Attached Link: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm

First, remove your wife's hard disk before you do anything else. A virus is possible, but highly unlikely. What probably caused you grief was an incorrect BOOT.INI file, not the HAL.DLL file. Editing BOOT.INI files is a bit esoteric, but I've attached a link to an informitive page. Before you formatted your hard drve, did you delete all partitions and recreate them? If you did have a MBR virus this would get rid of it. Please don't be offended, but I think formatting your hard drive could have been a bit premature.