Reloading OS problem, error 0x80070017

The niece brought her Acer Aspire 3680-2682 laptop to me it would not boot to windows, after POST getting an error message:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file

but before that, when I power on the unit, it says:
Please select the OS to start:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Strange thing with the above is that this is supposed to be a Vista unit so why are those OS showing up? Anyway when I try to reload the OS, I am getting this error:

Installation was cancelled
Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070017


To sum up, I think this laptop orignally came with vista they they tried to downgrade to XP for some reason hence the problems mentioned above?
Help?

 

I reinstalled XP and it works fine but when I attempt to reload the vista home basic which originally came with this laptop, I am getting the same error;

Installation was cancelled
Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070017

 

There is a thread on how to do a clean installation and oem activation on Acer System in this section.
Go read about it.

 

How are you trying to reload Vista? using eRecovery or a Windows Vista DVD?

 

I reinstalled XP and it works fine but when I attempt to reload Vista, I am getting the same message

My research on the net before posting here suggested that

but this is a brand new stored bought DVD retail version so I can't figure out why this would be the case? Also, other searches mentioned that since this system came originally with Vista that there has to be the vista OS somewhere on the laptop and it can be reloaded from there?

 

Before you installed XP did you try using the Acer recovery console when you start the machine up, this can be entered by pressing ALT + F10 when the computer starts up.

Give this a try, but I reckon it won't work as another OS has been installed, which may have wiped files to enable this.

Do you know if the original recovery partition is still in tact. Can you go into disk management in XP and see what partitions are on the machine. This way you may get an idea of whats on there.

 

No, alt+f10 doesn't do anything, xp disk management only shows the C partition

 

Basically looks like everything the laptop came with has been wiped, researching the error code you have looks as if the DVD is damaged in some way, most people who report this error have downloaded Vista and had burning errors.

One suggestion that I have, is to try and make an ISO of the Vista DVD that you have, then try to re-burn it to a DVD, or make a bootable USB stick.

 

So what does this mean please, that the brand new sealed DVD is damaged or is something on the laptop which can't read it properly?

 

It could be one of the above or a combination of the 2, but it maybe that if you put it in another machine it may work.

Have you had the DVD long, you could take it back to the shop, or try and do as I said above and recreate the DVD.

 

My neice lives in Ohio and I am in NY so I don't know how long she has purchase this dvd and if can be exchanged, will ask but I will try your other options, will search the net for instructions, get back to you, thanks.

 

Give us a shout if you need any more help.

 

HAL issues are related to XP not to Vista / 7 . Sounds like you wanna do a Dban on the drive b4 reloading the os (assuming you deleted the recovery partition already)

 

what's a "dban" please?

 

Dban = A way to completely eradicate all traces of data having ever existed on a hard drive. Basically super low-level format.


10 char

 

Thanks for the explanation but I don't understand how that would help if the problem is the reading of the vista disk?

 

When I down graded to XP on my 5515 I had to change the SATA to get the down grade to go. That could be why you can not get Vista to go in now.

 

Is there a way to reverse this?