hal.dll missing or corrupt

[mattd017]

My computer, a Dell Inspiron B130 running Windows XP SP2, shut down cold and when I attempted to start it back up, it said the file "hal.dll" was missing or corrupt, and I needed to reinstall it. Unfortunately, Dell no longer gives you an XP recovery disc, so I have nothing to recover it from. I cannot get it to boot at all, safe mode or not. I can get to the boot menu and setup. Is there another option, such as a program I can download and burn to a cd that will help? I have a second laptop, a Sony Vaio. Or is there maybe a way I can slave the old laptop off and access it's hard drive without installing a program on the corrupted machine? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.