Solutions to the "Disk Error" and "hal.dll missing" problems during the installation of Windows XP on Mac

I came across a problem when helping a friend to install the XP SP3 on her Mac Air through Boot Camp 2.0.

After partitioning the hard disk using Bootcamp, the Air restarts and the Windows is normally installed until the partition choosing screen.

If I choose to install the Windows on the partition previously created by boot camp and remain the format unchanged, "Disk error" information appears after my next restart (before the normal "windows xp" shown on the screen).

However, if I choose to delete the partition then rebuild and format it (no matter by NTFS or FAT32) afterwards, “hal.dll missing or corrupt” message appears after restarting the Air.

The "Disk error" problem is because the Boot Camp 2.0 merely segments the partition but does not create it in the Windows format. Thereby we need to format that partition again during the installation of the Windows.

However, since there is an unpartitioned space of 128MB after boot camp creates the mass partition in which you expect to install the Windows, if you delete the partition, it will be merged with the 128MB space and the two parts will be formated together. It creates the hal.dll problem because the 128MB unpartitioned space must not be touched during the installation.

Consequently, the way to solve the problem is:

1. Create the Windows partition using Boot Camp in Mac OS conventionally and restart the computer.
2. (Very Important) Press F10 after the drivers of Windows are loaded (a black screen will show up very shortly between the blue screens, press F10 when it shows up!!).
3. The Recovery Console will hence start up. Type C:\>format c: /Q /FS:FAT32 , remind that the spaces before and after /Q must not be eliminated. If your root directory is not C:\ then change it to your root directory. And if you want NTFS, just use NTFS instead of FAT32.
4. Press Enter and restart your computer. Then just follow the normal procedures to install the Windows and you will Succeed! (do not need to format the partition again in the later installation)

Hope your new operating system works well!