Format and then a reinstall of XP?

You may have this feature "Dell™ PC Restore by Symantec™", it is best to use it instead of the CD method.

it is very fast and easy to restore a PC to "as shipped" condition using this method, using fdisk or the CD method to reinstall XP will damage other disk features installed by Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=3E48AE3870775D64E040A68F5B2877D4&journalid= 4B1C36C26AB83A2CE040A68F27287E2E&Query=&SystemID=&ServiceTag=&contenttype= &os=&component=&lang=&doclang=&toggle=&dl=

no need to format first, PC restore will do everything for you.

Dell PC restore sounds nice but I don't have that disk and can't find it hiding anywhere on my drive either. Or I don't know where to look?

I tried and was able to use Foxit one time - doing turbotax return it directed me to it when adobe wouldn't work and it worked once. After that my system always goes adobe hunting again and freezes requiring IE to shut down

I'm starting to feel like the wicked witch of Oz and doing a meltdown ..... don't know what to do at all right now and have a worthless system. And sore eyes from this laptop screen.

So it sounds like I am stuck using a full format scenario? Oh wait - tried that last night already too. Thing froze when it hit the array thing for raid. I musta done the floppy disk thingy bad - it didn't work.

I'm getting mighty tempted to revert back to old way - tearing the drives out, assume there must be a card inside case for the RAID controller, toss in a new drive and reinstall the OS using the purple Dell reinstallation CD.

Seems like a huge waste of drives and controller card, etc but I need this dang thing up today.

Any thoughts on doing it this way or will I hit the wall here too?

Evidently mine XPS isn't equiped with it - I've tried the ctrl and F11 key at startup like they say in the blurb 9 times now. I get a light squeek from the speaker when I hold them but when I release after a bit it goes on as always - no s/u area and the mighty Windows.

Time goes by I sense it's a full slow format. Likely with just a single drive since I can't get the RAID stuff to copy to a floppy either.

Very frustrating.

I clean up the other 3 systems here about every year or so - they get loaded up with junk with kids around. It's always a simple thing --- install disks just whip thru it. Is it the RAID thing, a thing unique to DELL systems or ??? And nope - they can't get into this one so they innocent. lol

Couple more hours and I got to start doing whatever here - rip out the RAID and get a new drive or whatever. Nothing wrong with these current drives but they'd be to small for a single drive.

I pray to God whatever drivers I will need to get this beast running again if I forced that way are in fact here on the CD's they sent with sys. That'd be the worst thing imaginable if they were not - I'd flip out and do something really stupid like ......

Last call for ideas anyone. Thanks in advance

Have you tried uninstalling Adobe Reader in Safe Mode?

Have you run chkdsk /f to make sure there are no file system errors on the hard drive?

Have you run a wndows system file check? 

Have you scanned for malware lately?

Ron 

Ron - yes to all. I been tinkering with this debacle now for several weeks.

I have read and read, asked and asked questions everywhere but here. So here I am at the forum of last resort before I melt down and away in a vapor .............................

I just left Best Buy - was planning on getting a big drive, of course they currently out of stock of the big honkers too. Somewhat fitting to it all .... maybe good thing and gives me another day to try to get this worked out.

Can you be more explicit about why Reader won't read pdf's? Crashes?  Burns? Error messages?

Is XP actually set to associate .pdf with Reader?

Ron 

as specific as I can be is when I open a .pdf file, via on web, it stops, ceases, freezes. I wait 20 minutes sometimes, the only way to unfreeze IE or Firefox is to copen task manager, close out the whole thing and move on. It's not now and then - it is 10000000% of the time it's uses.

What I have on my drive in way of .pdf files will open but open with Foxit now since I installed it.

Assume file association is ?????? how do I know?

I don't know of any Adobe updates I ever did after the 7. ver on that A)I don't recall ever electing to install B)it cannot be uninstalled and tells me to contact my tech person for support ..... lol

I did try to put on Ver 8 weeks after hassles started and that couldn't be installed as it couldn't remove the existing version 8.    ----  no clue why/where/how this all came about. I look and the only Adobe that shows in program files is Ver 7. --- which can't be removed.

So here I sit today .............................................. a very very unhappy camper

Read this thread on the Adobe forum for some things to do to get rid of Reader 7. The post by Colleen Mullins may have your solution.

If you're happy with Foxit, you don't have to install Reader 8 after you get rid of v7.

Ron 

again the heart of the issue is this --- I cannot open and read a .pdf file while online so every time I need something I am maeesed up - it starts to open and just sits there frozen. I have to open task manager, shut down IE and all, and then IE or any browser will work again. Until I try to open a .pdf file again.

I cannot get Foxit to open these files or work unless they are older files downloaded on my computer from times past. Then it will open - and only then function at all.

Make no doubt - I can live w/o Adobe. I cannot live w/o a .pdf reader.

If someone can tell me how to get even Foxit to work always I'd live with adobe remants on system.

My system starting to seem like a slow dog with arthritis but I'd live with that too.

What's the trick or magic to do the Foxit work around???

It is possible you need to clean up your temporary internet files folder. Open IE and go to Tools>Internet Options>General Tab,

In the browsing history section hit the delete button, don't worry it won't delete anything yet, a new window will open, hit the delete button for temp internet files.

Control Panel, Folder Options, File Types.  Then scroll down the list to pdf, select pdf, click change, then see if the association is Adobe of Foxit Reader.  Chose the one you want, then click the box to always open a pdf file with this program, click OK, then OK, and you should be set.  But Adobe may have set something in the registry to interfere with this. 

I tried this before and tried it again - other than cleaning things out it did nothing to solve the issue.

Whats the manner to make sure the associations to .pdf are always set say to Foxit vs trying to get adobe to open? Easy way to check and set thru windows somewhere?