I really messed up this time. I am using my husband's computer because mine won't boot. I get the message:
"Windows didn't start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your reference manuals for additional information."
Well, that sort of thing is beyond me. But first, my system and how I got into this mess:
Dell Dimension 8200
Pentium 4, 2.00GHz
256RAM
WinXP Home Ed.
Trying to get rid of the screen that prompts you on boot-up to select an OS and counts down the seconds, I went from My Computer>Properties>Advanced and unchecked the first box, the one that has a place to the right where you say how many seconds to display the OS choice. I had changed that choice to "0" many times, but eventually the choice screen always came back, so I got the idea of unchecking the whole box.
Then--I forget exactly which part of Properties this was in--I found the two OSs listed. They were the same, except that the one that was selected had a few words after it that began with "No"--maybe "No selection"? (This problem of having to make a choice on boot-up started when the computer was new and something went wrong and a Dell technician had me reinstall the OS.) I thought maybe I could get rid of the annoyance by selecting the other OS, and did it.
I also looked at the box that comes up when you press Edit in the Properties box. The magazine article that suggested how to get rid of an unwanted OS (though I only wanted to stop having to choose every time at boot up) mentioned deleting something from the Edit box. Well, I didn't dare do that, but I did press "h", just to see if anything one might delete could be typed in again. I deleted the "h" only, leaving the box as it was, and pressed the X-box to return to Properties. When asked whether or not to save the changes, pressed "No," with the idea that in the case of Word, this leaves you with the document as it is.
Then I hit Restart, to see whether the choose OS screen appeared or not, and got the terrifying message quoted above.
This is what I tried to fix things:
Hit F12 and chose the Boot Menu and tried (1)Normal, (2)Diskette Drive (I had a sort of recovery floppy that ran tests and came back with "No errors have been found," but did nothing to boot the machine.), (3)Hard-Disk Drive C, and (4)IDE CD-ROM Device (for which I inserted the Windows XP uninstall and reinstall disk that came with the computer)
None of that worked, so I tried F2 and took a look at the boot sequence, which was IDE CD-ROM, Diskette, and then Hard Disk Drive C, but the sequence doesn't matter, anyway, does it? I didn't change anything, fearing to make matters worse.
Which of the several stupid things I did is causing the boot failure, and how can I get my computer back? I need it for my tutoring work and translating jobs. Pleeeese, pleeeese..... And thanks in advance to anyone who can help.
"Windows didn't start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your reference manuals for additional information."
Well, that sort of thing is beyond me. But first, my system and how I got into this mess:
Dell Dimension 8200
Pentium 4, 2.00GHz
256RAM
WinXP Home Ed.
Trying to get rid of the screen that prompts you on boot-up to select an OS and counts down the seconds, I went from My Computer>Properties>Advanced and unchecked the first box, the one that has a place to the right where you say how many seconds to display the OS choice. I had changed that choice to "0" many times, but eventually the choice screen always came back, so I got the idea of unchecking the whole box.
Then--I forget exactly which part of Properties this was in--I found the two OSs listed. They were the same, except that the one that was selected had a few words after it that began with "No"--maybe "No selection"? (This problem of having to make a choice on boot-up started when the computer was new and something went wrong and a Dell technician had me reinstall the OS.) I thought maybe I could get rid of the annoyance by selecting the other OS, and did it.
I also looked at the box that comes up when you press Edit in the Properties box. The magazine article that suggested how to get rid of an unwanted OS (though I only wanted to stop having to choose every time at boot up) mentioned deleting something from the Edit box. Well, I didn't dare do that, but I did press "h", just to see if anything one might delete could be typed in again. I deleted the "h" only, leaving the box as it was, and pressed the X-box to return to Properties. When asked whether or not to save the changes, pressed "No," with the idea that in the case of Word, this leaves you with the document as it is.
Then I hit Restart, to see whether the choose OS screen appeared or not, and got the terrifying message quoted above.
This is what I tried to fix things:
Hit F12 and chose the Boot Menu and tried (1)Normal, (2)Diskette Drive (I had a sort of recovery floppy that ran tests and came back with "No errors have been found," but did nothing to boot the machine.), (3)Hard-Disk Drive C, and (4)IDE CD-ROM Device (for which I inserted the Windows XP uninstall and reinstall disk that came with the computer)
None of that worked, so I tried F2 and took a look at the boot sequence, which was IDE CD-ROM, Diskette, and then Hard Disk Drive C, but the sequence doesn't matter, anyway, does it? I didn't change anything, fearing to make matters worse.
Which of the several stupid things I did is causing the boot failure, and how can I get my computer back? I need it for my tutoring work and translating jobs. Pleeeese, pleeeese..... And thanks in advance to anyone who can help.