dos

hi pjjmon and welcome to the Dell forums.

Try the info below to repair your missing bootloader

to restore the vista's boot loader (BCD) just start the computer with the
install DVD and when you get to the "install" screen look at the bottom left,
choose "repair installation". it will then report if your installation is
still valid or rather if it found it. highlight the vista installation in the
box and press next. then at the next box you will be presented with a number
of choices, choose "repair". after it is done repairing click finish and the
computer will restart.
if you are lucky this worked, if not then dont freak out and try it again;
same steps dont try to change things up. try it 3 times (if you need to) if
nothing after the third time the installation may be just done for.
when vista is done repairing and before you click finish you will be
presented with a dialog box telling you that the repair was succesful, click
on "view report" (or something like that) and you will see what vista fixed.
what i have found is that each time Vista fixed a differnt thing. first the
boot loader, then the MBR, then some random program -- which that only
happened once with Beta2.