Can`t boot up!

[Joshua B. Lilly]

RedHat ES 3
IBM Server 8676, Model G1X

It`s been running fine for months.  It`s going to be our new mail server. 
No problems.  Well, it hasn`t been touched in a couple of months (literally, 
the mouse and keyboard have been on a shelf and it has not been touched, and 
it has not been live and nobody has been able to log into it remotely or 
locally).  So I try to log in to do some work, but the root password won`t 
work when I go to add users through the graphical interface for some new 
staff for when we go live.  I know what the root password is, I know I`m 
typing it correctly, it`s just bizarre.  I open a command line and try to su 
to root.  su won`t work.  Very bizarre.  So I reboot the thing, I do it 
through the clicking method.  Other than what I have described above, 
literally nothing - NOTHING - has been done on this machine in months.  This 
means, not so much as clicking on the menu, not opening a text file or 
Internet browser, not clicking on the desktop: NOTHING.

The machine will not boot up.

{
Welcome to Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES
Press 'I' to enter Interactive startup.
grep: /proc/cmdline: No such file or directory
grep: /proc/mounts: No such file or directory
Configuring kernel parameters: 
[  OK  ]
iiSetting clock  (localtime): Tue May 10 09:57:36 EDT 2005 [  OK  ]
Loading default keymap (us): 
[  OK  ]
Setting hostname webmail: 
[  OK  ]
cat: /proc/cmdline: No such file or directory
}

At this point, I can hit CTRL-C and get two more lines:

{
INIT: Entering runlevel: 5
cat: /proc/cpuinfo: No such file or directory
}

I can`t do anything else at this point.

I tried to use RESCUE MODE from the boot CD, and I can get to a shell, but 
don`t know how to correct this once I get there.  I checked the /etc/fstab 
and it looks perfectly normal.  I just don`t get it.  It`s on a UPS made for 
servers, but it`s still possible this was all started by a powersurge or 
something.  Again, when I say NOTHING other than what I described was done 
on this server over the past months, I mean that in the most literal way. 
That is what has me so baffled.  But at this point, I just need some way to 
get it to work!  I`d appreciate any advice.  I`ve compared the /etc/fstab to 
the one reference I could find to this exact problem on Usenet, and mine 
matches up identically to that one, so I`m thinking that is not the issue.

- Joshua B. Lilly
Patrick County Public Schools