To quote you "If the drive has never had XP in the primary partition, Windows 2000 setup works fine. If it has had XP in the primary partition, I get the error, even if that primary partition has been re-formatted .... even if the entire disk has been zeroed!"
You're right there. if you try to reinstall a lower version of XP(win2000 and NT) on a partion which already had XP you wont be able to install that lower version(win2000 or NT). Promise FastTrak Serial ATA RAID Controller 'mirrors' one drive onto the other but you can disable this card's property in BIOS.
When your Operating System no longer boots after creating a Security (RAID 1) Array using your existing boot drive;
This condition is due to hard drive geometry issues. To verify this condition, move the original hard drive back to the motherboard controller and see whether it boots successfully.
Each controller views a hard drive differently. This can be an issue for a new controller that loads the original Master Boot Record (MBR) and then has a problem translating it or the Operating System boot record.
To correct this situation, Promise Technology recommends a clean installation of the Operating System. This action restores the MBR and OS boot record. This action will require you to repartition and format the hard drive.
about
Hal.dll (i have previously posted this under Missing Hal.dll)
HAL is Microsoft's abbreviation for the Hardware Abstraction Layer, the technology and drivers that let the Windows NT, 2000, and XP operating systems communicate with your PC's hardware. HAL is one of several features--along with the NT file system (NTFS) that replaced the much less secure MS-DOS--that make NT-based operating systems more secure and reliable than Windows 95, 98, and Me.
Option 1:
Boot from your CD and follow the directions to start Recovery Console. Then:
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot
Option 2:
Boot from your CD and follow the directions below to start Recovery Console.
Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R.
If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
When prompted, type the Administrator password. (if you didn't create one try pressing enter).
At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.
Most likely you will need to expand the file from the CD. The command would be expand d:\i386\hal.dl_ c:\windows\system32\hal.dll. Substitute d: for the drive letter of your CD. Once you have expanded the file type "exit" to exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
It seems likely to be a boot and/or configuration problem your having as most of the related information deals with it -
- Good Luck Sir!