DylanC

Final Chapter....I hope. Even once I got into windows (safe mode because normal would not boot) I could not launch the recovery console. It just wouldn't start, probably because of limitations while in safe mode. Anyway, I was able to get into the F8 Windows Boot menu after selecting "HDA Partition 3" from PLop. Selecting "Repair this Computer" booted the recovery environment on partition 2. A few more clicks and I had the option to "Restore the Dell Factory Image" Right now it's churning away with that task. WIth luck it will rewrite the MBR and things will be back to factory condition. Again, thanks for everyone's help. It was greatly appreciated.

I just got off the phone with a Dell tech and they are sending a recovery disk. Its frustrating that the system didn't come with a disk or even a CoA sticker, but whatever. To Dell's credit, this is the third day in a row that the tech as attempted to get ahold of me. Today is the first day I was available to talk to him. So, if nothing else, a disk recovery is possible. Until then I'm still trying to get somewhere the hard way. Neither PartedMagic nor GPartEd would boot on this machine. Both start to boot, and then the PC will restart. At some point I saw an error from GPartED regarding SQUASHFS(?)...not sure if that is relevent. So, no TestDisk. Last night I downloaded the Ultimate Boot CD and I'm trying it right now. Going off of a previous comment (thanks jaclaz) I started PLoP from the HDD->Boot Managers menu on the UBCD and Booting the partitions directly. Partition 1 was some type of hardware diagnostic environment and partition 2 said BOOTMGR missing or something similar. Partition 3 brought up WIndows and I am now staring at a desktop again....yeah! My goal now is to make sure that all personal documents are backed up and do a reinstall of windows....I'll keep you up to date.

jaclaz: I'm downloading PartedMagic right now. I've used GPartEd before, but I've never used any of the other utilities. Could you please explain with a bit of detail how you would attempt to repair the MBR or boot sector? I have booted using a windows 7 repair CD and run chkdsk /f. First time it found and fixed errors, second time was clean. Haven't run it with the /r switch yet. Yzowl: This is what I had in mind. I've done this type of thing before using Belarc Advisor, but have no idea how to accomplish in this situation. I'm not a programmer and much prefer GUI tools to command line. Any specific advice on how to accomplish this?

I'm not an "expert", and I haven't used Windows 98 in over 10 years, but I would second CharoletteTHeHarlot's advice....pick up a used XP system for $20 and save yourself the linux headache. I've been tinkering with linux on and off for 10+ years and its just so dis-similar from windows that anyone who considers themselves to be a "power user" will probably get frustrated and give up. At least that's been my experience. It's like trying to learn French. It sounds like a good idea, but unless you have a real reason to switch, its just easier to stick with English. Newer varieties are almost as bloated as windows (Ubuntu, etc.) and still no easier to dig into the "nuts and bolts" of what makes it tick. Another serious alternative to a linux system would be a Mac G4, PowerPC type. I know I could catch some flak for this, but I seriously consider even OS X 10.0 to be superior to windows XP and Vista. I've never really used windows 7, but I'm sure its not all that much better than Vista. And OS X 10.0 will run pretty snappy on older OS 9.1 hardware. I have an old 466 MHz G3 iBook "Clamshell" that runs OS X 10.1 just fine...if it had wireless internet I'd probably still use it. A decent G4 tower can be had on ebay for $20 +S&H. Or you could even look for a junk machine with a legit CoA for windows 2000. I ran that OS as long as I could until some flashy game made me to upgrade to XP. In my opinion Win2K is the best OS that MS ever built...I still use it (VirtualPC) for some older 16-bit software that won't work right on XP or newer systems. I still use XP x64 at work, but Vista bothered me so much that I bought a Mac for my home PC. I've used Windows 7 a few times, but it seems like the more "progress" an OS makes, the less control I have over what it's doing and how it behaves.

Cluberti- Thanks for the link....just filled out the form. I'll post whether it works or not.

OK, a friend of a friend wants me to fix her laptop. Right now it will not boot. It posts to BIOS splash screen, goes to boot from HDD1 and stalls at a blinking cursor in the upper left of the screen. F8 will not bring up the boot options menu. The laptop is a Dell Studion 1555. The girl has no discs or documentation, and there is no CoA on the laptop. I'm not even sure what flavor of Vista the machine is running. There is a recovery partition but I've no idea how to access it without booting windows. In an ideal world, I'd like to recover the OS using the Dell supplied recovery partition but I think the odds are pretty slim that is even possible. Near as I can tell I would need a Windows Repair disc for her exact version of Vista, i.e. Home, Ultimate, etc., 32- or 64-bit, SP0 or SP1, etc. That all seems like too much trouble, but if anyone has ideas, I'm listening. Option 2 is a complete reformat and reinstall, including a wipe of the recovery partition. This would be simple if the PC had a CoA stuck to the bottom, but it doesn't. So in order for this to work I need to extract the version of vista and the product key from the machine. Also not sure how to do this without getting into windows. I have booted the laptop using an Ubuntu disk and can access the contents of the main partition. My third option is to just install Ubuntu and give it back to her.... Any ideas? I'm grateful for any help. Maybe Dell can give me some info if I give them the service tag #? -DylanC