VM Ware – sh: can’t access tty; job control turned off

I am trying to install VMWARE ESX version 3.5.

The install appeared to complete ok.
Once the server reboots i get an option to choose option

1 – ESX server
2 – ESX server in Debug mde
3 – ESX Troublshooting mode

If i choose option 1 or 2 i get the following message:

mounting root failed dropping into basic maintenence shell

sh: can’t access tty; job control turned off.

I can type help and access help commands or do an ls or pwd but the system doesn’t boot nto VMware.

However if choose option 3 the system gets to the prompt for username and password.

I am guessing this is some sort of software > hardware configuration i may need to add into a boot file or someting e.g mount the harddisk.

Can anyone instruct me what may be he problem here