continue....

i then tried booting using a dos startup cd and it will start up to the a: prompt.....when i type in C: it says invalid drive spec.....

next thing i tried doing was booting with a windows 98 startup cd....when it got to the a: i typed in C: and it went to the c drive this time.....but when i type in "dir" to see the drive contents it only lists ONE directory called "recover" even though i have LOTS of other things on this drive it doesnt list them or show them.....

i ran scandisk and it scanned the drive and also did a surface scan and came back without any errors or bad sectors.....any ideas as to what i can try next? im lost now....

 

[The_Other_One]

You've got the right idea by doing a repair. It sounds like your laptop's probably running SATA thus requires SATA drivers. There should be a driver set made for your laptop available from the manufacture. Either load windows and install the drivers when prompted (first thing, press F6 during setup process) or slipstream yourself a new copy of windows with your drivers loaded.

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/How-To--Slipstream-your-XP-installation