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If you go into the BIOS are you able to see the HDD's?<br />
Are the HDD's on a RAID controller card?<br />
If they in a RAID setup can you confirm if the RAID is healthy?
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The fact that a newer server cd sees the drives probably means your hardware is just newer than the 2008 cd's setup driver set...<br />
You will either have to try and inject drivers into an install cd, or maybe your hardware came with a setup cd that you run first and it injects the needed drivers...
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If you can get to the c: drive ,try running a chkdsk on it and see if there's any corruption.<br />
<br />
If not ,here's a how to to rebuild the boot loader:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln167714/windows-server-how-to-repair-the-boot-files-in-windows-server-2008-or-2008-r2-if-the-server-wont-boot?lang=en" rel="ugc">https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/sln167714/windows-server-how-to-repair-the-boot-files-in-windows-server-2008-or-2008-r2-if-the-server-wont-boot?lang=en</a>
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Hi Noxcho. &nbsp;I think you were right regarding the boot drive. &nbsp;However, I wasn't happy with the 4 disk setup as RAID 5 with two partitions for C and D. &nbsp;So all things being equal it was a better long term solution to upgrade the OS from 2008 standard and SQL Server 2005 and buy 2 extra drives and have a RAID 1 for OS and RAID 5 for the database and replicate from the DR server. &nbsp;Sometimes its easier to get back to basics and rebuild to a known standard and config.
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I have a Server2008 standard that wont boot into Windows. &nbsp;It says hal.dll is missing, however, i think the issue is bigger than that. &nbsp;When I insert the 2008 standard cd and run repair it says it cant find any disks, same if i go to command prompt and use diskpart list disk or list volume.<br />
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If I put a 2008 R2 disk in and run the install it sees the C drive that has two partitions on it. &nbsp;So the disk are there, the data is still there.<br />
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I tried to reinstall the drivers, but they couldnt be found either on the install media or the installed os on the server.<br />
<br />
Ant ideas?
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I have a Server2008 standard that wont boot into Windows.  It says hal.dll is missing, however, i think the issue is bigger than that.  When I insert the 2008 standard cd and run repair it says it cant find any disks, same if i go to command prompt and use diskpart list disk or list volume.

If I put a 2008 R2 disk in and run the install it sees the C drive that has two partitions on it.  So the disk are there, the data is still there.

I tried to reinstall the drivers, but they couldnt be found either on the install media or the installed os on the server.

Ant ideas?

Sever 2008 Standard wont boot - missing hal.dll

Installation is the act of making a computer program program ready for execution. Because the process varies programs often come with a specialized program responsible for doing whatever is needed for their installation. Installation may be part of a larger software deployment process. Cross platform installer builders that produce installers for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux include InstallAnywhere, InstallBuilder and Install4J. Installers for Microsoft Windows include Windows Installer, InstallShield, and Wise Installation Studio; free installer-authoring tools include NSIS, IzPack, Clickteam, InnoSetup, InstallSimple and WiX. Mac OS X includes Installer, and also includes a separate software updating application.

Installation

This topic area includes legacy versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000: Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions including Windows Mobile.

Windows OS

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2, based on the Microsoft Vista codebase, is the last 32-bit server operating system released by Microsoft. It has a number of versions, including including Foundation, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web, HPC Server, Itanium and Storage; new features included server core installation and Hyper-V.