Troubleshooting with Girlfriends Laptop

[Ctrav]

It seems like my girlfriends computer crashed. i am not sure tho. When i press the power button the computer turns on but windows does load. It takes me to a screen that says "Please select the operating system to start". there are two choices, "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition". And a second choice that says the same thing>i think it is a safe mode. when i click the both options it says "Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware". When i press these options it says there is a PXE-E61 Media test Failure. It also says to check cable? I pressed F8 for trouble shooting options and there is a long list of options including Safe mode, Safe mode with networking, Safe mode with command Prompt, Reboot, Debugging mode, Enable VGA Mode. none of these work.

This computer was misused. It is possible that it is a virus, but i dont know. what do you think? is it fixable?
The computer is a Toshiba. microsoft XP OS.
Intel Pentium 4
Satetille Model?

http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/ctravdubbed/KatsLaptop.jpg

[shadowpr]

Does the first option of Windows work?

You talked about how the second didn't.

[Ctrav]

Bump

Does the first option of Windows work?

You talked about how the second didn't.

No, none of the options work.

[EzyStvy]

If you'll google "PXE-E61 Media test Failure" you'll see TONS of hits on the same error. Might read through some of them for a solution.

[glc]

At the least, the hard drive needs to be reformatted and Windows needs to be reinstalled. The hard drive also may be failing, diagnostics on it are probably in order.