Windows 8 Consumer Preview error 0xc0000260: Windows failed to start, An unexpected error has occurred

[Mr.Ryszard]

When I try to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, this error has occurred:
Windows failed to start.
Status: 0xc0000260
Info: An unexpected error has occurred.
The cause of the error is recent hardware or software change but it can be fixed in a following way.

• First of all put your windows installation disc on disc drive and restart the computer.
• Select language settings, and click "Next".
• Choose "Repair your computer."

[Iquau]

In order to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Your computer’s processor must have a support of Physical Address Extension (PAE). Do not try to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on older, outdated processors which does not have a support of PAE will surely going to show this error and not compatible at all. However if you install Windows 8 Consumer Preview on virtual machine (VM), you have to enable PAE (or PAE-NX) in the virtualization while configuring Windows 8 virtual environment.

[Vitel]

So it's a hardware problem. Thus, the consumer now requires mandatory Preview PAE / NX bit support. If you have old hardware such as a Pentium M (400MHz FSB version) which does not have PAE / NX Bit support and you will surely get error message if you are going to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

A workaround or a statement from MS is still pending.

[Ticod]

I think that you do not have the enough physical memory to run Windows 8 Consumer Preview even if you install on VM. When I had 4 GB of RAM, I've been running Windows 7 on VirtualBox (assigned 1GB of RAM), and sometimes there were only 200-300 MB RAM free. Then I upgraded to 8GB, Windows 7 on VirtualBox with 2 GB of RAM, and make sure that only the most essential programs and processes are active. It runs fine now.

[Loveyboo]

I have looked in my BIOS and there was still Intel virtualization technology was disabled, I now have it enabled and Windows 8 runs without problems in VirtualBox, I thought it would be in my BIOS already checked, since the other VMs also run without problems.

[CGale]

You should always make sure that your systems specs meet the requirements. The requirements are the same as Windows Vista or Windows 7:

• 1GHz
• 1GB of RAM
• 16 GB of space available for 32bit version or 20GB hard drive free for 64-bit
• and a graphics card that at least DirectX 9 support.

If you decide to download the ISO image can "burn" a DVD or if you have a USB Flash storage device (flash drive or memory) you can download the Windows 7 USB / DVD download tool to mount the files there and perform the "boot" more easily.

[Mrigankasekhar]

I recently take a look into the PAE and what I got that it need more stable computer when addressing with 4GB RAM. So if your system spec is less than 4FB ram, so there is no way the system will allow the Windows 8 installation without PAE. So most computers which are having or running with only 3GB RAM are affected by this 0xc0000260 stop error. But the Wiki states that Intel Pentium Pro and above CPUs counting every one of later Pentium-series CPUs (apart from the 400 MHz-bus versions of the Pentium M) have a support of PAE. So if anyone who have Pentium M with a FSB running at 400 MHz does not able to get Windows 8 to work.