How to fix HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED error in Windows 8 installation?
In this post, you can find my Windows 8 32-bit and 63-bit installation experience and the problems I encountered during the installation including the HAL_INITIALIZATION__FAILED error. Both Windows Virtual PC and VMWare Player showed the same error for 32-bit installations, but the error messages were different for 64-bit Windows 8 installation.
This article talks about the errors I got during Windows 8 installation and my failed attempts to install Windows 8. if you like to know how I successfully installed Windows 8 developer preview, read step by step instructions to install Windows 8.Windows 8 32-bit installation error: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
Few hours back, I wrote my Windows 8 64-bit installation experience on a Windows Virtual PC. I could not complete the installation because the installer incorrectly reported that I do no thave a 64-bit processor. Since I could not figure out how to make Windows 8 know that my PC is a 64-bit PC, I switched to 32-bit Windows 8.
I created a new virtual PC using the Windows virtual PC and mounted the ISO image of 32-bit Windows 8 developer preview build. I started the installation hoping I will not be get in to the same problems that I faced with 64-bit Windows 8. I was right, obviously, the 64-bit incompatibility error did not happen. But another annoying error came up that says:
Your PC ran in to a problem that it couldn't handle,and now it needs to restart.
You can search for the error online: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
Here is a nice blue screen with the error:
Well, I don't have a problem in restarting if that resolved the problem. But unfortunately, a restart did not make a difference.
My next thought was, it may be the Windows Virtual PC that is causing issues with Windows 8. So, I thought of trying VMWare Virtual Player instead of Microsoft Virtual PC. I downloaded and installed VMWare Player, but it gave me the exact same error for the 32 bit Windows 8 installer.Installing Windows 8 64-bit on VMWare Player
My next attempt was to install Windows 8 64-bit on the VMWare Player. Unfortunately, that attempt also failed with the following error:
Windows failed to load because a required file is missing, or corrupt.
Here is a screen shot of the Windows 8 installation error I got with VMWare Player:
Okay, I think I need to sit, relax and figure out what exactly is wrong. I will come back and update what went wrong and how I resolved the error.
Okay, I've tried to install the Windows Developer Preview in the Virtual Machines, and here's the result.
Windows Virtual PC: Fail(HAL_INITIALZATION_FAILED):Hard disk failure
VMWare softwares:all fine
VirtualBox: Fine for a few times, but then a a critical error.
On that reason, please use VMWare Workstation 8!