Please provide more details. What is the model of Dell? What Operating System was initially loaded, I assume Windows Vista? You then later upgraded to Windows 7?

Do you have your Windows 7 product key? As it sounds like you have a retail product key, you can try this tool. It seems awful however and fails all my tests:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery%20

Please run the full F12 preboot diagnostics in case there is a hard drive failure:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/

it was already windows 7, i downgraded to see if there was any issues. windows 7 was preinstalled 

Do you have a Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation DVD?

no, i do not, is there another way to get ahold of the iso?

Microsoft have made a mess of the new Windows 7 downloader and it will not work with your OEM license. The only legal way (besides purchasing a license) is to call Dell Technical Support and have them ship you a Reinstallation DVD.

You could also use the Windows 10 Technical Preview to get your system running with a version of Windows:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/preview-iso

Its prereleased software and isn't entirely stable however.

it is a dead link. 

I have the same problem. my dell pc's registry got corrupted after getting some device driver update from dell website and I am now stuck in a start-up repair loop that could not be resolved The recovery disks I had made when I first bought the pc did not work. Possibly due to corrupted registry, the system didn't recognize it.

Lesson learned- Do not update unless absolutely necessary. My system was working fine except for a small triangle over a device driver that prompted me for update. Now it stopped functioning completely. Updates are all scams to induce sales. Why are download for pre-loaded os not available upon log in? There is already control through need for activation by product code. SOS!!!! Are there any kind souls out there that could help?

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery%20

This is a dead link!

Try without the %20

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery

Also try from here:

http://microsofthup.com/hupus/error404.html

Thank Natakuc4.

Both are dead links of some river website and it re-directs you to microsoft site. They ask for the product key and on verifiction that it is an oem product they simply push the responsibility of tech support to the vendor who had preloaded their os, which in my case is dell. So is of no help.

Why dell is not supporting their own customer is puzzling. So in my next round of hardware upgrade I will be bearing in mind how this problem pans out.

Thank Natakuc4. Both are dead links of some river website and it re-directs you to microsoft site. They ask for the product key and on verifiction that it is an oem product they simply push the responsibility of tech support to the vendor who had preloaded their os, which in my case is dell. So is of no help. Why dell is not supporting their own customer is puzzling. So in my next round of hardware upgrade I will be bearing in mind how this problem pans out.

This is not Dell's fault, its Microsoft who broke the downloads and its also Microsoft who are forcing the input of a retail product key. Its also Microsoft who are preventing OEMs like Dell from providing Digital Downloads. The same issues will occur for all major OEMs such as HP, Lenovo, Acer etc.

The Digital River .isos worked fine for clean installation with a Windows Vista/7 OEM license and I'm not sure why they were removed.

I made a thread on Microsoft Answers highlighting all the issues of the Windows 8.1 media Creation Tool  at the end of December (and got most recommended discussion of the week):

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-windows_install/windows-81-media-creation-tool-and-the-oem-license/d961fcfa-e213-46d4-ab7c-e8e5a1a7f4f7

I made a thread on Microsoft Answers highlighting all the issues with the Microsoft Windows 7 Software Recovery Tool 5 days ago and again got most recommended discussion of the week:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/microsoft-software-recovery-tool/95ac28f9-bd2d-4bb3-9f70-a62fecc56316

It seems Microsoft is very slow to act upon such requests however.