hi, i have a quesion about my other computer its a windows xp home computer and its been acting wierd lately so i decided to format the hard drive and install windows again but a problem occured.... i accidentally changed the information in the C:\boot.ini file. so instead of the the (1) being after the "partition" its set after the "disk" .... this caused another problem, everytime i reboot the computer and try to get in, it gives me the message: "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selevted boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the windows documentation about hardware disk configuration andyour hardware reference manuals for additional informaion." this error wont let me long in to the computer and i cant get in through safe mode or anything, i also went to the boot menu in the start up windows screen and changed the boot sequence to cd-drive (after putting in the windows xp home sp2 installation cd) but when i try to load the computer through a cd i get the message: PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable so now i cant boot the computer from the hard drive because i get the "could not read from the selected boot disk" message and i cant boot off a cd because it gives me the "media test failure, check cable" message. i was wondering if i could change the boot.ini file without logging into the computer or if there is anything else i can do ....... im out of ideas i need help plase
ok nvm im downloading ubuntu but in the meantime, does anyone know any other solutions?? i really need this solution, its kinda my dad's computer and i do need to fix it ^.^ or ill get a nice little beating lol jk
I'm willing to bet, that Ubuntu will not be able to save any changes to the boot.ini file. You can use your XP installation disk, and start the setup as you did when your first installed it. However, this time, find the Recovery Console (not repair installation). This will bring you to a DOS window. Run: fixmbr and fixboot
the "media test failure" could be a dirty cd. The bios startup sequence is seperate from your windows startup sequence. A bad windows installation will not prevent the computer from booting up from a boot cd especially if it's the first boot option in the bios. If your cd won't boot up the computer than you have a hardware problem. With windows xp, theres 2 programs that I have used to repair a non-booting system hard drive. "paragon justboot corrector" and "avanquest partition commander pro version 10". Both have utilitys to change drive letters, edit boot.ini file, reslot partitons" etc. How did you reload windows after you reformated the hard drive? Did you clone it or did you do a fresh install? In most cases a windows xp that has problems booting can be repaired, if possible download the demo of "paragon justboot corrector" and use that to boot up your computer. Write down the information from the boot.ini file and post it here in your next post and also the number of partitions and there drive letters. demo here http://www.justboot.us/boot_corrector.htm
Another tool that's widely used, is called BartPE. That program is used to create a bootable Windows XP CD... just the same as a bootable Linux CD (running XP from the CD drive), but with that one, you can access and change your system files on the hard drive. Allowing you access to correct the issues in a boot.ini file.
I had the same problem with a Sony Vaio VGN-FS742/w. I tried to start fresh with using the restore funciton. The message said that restore was missing a file (ntoskrnl.exe) but I could not copy a new file over the old. When I tried to boot normally the system could not load hal.dll. BartPE allowed me to change the boot.ini. Wooho! Thanks for that last post.
thanks for all the help guys ^.^ but i fixed the problem... a while ago lol. good info though, could help out if something happens again
