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

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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
 
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