EEK! I was the last one to use my cousins computer and its now messed up and I don't want to be blamed :( Please help! The laptop boots up and then says

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll.
Please re-install a copy of the above file."

When hitting any keys the computer just reboots again and it doesn't show any other options. Please help!
Thank you,
-Lucas

Ugh scratch that my cousin never made a recovery disk.. what do i do? :(

Great thanks that will solve the problem but now i gotta solve the problem of not having a recovery disk :(((

It's unlikely to be anything you've done unless you've got the Explorer settings such that all system and hidden files are visible AND you screwed up on that particular file.

There's not much you can do now without the Windows XP disk.

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