Member Avatar for ilikecrayons

hey everyone, just signed up here cos i've realised i know much less about pcs than i thought i did... i thought it was about time i upgraded my OS from windows 98 but didn't want to pay any money so borrowed my parents installation discs for Windows ME. i didn't read the big writing on the disc saying FOR USE ONLY WITH A TINY PC (mine's a DELL) and now my computer won't start up and just says

3Com PXE, version 0.99j.03
copyright (c) 1997, 1998 intel corporation. all rights reserved.
(c) copyright 1998 lanworks technologies co. a subsidiary of 3com corporation


pxe-e61:media test failure, check cable.
pxe-mof: exiting pxe

strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for setup utility

now i don't know what to do. a friend suggested i tried reinstalling windows 98 again but i can't cos i bought my pc refurbished and it didn't come with any discs.

if any one can help me i'd be really grateful

  • 3 Contributors
  • 3 Replies
  • 272 Views
  • 2 Years Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by francisolas

Dani AI

Generated

Brief expert note tied to the thread by and .

The BIOS output posted by shows the drive is being detected as an EIDE device, while the system falls back to a network (PXE) boot. That combination most commonly points to a missing or damaged boot record, partition table, or inactive boot partition rather than an immediately dead drive. 's suggestion to check BIOS and repair the master boot/boot files is the right direction.

Practical, non‑destructive checks: confirm the BIOS boot order and disable network/PXE boot temporarily so the machine will try local media first; reseat the drive's data and power cables and verify jumpers if the drive is old PATA hardware. If the drive remains visible in BIOS but will not boot, avoid a full restore until important files are backed up.

Data-first recovery routes: boot a rescue/live medium (Linux live CD or a recovery CD) to mount the disk and copy critical files to external storage. If that is not possible, remove the drive and attach it to another computer (or use a USB‑to‑IDE/SATA adapter) to extract data. Once data is secured, a partition/boot‑repair utility can attempt to restore the partition table/MBR or set the correct partition active. OEM recovery media will usually reformat the disk, so treat that as a last step.

Cautions and next steps: using OEM restore discs that do not match the machine can overwrite partitions and make recovery harder. If the drive makes unusual noises or is unreadable when connected elsewhere, hardware failure and professional recovery should be considered. A sensible starting sequence is: disable PXE, confirm BIOS sees the disk, back up files, then run repair tools or apply an OEM restore if a clean reinstall is acceptable.

Recommended Answers

All 3 Replies

Member Avatar for goldeagle2005

First, check in the BIOS and see if the hard drive is getting detected. If it is, use the Windows ME CD to boot to DOS mode and type the following commands:

fdisk /mbr
sys C:

and then check if the issue is resolved. If not, let us know and we'll see what else can be done, short of a complete reinstall.

Member Avatar for ilikecrayons

i'm in bios and it says

diskette drive a: 3.5inch, 720kb
diskette drive b: not installed
use zip as a or b: off

drives:
primary types cyls hds pre lz sec size
drive 0:auto eide drive 10239
drive 1:none
secondary
drive 0:auto
drive 1: none

reserved memory: none
cpu speed: 450 mhz
num lock:on
chassis intrusion: inabled silent
dac snoop: off
acpi:off

Member Avatar for francisolas

Good dey to you all , my system running on windows 2003 server whit raid 5 configure but now one of the disk is bad i need to fixed another one but i don't know how to configure the raid please help me out ...................... francis Olas

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.