So I had a machine suffer from hardware failure during the MS XP SP3 installation process.

So I had a machine suffer from hardware failure during the MS XP SP3 installation process. So the machine basically did a hard shutdown while installing. This happened twice and surprisingly the system still restarted into SP2. Now I'm not a complete idiot and just kept restarting the machine, I was actually using the same drive in different hardware. But apparently both boxes had similar hardware issues. Is was not until one reboot that was actually trying to back out of the SP3 install and in the process, suffered another hardware failure and shutdown. Upon reboot, I got the message:

"\System32\Hal.dll missing or corrupt:
Please re-install a copy of the above file."

I used the fix below to remedy the issue and it worked like a charm!

Use the Bootcfg utility in the Recovery Console to correct the Boot.ini file:

1.	Use the Windows XP CD-ROM to start your computer.
2.	When you receive the message to press R to repair Windows by using the Recovery Console, press the R key.
3.	Select the Windows installation that you want, and then type the administrator password when prompted.
4.	Type bootcfg /rebuild, and then press ENTER.
5.	When the Windows installation is located, the following instructions are displayed: Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All) [Type Y in response to this message.] Enter Load Identifier: [This is the name of the operating system. Type Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition.] Enter OS Load options: [Leave this field blank, and then press ENTER]. After you perform the preceding steps, restart the computer, and then select the first item on the boot menu. This should allow Windows XP to start normally. After Windows XP has successfully loaded, the Boot.ini can be modified to remove the incorrect entry.

For more information about how to edit the Boot.ini file, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

This fix was one of 4 possible methods to repair the issue, the others are described at the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477