The best way of avoiding this hal.dll error is to correctly install XP in the first place! So through a culmination of a few guides found online, sources from this forum, and a bit of my own knowledge, i have created the guide below that correctly and 100% successfully installs win XP onto both the aspire ones i own, without hiccups.
I'll also provide this guide in a PDF format for you to download and keep![Link now fixed! 20.08.10]
http://boringstories.co.uk/xpusb/How%20 ... %20Key.pdf
First up, we need to prepare the flash drive.
(the following steps need to be performed on a 32bit operating system)
1. Download and unzip this file, which should contain 2 folders: 1 titled Bootsect, and the other USB_prep8.Best place to unzip is to your desktop!
2. Navigate to the USB_prep8 folder and click on usb_prep8.cmd. This will bring up a Windows console window.
3. Press any key to continue and a PeToUSB window will open.
4. Make sure your flash drive is selected, and click start to format your flash drive.
5. When the format is complete, click OK, but do not close the PeToUSB window or the Windows Console.
6. Open a new console window by clicking on Start>run, and typing “cmd” into the run box.
7. Find your Bootsect folder (if you’re not used to DOS commands, you can type “dir” to list directories and files, type “cd foldername” to navigate to a folder name - called foldername in this example, and if there’s a long folder name you can save time by typing the “cd” and just the first few letters and then hitting the Tab key to fill in the rest of the name).To expand upon, the command prompt window will start at 'D:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]' type 'cd Desktop' [ENTER] and then 'cd flash' [TAB] this will auto complete the name and direct you to the flash prep 8 folder. Finally type 'cd bootsect' and you're in the bootsect folder.
8. Once you’re in the Bootsect folder, type “bootsect.exe /nt52 g:” if “g” is the letter assigned to your flash drive. If it’s E, then change the letter to e. If it’s Z, make it z. Get it?
9. When this is done, you should see a message letting you know that the bootcode was updated, and you can close this console window (but not the other console window).
10. Close the PeToUSb Window, but make sure not to close the remaining console window yet
11. You should now see a list of 8 options in the console.
12. Select one and find the drive with your Windows installation disc.
13. Select 2 and pick a random drive letter (but not one that’s already on your PC, since this will be a virtual drive used for copying your files).
14. Select 3 and enter the drive letter for your USB flash drive.
15. Select 4 and follow the rest of the on-screen directions and you should be all set.
The process should take about 15-20 minutes. When it’s done, you should have a bootable USB stick that you can use to install Windows XP the same way you would if you had a CD/DVD drive.
If you use NLite to shrink/slipstream/otherwise modify your Windows XP installation file, make sure you do not remove “manual installation files,” or your USB stick will be pretty much useless.
To install onto the acer:
Note:Before installation it is recommended that you turn of D2D Recovery in the bios. To do this turn on the acer and press f2 untill the bios loads, navigate to the correct part to set D2D recovery to DISABLED. Exit and save. Now you can install
1. Insert usb key, boot up the acer and press f12 to open the boot menu. Choose the USB key and select TEXT installation. Windows will load up the installer, remember to delete all the partitions on the main install drive ( this should be drive D:/). Press enter on this new big drive (should be 111gb).
2. The computer will install/ copy all the required files across and then reboot. You MUST AGAIN press f12 and boot from the usb key, this time selecting GUI installer. This will finish the installation and boot into windows.
3. YOU’RE Almost THERE!
4. BEFORE you reboot, you MUST edit the boot.ini file. To do this, open up my computer, and type in the navigation box ‘D:/boot.ini’. This will open a text file of the boot.ini file. You need to edit it so it looks like the example below:
[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
Note: The only two changes that you should have to make is changing the number following the rdisk from 1 to 0.
5. Now remove your usb stick, reboot, and pray that it loads up win xp. (It’s worked fine for me now on every occasion so the praying bit isn’t necessary!)
Don't forget, now you have to install all the drivers! Available from the Acer website: http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/no ... e_150.html
Hope this proves helpful for new users!
Also if anyone has any ideas on how to improve upon i will gladly add them to the PDF files and this guide.
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