Message “Windows Could Not Start…” when Booting Windows NT/2000/XP/2003

This article addresses the case where you receive the following message when attempting to start Windows NT/2000/XP/2003:

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.

A common cause of this error is that BOOT.INI is pointing to a non-existent partition, rather than the one where Windows is installed.  To resolve this issue, please refer to the solution detailed in the article Message "Windows Could not Start Because the Following File is Missing or Corrupt" (NTOSKRNL.EXE or HAL.DLL).

For more information, please refer to the following Microsoft support document:

Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because of a Computer Disk Hardware Configuration Problem