Installing Red Hat 7.3

When installing Redhat linux 7.3 from a bootable CD i get the following error:

Intel UNDI, PXE - 2.0 (build 067)
PXE - E61: Media test failure, check cable
Invalid Partition table

Originally the error came up when the sysytem was clean with no OS using a Windows 98 boot disk...no partitions were set!

i added a primary DOS partition, c: and still got the error.

Sometimes i got: Missing OS. but that was blatant! lol...i cant remember what conditions those were under, but i think it tried to boot c:

How can i install redhat on this system?

Intel UNDI, PXE - 2.0 (build 067) comes from my network card in the system i think, but maybe something else.

I have installed mandrake on the system before, and cant understand why redhat comes with this error!

do i need an operating sys installed originally?
and why does it come with an invalid partition error when i have set partitions with fdisk?

cheers for any help,
this is very important to me to expand my knowledge of Linux as i feel i have missed out on a LOT!

The media test failure leads me to believe that your CD is corrupt, but maybe not. "Check cable": is your cdrom connected properly? Is it recognized in your bios? Does your bios allow bootable cdroms?

Perhaps make a installation boot floppy to overcome this.

As for partitioning, the redhat installer will allow you to partition during the install, you do not need to partition before you install.

Post more info and maybe I can help. . .

It appears that your CD drive is not set to be bootable. I would check that first, and then only resort to the other means.

Since it's a disk which there was software previously installed on, it could be that the MBR (actually the first 446 bytes of it which get loaded immediately after the BIOS) are trying to load something other than the traditional DOS boot loader. To correct this try running "FDISK /MBR" from DOS (not Linux).

If this is not the problem, you should try to explain at what stage exactly is it halting.

Does ISOLINUX (or whatever RedHat is using) start? Does Linux kernel from RedHat CD start, load completely? Is this maybe message from BIOS (so not at all Linux related, but rather hardware related -- this means your hardware might be broken).

As always, give some prior informations and the state of your machine, and you'll maybe get some more useful help.

Greets