how to rebuild my boot loader on my laptop
 

I have linux and windows xp home on my laptop and i tried to boot in linux and got a message before it got to the boot loader. the message was: PXE-e61 media test failure , check cable. then it goes to say Operating system not found. Please tell me what this is and how to fix it.

It looks like it's trying a network boot. Make sure your BIOS boot order has the hard drive above a "network boot".

Thanks, but it's not that i change the boot order in the bios and reboot the system but still get teh error

Then most likely your MBR is screwed up. Try booting from a livecd and using it to reinstall grub or lilo, as it was before.

I'm not sure how to do that, do to the fact it is a redhat and it is a version that came with my book from school

You'll need to boot from a LiveCD of some sort to mount the existing partition and get at its menu.lst or lilo.conf.

first turn pxe off on your nic (in the bios)

Then, verify that your HDD is listed towards the top of your boot order.

If you still have the error list your steps. Are you getting a boot loader screen where it gives you the option to boot either linux or windows?

During the install, you were prompted to install to MBR or to superblock, which did you choose? (exact wording depends on the dstro you installed)

The CD should list what version of RH it is.

Thanks everyone. In bios where would i find the Pxe to shut it off?? I have a Hewlett Packard Pavilion ze4500.

Personally I have never used an HP. Simple answer is to just expand the options and find something like "integrated devices".

Justs guessing. Maybe another HP user can enlighten us.

Now I have the disk where do i begin?????

I installed MBR or MBA and that is what is messing up. In the Bios it doesnt give me the option to turn off the PXE. Please help

You can restore the Master Boot Record (MBR) by running the XP install CD and selecting recovery mode. Then execute the fixmbr utility. You should be able to run windows again.

To reinstall grub to the MBR:
Boot the 1st install CD and at the prompt type in rescue.
When booted up type the following commands.
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/hda

Ok by doing this will it hurt whats on the hard drive?? Im trying to get the data off the hard drive that is saved in windows,