Ron, it's my last day of our holiday shutdown. Back to the rat race tomorrow!

Please edit your post and remove the Service Tag number, asap. It's a violation of the forum's terms of use to post any personal info, including the Service Tag number. If you don't remove it, the moderators may delete this entire thread.

Don't know how you "patched over" the hard drive problem, but are you sure you can trust it?

Systems shipped after July 2004 should have PC Restore on the hard drive which resets the drive to exactly the way Dell shipped it. If you didn't reformat the hard drive when you reinstalled Vista, you might still have access to PC Restore. Reboot and press F8 before Windows starts to load. Look for the option to reset to factory condition. NOTE: all personal files and software you installed will be lost forever, so you must back up your files on external media first. If PC Restore is still functional, everything should be back to the way it was.

As for the current state of things, did you install all the correct hardware drivers, starting with the chipset driver as the very first driver after installing Windows?

If you can be more specific about what else you're missing, maybe we can help. But Dell doesn't typically allow 3rd party software to be downloaded from the net.

Ron

EDIT: Opsrey types faster than I do! :emotion-2:

Hi Ynot33,

First, yes, you should be able to restore the computer exactly as it came from Dell.

Two questions. Are you sure the hard drive is good? "Patched over" means what? My other question is how were your card reader slots designated before? This may be as simple as loading the correct driver.

Back to the rat race tomorrow!

Very punny!  :emotion-5:

Happy 2011!

Ron

Thanks Osprey for your prompt reply.

I am far from being a computer expert, hence my rather basic questions.

First, can I restore my computer as it came from Dell by using 'PC Restore' as detailed, which is 'Available on many Dell...Inspiron computers'...via a 'hidden partition', despite the fact that I have already carried out a 'Manual Reinstallation' of Windows Vista?  To confirm then, this will entail a second reinstallation of Windows Vista but with all the now missing items restored.

Second, in reply to your questions, my hard drive is not good as such.  Perhaps the best plan would be to replace it.  However the local computer shop where I took the computer after my 'manual reinstallation' had failed to resolve the continuing problems told me that they had isolated the bad sectors/segments which should give no further trouble - I wrongly used the term 'patched over'.  As far as I can now recall, the card reader slots, etc. were designated - 'Compact Flash Drive (G:)', '?D/SM Drive (H:)', 'Memory Stick Drive (I:)', 'SD Card Drive (J:)'.  Now they are merely 'Removable Disks'.  Where would I find the correct drivers to load if this is the problem?

Third, I did mention in my initial post that, on enquiry, Dell did not support or recognise my Service Tag & in case I had misread it I quoted the tag number.  I was rapped over the knuckles for providing this personal information, which was promptly removed.  The question arises however if the reason for this lack of support or recognition by Dell was also a result of my manual reinstallation which will be restored when I employ 'PC Restore' to regain all that I have lost?

Many thanks for your kind assistance.

ynot33

Well, you can certainly try the OS Image Restore. Whether it works depends on how they did the reinstallation. If it does not work, there is a separate procedure for a manual installation.

Restoring Your Computer´s Software to the Factory Settings

All of the drivers are available in downloads. Although it's a bit more convenient to use your service tag, you can also simply pick your model from a list.

Ynot33-

I used the service tag you posted to look at your system configuration (naughty me!). Your service tag was correctly recognized by Dell's support site (support.dell.com) and listed the drivers for the right model PC. So I don't know why you say they don't support or recognize it.

It's likely the PC shop used software to identify and lock out the bad sectors which should allow you to use the hard drive for a while longer but, to be safe, you should back up your files on a regular basis on external media.

If they reformatted the drive, then you've probably lost access to the PC Restore feature forever.

Have you put a memory card into each card reader slot? Windows may not recognize them and assign drive letters until you put a card in the slots.  And you might need to read this about manually assigning/changing drive letters in Vista.  You'll probably need a memory card in the slots to do the assignments.

Ron