WIN XP <Windows Root>system32\hal.dll ?

Pentium 4, 512mb RAM. New Partition and NTSF format. Windows XP clean install. Everything seemed to work fine until first reboot. On reboot I got the error message: system 32\hal.dll. Missing or corrupt.
I’ve done many XP installs and upgrades and have not experienced this before. A search for the file on another XP machine produced nothing.
Any and all help appreciated….
Thanks….Arnie

aszunick@yahoo.com