Did not properly generate ARC name for HAL and system paths
I'm posting this solution here for others to find. I had cloned an XP SP3 250gb SATA drive using Acronis v12. The resulting disk would fail to boot in the target PC giving the following error:
"Windows could not start because of the following problem:
"Did not properly generate ARC name for HAL and system paths. Please
check the windows documentation about ARC configuration options and your
hardware reference manuals for additional information".
The source disk would boot in either the source or target PC. The cloned disk would give the above message in both the source and target PC. Both PC's only had one hd.
Googling on "ARC configuration" gives a lot of information but nothing that pointed to a solution. Basically, the information all indicated some sort of drive signature mismatch. My reading of the significance of the ARC configuration did not lead me to believe that the signature(xxxx) was necessary for my SATA controller.
The solution for me was to boot from the source disk and have the cloned disk attached to a different SATA port on the controller. After identifying in Disk Manager what drive letter was assigned to my cloned drive, I went into Windows Explorer-->Tools-->Folder Options-->View and unchecked "Hide Protected Operating System Files." Then I used notepad to edit the boot.ini file in the root of the cloned volume. The "signature(xxxxxx)" text appeared in two places. I replaced it with "multi(0)" and the cloned drive booted just fine.
Make sure you understand what you're doing before you edit your boot.ini file. And then remember to re-check "Hide Protected Operating System Files."
In general cloning is done best from the recovery CD.
For certain laptops, it is better to take the original disk out in some external enclosure, put the new disk in place then clone.