[rhymin]

I've been messing around with a couple old PCs and trying to get them to work for someone who could use them. I had one of them working which has very poor specs for a system running Windows 7 32-bit. All I did was try another HDD in the working PC (in place of the current HDD, which uses IDE cable) and I got this:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-MOF: Exiting NVIDIA Boot Agent.
DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

Then, I switched back to the HDD that worked with the system, and I got the EXACT SAME ERROR!

I was ready to pitch the other HDD cause I thought it was bad, but that might not be the problem since I got the same error with both HDDs (even the one that previously worked). Any ideas?

The PC specs are very old btw:
MOBO- ASUS A7N8X 2.0
CPU - AMD Athlon XP 1.1 GHz
RAM - 512 MB
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce 6200 314 MB
HDD - Deskstar 60 GB
It also has a sound card, DVD rom, floppy drive, and network adapter.

Also, in BIOS, when I try to use the IDE HDD Auto-Detection feature, it doesn't detect a HDD.

And, when I goto the boot priority list, it shows all sorts of things such as:
Floppy
LS120
HDD-0
HDD-1
HDD-2
HDD-3
SCSI
CDROM
LAN
Disabled

I really have no idea which HDD to select, but I tried HDD-0 and HDD-1 and still doesn't recognize.

Edited by rhymin, 13 March 2013 - 11:07 PM.

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The machine is trying to boot from a network Rhymin as it can't find any boot files on the hard drive which I suspect is old and faulty anyway.

By the way you're wasting your time trying to install Windows 7 onto a machine with those specs.

[Wolfeymole]

The machine is trying to boot from a network Rhymin as it can't find any boot files on the hard drive which I suspect is old and faulty anyway.

By the way you're wasting your time trying to install Windows 7 onto a machine with those specs.

[rhymin]

Actually, it already had Windows 7 32-bit installed on it, which surprised me. It worked before I put in the 2nd HDD, and then when I switched it back to the working HDD, that's when it got the same disk boot failure message as the 2nd one.

I was actually going to wipe the HDD clean and put XP on it for someone.

(BTW, this is the same HDD you helped me with yesterday when I used the password recovery tool)

Edited by rhymin, 14 March 2013 - 07:35 AM.

[Wolfeymole]

I'd suggest that with these two drives already being ancient they have died in the swap process.

[rhymin]

Okay, not a big deal. What would you recommend doing with such old parts? Not really worth putting on eBay and making $50 for about 20 parts lol.

Thanks for your help again!

[Wolfeymole]

To be perfectly frank Rhymin I'd bin the lot, but you could of course put a version of Linux on it as the requirements are not as harsh as what Windows requires.

In the UK we have a saying that goes like this; "You cannot make a silk purse from a sows ear".

This is like saying one cannot put a lawn mower engine in a Rolls Royce and expect it to work.

[rhymin]

Haha very true.

Thanks again Wolfey!

[Wolfeymole]

You're more than welcome Rhymin mate.

[rhymin]

One more thought and question:

Would the cases even be worth anything? Or would the motherboard screw holes even match up with today's motherboards? I'm thinking no because I think they are bigger now, but I'm not quite sure, but just wanted to ask.

[Wolfeymole]

If it's a standard ATX case then there should be no problem.

If not then what size is it?

[rhymin]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure how to check what size it is.

I know none of them are full towers, but mid towers sounds right.

[rhymin]

I switched the IDE cable to a different socket on the mobo and the originally working HDD started working again. There might be hope for it yet!

[rhymin]

Nevermind lol, the HDD started making clicking sounds. I'm not wasting anymore time on this old junk.

Thanks for your help on everything though!

[Wolfeymole]

Clicking is the most dreadful sound in the world Rhymin and you're welcome by the way.