I have spent about 3 hours going through all your different questions and nothing is working. My laptop will not boot. First I did all the basics to see if i could start it in safe mode then do a restore. then i did a diognostic and found an error in the boot sequence...... I do not have a set of disks because the program came pre-loaded. I do have a desk top with a floppy drive and tryed to make a boot disk that way. I made the disk then made a data disk with Sonic. Well the computer doesn't seem to be recognizing any of my efforts regardless of what I set the bios to. Now when the boot list comes up, regardless of what is selected it just stalls. I also tried putting the entire i386 on a zip drive. nothing any help would be appreciated Serena

... if you're NOT bothered by personal data loss: Restoring the original factory image ...ps... might be worth replacing cmos battery Grrrr "...pentathol makes you sing like a canary" ... got brain freeze

Correct me if I'm wrong but you can only restore the image on a bootable partition. If the MBR is corrupted the comp is useless until this is resolved. To repair, though, you will need a disk with 'fdisk' utility: http://www.tippscout.de/repair-and-... or something like: http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbrto... To manipulate the HDD sectors. Superyutz' Renderings Nottingham, MD. 21236 Tech Support for the Common Man

Is there anything on the duff system that you would like to retain/keep safe (data files, pics, music etc.)? If so.... would be wise to transfer it all off the system - to optical media - befroe going any futher. To do this - see if you can boot with Linux variant on a CD (e.g. Knoppix or Ubuntu etc.) as these will allow you access the drive "as is" as a resource the linux OS running off the CD... And thus copy data off to optical media. Then consider options re' restoring a working system. Dell recovery disk(s) may allow a restore without losing current settings - especially preserving data. They may only allow a restore to factory-gate/deleivery state. Wise to see what they allow. If you don't have any Dell disks... contact Dell; and likely they will help you secure them... Usually one is encouraged to make a set when you receive the system; even if you also get a set delivered with it...? Down the road... once you do get it all working again... seriously consider investing in something like Acronis True Image software. Use that to make an image of the system as it is (how you want it to be) - when you have it working again...; as then in future you can simply restore that image and very quickly have system again "as you want it"... And also occasionally update the image set - if you add more items (apps/utils etc.) at later dates? Post the boot.ini here - as it is currently. Ensure boot sequence is set to CD first then HD. That way if/when you install/run a Knopix/Ubuntu CD it will automatically go there first and boot from it... Knopppix/Ubuntu can be acquired as CD - for a few pennies etc; and also as an iso download which then burn to CD; use that CD. The download is usually easier/more convenient? Knoppix.com Ubuntu.com

The link posted by mavis007 in response #1 looks like a very good one. But if you don't have your important data backed up, you should do that first.

... good point "superyutz" #Response 2 ... this download should resolve the recovery active partition issue (... if it exists) 1.04MB: Pqboot iso ... download, save, extract then make a CD from the "iso" image. ... boot-up with it ... and it will show your partitions ... ie.. 1, ..2, ...3 ...(if you have 3) ... typing 1 ...remove the cd ...[press ENTER] ... will make the number 1 partition "active" ... 2 for partition 2 etc ... if the recovery partition exists one could boot to it ... depending on how the recovery is evoked !!... (most are by just booting to it...) ... if recovery is successful you still may have to boot up again with this cd and select the other partition to make that one "active" ... after boot-up awaiting your imput 1, 2, 3 or more ... pqboot shows you which partition "is" active ... most recovery partitions are "marked" as "recovery" or "restore" ... pqboot will show you there names Grrrr "...pentathol makes you sing like a canary" ... got brain freeze

mmm - agree that "mavis's" link may well the best option to start with; and it does remind one to back up (copy/save) data first - and even a "how to do it..." - but the path suggested re' data recovery etc. presumes one can still boot up OK... Thus Knoppix/Ubuntu etc. may be the better path to follow here' at lest to safeguard data? After-which follow the Dell routine to restore drive to delivery state? And after that... re-install any additional software/utils etc. Then, as suggested earlier..., perhaps make your own more current/complete/updated image of the drive. Possibly (can't see why not) the Dell included routines will allow this; or use Acronis etc.? Keep the updated images safe...; and use those next time you need to rebuild (hopefully not for a long time - if ever...) Or if one is happy to... remove drive; connect to a working system and extract (copy) data that way... One can get a usb-adapter to connect the drive (once removed) to any usb-capable/compliant system. I have a kit for both EIDE/SATA drives; duz wot it sez on the tynne - like a charm... Once one has data safe... restore drive to its home and follow Dell routines and the rest etc. as immediately above...? Main concern here would naturally be data recovery/safeguard?