This is my problem..

After a split second power cut the PC rebooted itself, it booted normally but a new black screen appeared after the Packard Bell "BIOS options F2 and F8" with the following message appeared: "PXE-E61 Media Test Failure Check Cable" Looked this message up on the internet and it says most likely the cable is not plugged in or connected, Could be a bad cable, NIC or connection.

After this screen it gives me the options: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Debugging, Last Know Configuration, Start Windows Normally.

I've tried each one of these and after a couple of seconds of the Windows XP logo loading, I get the blue screen.

The message on the screen is a "STOP" message, it seems to me as though the power cut has corrupted the hard drive and its connections because it can't boot up windows and can't read anything from the hard drive. I can't get any further after the blue screen.

I've also opened the box up and changed the cable to test the connection (the only cable I've tried is the one which plugs into the blue socket in the motherboard) and still no luck. I have also tried re-installing XP but going through the Recovery Option first on the xp disk but nothing was happening so I turned it off, tried re-installing xp option this time and I get the following error: "ASPI.sys or ACPI.sys file corrupt" I can't remember which .sys one it was.

I think after trying to do this, the xp CD has messed up my BIOS completely and a lot of files have been corrupted, I've left it at that.

Can anyone help?

Don't laugh, but do you know anyone with win95 or win98? If so you could use their startup floppy disk to boot from, then reformat your hard drive using the fdisk utility. After that the xp install should go smoothly

Packard-Bell?? How old is that bad boy? That's Jurassic Park in the computer world. :D

Power blips do evil things, especially if the system is writing data to the drive when it dumps. If you're going to reinstall Windows, I'd suggest popping in another drive and starting fresh. They're cheap, and if your P-B is using the original drive, it's overdue for an upgrade.

Once it's up and running, invest in a USB-connected external hard drive housing (if you're using 98SE or later), and putting the original drive into it. There are programs that allow fetching data from corrupted drives, as long as the actual files haven't been overwritten, which by your description they have not, and the drive itself hasn't been damaged.

I've used Recover My Files with good success.

Also, if you're in an area that is prone to power outages, invest in a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). I wouldn't be without one here in the boonies. The only way I know that there is a failure is when the desk light goes out.

Sorry 'bout that. I noticed five seconds after posting that you use XP. Oh, well. Never get old.