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Couldn't open boot partition.

N

Nuglets

Junior Member
I'm having some real difficulty with my PC. I was dual booting Win2K and Linux from separate hard disks but I recently erased the linux drive. When I did this Windows would not load because I was using GRUB and it couldn't find the OS's. Anyways...I've already backed up my data, formatted both drives and now want to install Windows only. When the windows cd is first read, an error comes up saying that it couldn't open boot partition. I can do the windows install provided that I install my RAID driver and my SATA controller drivers during the install. The problem is when it is finished copying the files and the PC reboots, I get another error..."Windows 2000 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." I have been working on this for the last week and it's driving me nuts so if anyone can help it will be greatly appreciated. I now realize I should have edited the boot sector before erasing anything but it's too late now. Thank you.
 
I think I've narrowed it down to my PCI SATA controller. Then comes another problem. I want to run RAID 1, but my motherboard only has 2 SATA slots and my DVD drive is also SATA. Whenever I have the PCI SATA controller plugged in, I get the 'couldn't open boot partition to check for signature' error. Without the PCI SATA controller...no error, but no cd drive either. The way I diagnosed this is by making the 4 Win2k install floppies and not getting the error message before windows installer boots up but I haven't yet completed a windows install yet.
 
I'm going put a different NON-SATA cd drive in tomorrow if I have time, but for God's sake this is ridiculous!!

The worst part about it is...I know as soon as Win2k is installed successfully, I will be able to pop the SATA controller right in without problems because I was using it before I uninstalled everything. Computer's are the most retarded things on earth...seriously!!
 
""Windows 2000 could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem."

Before you installed wondows, you set the CD (or floppy) as the boot drive.
Your choices were HDD, CD, floppy. After windows finished installing the files it needs (including the raid drivers), it reboots...It's choices are Flopp, CD, HDD, or Raid array, so windows tries to boot off the HD, but the files it installed are on the array, hence... "disk hardware configuration problem."
You have to interupt this reboot, enter the BIOS and set the new RAID array as the boot device. then windows can find the files it needs.
 
I don't seem to have the option in my BIOS. I have the option to boot from "VIA VT6420 1st HDD. My onboard SATA controller has it's own BIOS in which I have created and set the array as the 'boot partition'. By the way...I have the same problem when I only use 1 HDD without RAID enabled. I am 99% the issue is with the PCI SATA controller card. The error I get "couldn't open boot partition to check for signature" goes away as soon as I take out the PCI SATA controller. The problem that I'm seeing is, for some reason Windows is attempting to 'open a boot partition to check for signature' on the PCI controller, which it cannot do as there are no HDD's attached to it. I also think that the PCI SATA controller is overriding whatever I have set in the BIOS before it and Windows "thinks" that this is where the boot partition is located. I do NOT get the error anytime this device is pulled out. But I also cannot completely install Windows without my cd drive which requires an additional SATA contoller. I have the 4 floppies which will lead me through the first part of the install WITHOUT the 'could not open boot partition to check for signature' error which precedes the 'Checking hardware configuration' message. Thank you for the reply, I hope I can get this worked out with a different cd drive to install Win2k.
 
So yeah...that was the problem. Now I know that PCI SATA controller's are retarded, but I can't live without it. It now works once windows has been installed with no problems. I just needed to use a IDE cd-rom to install it.
 
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