Windows could not start.....

Hello Guys,

I am facing a strange problem with installing windows xp professional sp 3 on my computer.

I have installed windows xp on my hard drive and after setup formats and loads the files, it restarts my computer and after restating the computer asks me press any key to boot from CD..... I don't press anything coz i want the hard drive to kick in. But then all of the sudden its shows me this message:

"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 addition information."

Even after restarting my computer, I get the message of press any key to boot from CD...... if i press any key, i get the above message and if i don't press, i get a message:

Select your operating system

Windows XP professional
Windows XP professional
Windows XP professional

but the computer doesn't let me select any three of them as if my keyboad is disabled and in next second i get the above message of "Windows could not start becasue ........."

Please help me out as it frustrating me so much.

 

Can you give us some history please, like why did you need to format, what OS was on the drive before?

 

Windows XP professional was installed on the system but the system was extremely slow and there was no anti virus or spy installed on the system. So, thats why i wanted to install a fresh copy of windows xp on my pc. Also, i have two hard drives installed; one is 6GB and the other one is 18GB.

 

Have you recently changed the physical connections of the 2 drives?

Windows is on the 18GB, yes?

You have an SP3 Windows CD?

 

Actually the windows was on 6GB before and then friend of mine gave me 18GB. So, i think now the windows is on both drives because i was playing around and ended up installing windows on both drives (Windows XP professional SP3)

 

I'd remove the 6GB, set the 18GB as Master on the Primary IDE channel and the CD/DVD drive as Slave on the Secondary and try to run a Windows Repair from the CD; if you can't repair (because Windows does't exist) make a clean install. Providing you have no major malware issues already, that should fix it.

I'd only use the 6GB as a backup drive, monthly - it must be very old now. When you add it to this system, set it as Master and connect it to the Secondary IDE channel.



<I thought I'd answered this a few minutes ago but it may have bugged and be held for moderation - this version is worded differently but says the same thing>