[Carl_E]

Hi,
hope someone may have an angle on this one.
Dell Vostro Laptop Win 7 with Hitachi 7K500-320GB HDD
Suddenly stopped working but boots into a Startup Repair screen and the message "Startup Repair cannot repair this computer automatically" appear
I tried the other options too, but nothing seemed to help.
Finally started a 'Command Prompt' and did a 'CHKDSK /r' which got to 11% of phase 4 and and didn't move from there for 36 hours so I turned it off.
Now when I boot it says 'PXE-E61:Media Test Failure, check cable'
Dell website says reseat the HDD, but this does nothing.
Removed HDD into an enclosure to read on another PC (WIn 7 and XP) as a USB HDD. Win 7 says it doesn't have the drivers for this disk, and XP after a very long time mounts the drive, but I cannot do anything with it. An hour glass appears for ages, then goes away, but nothing happens.
I suspect the HDD is completely gone, ut before I buy another, does anyone have any suggestions.
Thanks in advance for your help
Carl

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Now when I boot it says 'PXE-E61:Media Test Failure, check cable'

'PXE' is a Preboot eXecution Environment that is used to boot computers via a network adapter. So, apparently, when your computer could not find anything else to boot from, it was trying PXE as a last resort.

I suspect the HDD is completely gone, ut before I buy another, does anyone have any suggestions.

If you 'gotta have' your data, think Ontrack.com.

(Note that it can get expen$ive. A backup would be a mere fraction of the cost).

[SpywareDr]

Now when I boot it says 'PXE-E61:Media Test Failure, check cable'

'PXE' is a Preboot eXecution Environment that is used to boot computers via a network adapter. So, apparently, when your computer could not find anything else to boot from, it was trying PXE as a last resort.

I suspect the HDD is completely gone, ut before I buy another, does anyone have any suggestions.

If you 'gotta have' your data, think Ontrack.com.

(Note that it can get expen$ive. A backup would be a mere fraction of the cost).

[Carl_E]

Thanks all for the input.... yea, backups taken, but not regularly enough I guess.
It's under warranty, so free replacement HDD winging its way to me now.
It was only 6 months old too!!!
Just another example of the need to "BACKUP REGULARLY" (picture this in 10'tall 3D effect red capital letters that flash on and off!!!!

[SpywareDr]