Most Dimension 2400 computers predate the Dell PC Restore feature.  Unless you purchased the computer some time after July 14, 2004, your Dimension 2400 will not have it.  One way to tell is to observe the boot process.  If you have the PC Restore feature you will see a blue bar containing the Dell company name appear at the top of the screen.  This bar stays on screen for two seconds, followed by a message about loading the descriptor for PBR2.  If you don't see that display, you don't have PC Restore and will need to restore your machine manually using the Dell CDs that were shipped with your computer.

i got this pc in nov. 2004. and the dimension 8100 and 2400 doesn't show the boot process as my old packard bell win95 did. it just shows the dell splash screen then win log on.

now i'm upset. i was originally going to do a reinstall and found out about this Restore feature and got so excited not having to go thru a reinstall and all its hassles.

You would still see the blue bar if you had PC Restore since it appears after the Dell logo screen goes away and before Windows begins to boot.  You don't see the boot progress because Dells default to something called Fastboot which limits the amount of self testing if the computer hasn't found a problem in a while.  If you go to setup and disable Fastboot you will see a progress bar during self test.

every where i read it says "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" is on PC's after july 2004, mine was ordered in nov. 2004...

do i have it or not???

how can i find out???

If you previously replaced the hard drive or reformatted this one, the PC Restore partition is gone.

You can check the hard drive to see if the partition exists:

Click Start>Programs>Admin Tools>Computer Management

Expand the list under Storage at the left and click Disk Management

Look at the bottom right for the status of your boot hard drive. If you have the PC Restore partition, you should see partitions before and after the main C: partiton. One of the other partitions is Dell's hardware utilities partition, the other one is the PC Restore partition. Status of the partitions should be shown. Note even if the partition is "healthy", if the master boot record has been changed, the system won't see the Restore partition when you press Ctrl-F11.

Ron

EDIT: DUPLICATE POST :emotion-12:

didn't replace or reformat.

under PC management i have

• 47 MB FAT Healthy (EISA Configuration)
• (C:) 33.70 GB NTFS Healthy (system)
• 3.50 GB FAT32 Healthy (Unknown Partition)

does this mean i have it?

how do i get to it if Ctrl+F11 doesn't work?

The layout you see indicates that you have the restore partition.  If you haven't done anything to modify the master boot record, you should be able to use PC Restore.  I mentioned in my earlier posts that you should see a blue stripe across the top of the screen when the self test is complete.  This blue stripe will be on the screen for two seconds, after which you will see a message about loading the descriptor for PBR2.  The message indicates the beginning of the Windows start-up.  In order to use the PC Restore you must press CTRL and F11, releasing both at the same time during the appearance of the blue stripe, and before you see the message about loading the descriptor for PBR2.  If you don't release the keys during that interval the restore feature will not be activated.  If you successfully trip the pc restore process you will get a menu, one option being the restoration of your computer to factory condition.

Hello walbek

click here and read the instructions to repair the Ctrl+F11.

this is what i see during startup.

dell splash screen and under the dell logo there is a white(DOS color) progress bar  but it goes so fast i can't catch what it's showing, but it looks like demention(i'm guessing 2400) and something about the BIOS...

then it goes to windowsXP splash screen and under the logo there is a progress bar that's animated with 3 blue squares running the length of this bar from left to right repeatedly...

then log-on screen...