Restoring an old XPS M1210 to factory settings without disk.

Hi Rbartlett17,

Ctrl+F11 key combination is used to perform PC Restore in Windows XP. If it is not working you may try to drain the residual power and check.

• Disconnect any external peripherals (flash drives, printers, external hard drives) from the computer
• Then remove the adapter
• Remove the battery
• Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds
• Reconnect the battery and the adapter
• Restart the computer and check

Alternatively, you may press Pause/Break key on the Dell logo. Then press Ctrl+F11 key and check if it works.

You may also try powering off the computer -> press and hold the Ctrl key ->power on the computer -> tap F11 key while holding down the Ctrl key.

If the system is able to boot into Windows, you may try the following steps:

• Click the Start button and click on “ My Computer” to open a Windows Explorer window.
• Click on 'Tool' -> 'Folder options'
• Click on the “View” tab.
• Click on the radio button 'Show hidden files, folders or drives' and then click on 'Apply' -> 'Ok'

Then go to the following folder location C:\dell\Utilities\DSR and click on BOOT_DSR.EXE. Restarting the computer should take you directly to the PC restore options.

If the above steps do not work, you would need to re-install Windows using the operating system disc.
Note: This step leads to complete data loss including pictures, music files, videos, documents and applications. Please disconnect any external peripherals as well.

Please reply if you have any questions.

I tried what you said but I couldn't seem to get the restore up when turning on my laptop...And when looking for the hidden file there wasn't a Utilities folder...

The only option is a manual install.

www.dell.com/.../ArticleView

If you need the disc:

support.dell.com/.../backupcd_form