Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem..

Can anyone help?

I need help! I am new to this but found this discussion through Google. I spent the last two days upgrading to XP pro from XP home, reinstalled everything. Then doing what I was told, I went to Windows website and looked for any updates or patches. They had one that was first on the list, a free Windows doctor of some sort, that would analyze and check for problems. I did it. Upon restart, I got the message Windows Could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. I tried following the instructions in this discussion. I put in the Windows XP upgrade cd, then booted from the CD. It started the install, but it never gets to the repair screen! It says that something is corrupt. I am about to scream, please help.

ok im having the same problem as first posted... one differance... i would have just reinstalled windows... or even repaired it, but when i boot from the disk it doesnt really think that windows is there. i have an option to format... and an option to to keep program files and such... but windows, documents and settings directories are over writen... to me these options are a no go... weird how this can happen so easy... i left my computer for 2 hrs.. came back and it was not a happy OS... microsoft is no help either... emailed them and there all like EHH consult your OEM... i read somewhere on their site that Western Digital hard drives can cause this message... than noticed that i was using a WD HDD... ALSO it was a drive out of an external... jumpers are correct and all but im just throughin ideas out to anyone who might be able to help... thanks guys... just a little topic bump

Solution

Sometimes simplicity is the best option to fix a complex problem. I had the same problem when starting windows. I tried the recovery console and I tried deleting the old boot.INI file and replacing it with a new one. Nothing worked. So I finally flipped and tried a last resort. I opened up my computer, unplugged both the power and data cabled from both my hard drives, plugged them in again exactly the way they were and my problem went away! She booted up like normal. I hope this helps someone.

Still need help?

Hey... do any of you guys still need help with this.... ??

I will check back in a couple hours...

Thank you very much for this post! It solved my issue. I was about ready to cry, then pull my hair out, then reformat.

It helped me so much, I created an account just to post a Thank you!

Tanner

I fixed my boot.ini with a live linux CD

I had windows installed in the the third partition of my hard drive. I removed the second partition of my hard drive and resized the windows partition to fill that space. The next time I tried to boot from windows I received the "computer disk hardware configuration problem" error message that is the topic of this thread.

I found that the even though my windows partition was still listed by FDISK as HDA3 the boot.ini file was looking for the 3rd physical partition on my disk. Windows was now the second physical partition on the disk.


Here is how I fixed it.

I booted from a live Linux CD and mounted my windows partition. I opened my boot.ini file in a text editor as a root user and changed all references to the 3rd partitoin to refer to the 2nd partition. After saving the file and rebooting my problem was solved.

I Linux live CD can be very helpful for fixing a windows system that won't boot.

If you received this error message a result of repartitioning I recommend trying something similar. If you don't have Linux CD you can do the same thing with any boot CD that will read NTFS file systems and includes a basic text editor. I also found the Fdisk program useful for pinpointing the location of the windows partition but if that is not an option with the boot disk you are using, you could use the trial and error method until you get the partition number right. Unless you have a lot of partitions on your disk, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out.

I hope you find this helpful. I would like to thank the people who posted at the start of this thread for recognizing that the boot.ini file would be the problem when you receive this error message. That enabled me to find my solution.

Computer wont boot up!

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from selected boot disk.
Check boot path and disk hardware.

I am seeing this for the first time. I put in my Windows disk and nothing is happening! Please help! I work from home!

Can't find boot disk after installing OS using WDS

Hi,

I tried to installed XP using WDS (Windows Deplyment Services) by booting from the NIC...this then allowed me to choose my image from one of our servers...all seemed ok, manage to delete partitions and create a new one and leave 100MB for the system...somehow this seemed to screw it up!! After I had done this, it was then going through the install process which can take up 30 minutes max...but then errored, saying there was an issue with systems file, hardware....

So I thought i would sack that idea and just create a partition using the XP disk...so I booted from the XP OS disk to then get the following error;

'Windows could not start because a computer disk hardware configuration problem could not be read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.'

I think what's hapened is by deleting two partitions and wiping the original OS Win 7, I have wiped the boot.ini file....but would have thought that using an XP dis to re-install would have been ok???

I am using a new Dell E4300....

Any advise would be great...thanks T