Marilyn Leathers' writes (clipped)

<<<< I'm thinking abou taking the hard drive out of the freinds computer and
putting in my computer as a slave and fix the problem of the missing file>>>

Hi,

there are many "types" of hal (hardware abstraction layers) files depending on the hardware of the system in which xp is installed and they are not compatible with each other.

though you may have perused the relevant microsoft KB article during the course of your research, nevertheless I am giving below the URL just in case....

  http://tinyurl.com/hl2hk



so if you are thinking in terms of copying the file from your system and transferring to your friends relevent WIN folder in her HDD after slaving it in your system pl. make sure they are compatible.

the best solution seems to be to boot your friends system from the original win xp media centre cd and correct the "boot.ini" file but you seem to have only the recovery cd. my own experience with some recovery cds is that they do not ALWAYS do the job they are supposed to.( i have a very old hp pavillion notebook labelled "designed for win 98" but the recovery cd has win 95!!!)

 just my 2 cents worth and hopefully you will get more specific advise from other list members.

good luck--- Venkat

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