Hi all, Last night my brother was playing Rome: Total War on the computer, when all of a sudden it froze up. So, after I tried Ctrl + Alt + Delete and everything else I could think of, I just pressed the reset button on the front of the case. The computer went through the POST without any problems, but then the error Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check your boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information. As far as I'm aware I haven't changed any settings that alter the way that Windows boots. All the necessary files are backed up, so a re-installation is an option, but I'd rather not. Is it also possible that because of the amount of time XP has been installed on that computer, that it's finally "just stopped working". It's had many hardware changes over the time it's been installed... graphics cards added and removed, motherboard changed etc. It seems unlikely, but It's just a thought. Any idea what to do? Thanks, Thomas
This looks like some kind of harddrive corruption. You should look for a program that can create a bootable cd with harddisk checking utilities. You can find one of these programs here.
what did the error message say, exacty please ?[ot]can you enter the recovery console ? or safe mode ?[/ot]
Sorry for the long reply. The error message was: Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check your boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information. However, me being me, I just installed XP on a different hard drive, backed everything up and foramtted the main drive. Now my XP disc has decided to stop working, even though it was working ealier! So, I've had to install Mandrive Linux, which is working quite well, for the time being. I've found someone who has done me a copy of XP, so I'll be able to re-install soon. Seems like a bit of a waste of time posting on here in the first place, cos I didn't listen to your advice :O Sorry! Thanks anyway, Thomas
so you've formatted the HDD that XP was on ? try connecting the HDD that XP was on is the HDD detected correctly by the BIOS, if yes then boot from a 98 bootdisk (from Bootdisk.Com, unless you have one) boot from the floppy & fdisk a partition of 2Gb (maximum allowed by DOS) then sys the boot info to HDD and see if you can boot the HDD, if it will boot DOS then the chances are it'll boot XP[ot]i can explain further if you wish[/ot]
Yes the HDD that XP was one was wiped (formatted). I then installed Mandriva Linux on that hard drive, and it appears to be working fine. I did try to install Vista, but that didn't work (I forgot that I'd tried before and it had failed bringning up a BSOD after extracting all the files). Also, Kubuntu and Ubuntu Live CDs don't work, 32 & 64bit. I'm not sure why this is, but I presume it's unrelated because it doesn't use a hard drive. Thanks, Thomas
Yes the HDD that XP was one was wiped (formatted). I then installed Mandriva Linux on that hard drive, and it appears to be working fine.[/quote]so theres no problem with the drive strange, did you change the boot priority in the BIOS
No the boot priority in the BIOS has always been FDD CD-Drive1 CD-Drive2 HDD (K)Ubuntu started to load, and it got down to Linux Printer Imaging or something then went all weird and stopped working. If you're really interested I can get a photo, but I won't be surprised if you don't want one!
please well your wrong[ot]don't know why, but i've not heard of a Live CD going tits up without damaged media or faulty hardware, get ready for AT saying it is possible[/ot]
Grrr YouTube is taking ages to process my video... I'll add a link when it's done. Anyway, I tried to get the error to come up again, only this time to have different problems. This time Kubuntu got past the boot screen, then locked up with just a black screen. Ubuntu started loading Gnome, played the tune then just left me with a mouse cursor. The strange thing is I seem to get different problems everyday, which would suggest a hardware fault to me, although nothing is obvious. The Kubuntu and Ubuntu discs are not scratched, so that's not the problem.
it looks like your mobo or grfx card or something is incompatible with Ubuntu, have you tried PCLinuxOS (it's very much like Mandy) you may also try looking at the Ubuntu incompatible list or the Linux incompatibility list beyond that, i don't know
The strange thing is that it has worked before, and the hardware configuration hasn't changed, so to me it doesn't make sense. My new XP disc has come, but I'm reluctant to install it because I quite like Mandriva now that I've found out how to install programmes (I must change my mind about Linux every week) - Sadly my family don't like it, so I need to put Windows back
