Windows Could Not Start

Windows is annoying, that’s taken as read, but some of us cannot afford to switch to a Mac and replace all our proprietary software, while Linux is yet to go mainstream. Maybe one day. In the meantime we Win users have to occasionally contend with errors like this:

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

Told you it was annoying. So, what are you supposed to do if you see an error like this. Well, you could try restarting, but that’s unlikely to work, particularly if it really is a hardware failure. Hardware failures happen, but are not very common, much more likely is a configuration problem. According to Microsoft, this particularly error can occur because of any of the following:

The Default value in the [Boot Loader] section of the Boot.ini file is missing or invalid.
Windows XP is not installed in the location specified in the Boot.ini file.
The Ntoskrnl.exe file is missing or damaged.
The partition path in the Boot.ini file is not set correctly.
General hardware failure.

Having had a laptop die on me sometime ago and having seen similar errors repeatedly until I figured out the problem, I can vouch for the fact that there can be a dozen other reasons. For instance, if you a Compaq or HP machine and have tried to restore from the restore disks you’re likely to see this error because the restore will not have installed SATA drivers for your hard disk. But, without a floppy drive you cannot install them at restore.

The fix lies in disabling SATA in the BIOS before your system even gets to try and boot Windows. This will 99% of the time work, allowing you to get up and running albeit without SATA enabled. If you really want to get SATA going, you’ll have to create a bootable USB or memory card that can carry the SATA drivers. Re-enable SATA in the BIOS and boot from the USB. At the point when you get the chance to hit F6 to install the SATA drivers and hope for the best. Just to confirm, my I did resurrect my laptop, but am yet to take the SATA plunge…