Luxman

You mean you shouldn't respond to threads on page 509?

Have you tried System Restore yet?

Ok, well thanks some more for the further posts and clarification. In any case, a clean install is a sure thing.

Hi jrf2027. Yes, I've read the tutorial on the first link you posted a few days ago. What I simply don't understand is why all of this is necessary? I understand the reasoning behind this if you do not have recovery discs, but why can't I just do a simple 'throw in my dvd and format' a la XP? If the recovery dvd is a retail clone this seems to me to be the simplist thing to do? What am I missing here? Thanks.

That's what I had assumed, but these days, with cut-throat profits for pc manufacturers, I had figured they would not hesitate to load their pay-to-install bloatware on the recovery dvd too. Thanks for the confirmation Grake

Hi everyone I have a question for anyone owning a Dell that was purchased with Vista; Is the recovery dvd a retail clone, or does it have similar bloatware/garbage pay-Dell-to-install software on it just like is installed with the os on the hdd? Thanks in advance for any replies.