Question : Problem: Gateway PC will not find Hard Drive

I have a Gateway 835GM that I was called out to repair. The original problem - could not find System (registry file). All my tech saveyness failed. Tried Gateway's "Save the Data, but Restore OS and Apps" System Recovery Option. Then it booted fine to the Desktop but crashed consistently seconds after the desktop appeared. Removed hard drive and using a SATA to USB adapter, copied all the data to my laptop. I then deleted the offending partition, and created a new primary partition, 7GB smaller than before. I then created another 7GB extended partition for the data. I then copied the data back into this 7GB partition, and reinserted the drive into the machine. Realize that the recovery partition (also a primary) was left untouched. I've done this procedure several times (on Dells) in the past without a hitch, expecting to see the Recovery option (press F11 on the Gateway) on boot and reinstall the OS and everything would be back to the way it was as first built, then reinstall the data from the little partition.
This time I turned on the PC and after the BIOS boot screen, I see:

Broadcom UNDI PXE-2.1 v8.1.53
Copyright Broadcom
Copyright Intel
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Broadcom PXE ROM
No bootable device - insert boot disk

Never seen this before! This tells me its trying to boot from the boot-from-LAN option, so it must be a BIOS setting...
I've tried everything to get this to go away, checking the boot order, resetting the BIOS, removing the CMOS battery, resetting the motherboard by disconnecting the power cord and holding the ON switch. No difference. If I boot from CD, using the XP CD repair option, I can see the Recovery partition and all the other partitions! The drive also shows up in the BIOS info. So I know the SATA power and data cables must be OK. I removed the drive and checked it on my laptop - it is perfectly fine.

I suspect this has something to do with the Master Boot Record (which logical drive is considered the master). Originally, the system would show the BIOS boot screen, then go blank for a second and show the option to "Press F11 for System Recovery" for less then a second, then try to boot to XP. Now it goes from BIOS screen straight to this UNDI PXE info, as if it doesn't have the proper MBR to show the option for F11 System recovery. Everything else is there. The Recovery partition is fine. The little data partition is still filled with recoverable files. The main partition (200GB) is basically empty, as it should be after a re-partitioning and reformat. I just need it to be able to boot to the System Recovery partition. Help! Thanks in Advance.

Answer : Problem: Gateway PC will not find Hard Drive

Thanks for the quick responses, but the problem was not solved by your suggestions. I had already tried the FIXMBR and FIXBOOT utilities to no avail. The BOOTCFG is for the Boot.ini boot menu, which would come after the problems I was having. I didn't have a chance to disable the PXE in BIOS, but I believe this would simply have gotten rid of the PXE messages.

I awoke at 4AM last night and said to myself, "What if repartitioning the drive also left none of the partitions Active? What if I make the Recovery Partition Active?" This afternoon I tried this (by plugging the drive into my laptop and using Windows Disk Management, I made the Recovery Partition Active), and sure enough, the system booted right into the Recovery program. Its now reloading the original OS and Apps. Sure hope this solves my problems! I may have to go back in one more time and make the new system partition Active instead of the Recovery Partition, but I'm getting to be a pro at that by now:-) Thanks again.