occasional recurring boot failure

[jca01]

I have an occasional problem with my Toshiba Satellite laptop. When I picked up my laptop this morning while it was running, the system crashed (blue screen) and attempted, but failed, to reboot my Windows XP. I got the recurring message "PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" etc. This same thing has happened a couple times in the past in similar situations (while carrying my laptop), but after an hour or so of attempts, Windows will finally reboot.
I'm wondering if it might actually be some cable issue, since the computer has gotten knocked around a little. Or maybe the internal power source? Anyway, just looking for some suggestions on what it might be.
thanks,
jca

[John A]

Haha, this sounds like you picked up your computer while it was writing data to the hard disk. Never do this! If you have to pick up your computer while it's running, do it *very* carefully.

This means that your hard drive probably wrote data to random locations on the disk, and will need a complete reformat/reinstall. I suggest hooking the hard drive into another computer (you might need an adapter), back up all your important data, format the hard disk, and then get to work reinstalling Windows.

[DMR]

Just FYI: The "PXE-E61" error message is coming from the "network boot" feature of the computer. The fact that the machine is even trying to attempt a network boot means that it has failed to boot via all other normal methods (from a hard drive, CD-ROM, USB drive, etc.).

* If you insert the Windows installation CD (assuming that the computer came with one), can you boot from that? If so, you might be able to launch a Repair installation of Windows from there.