please tell me what is the operating system do you use and what is the system model? for xp we can use ctrl+f11 but for vista we have to go through f8 and we have to choose factory restore.

computer troubleshooting 

We more info on your system an operating system. CTRL-F11 may or may not be the way to access the factory restore partition.

Try this to see if it will help. Have you done anything to the drive? reformated or such? Any change to the MBR will render the restore function usless. Then your only option is a complete reinstall.

At the moment if you have a XP disk, Dell or non Dell, you could attempt a Repair Reinstall to see if that will correct your problem

It is an Inspiron 9400 XP Home.....the partition is there when I go to manage the hard drives. It is 3 gig in size...

I tried the link the first time I got hal.dll missing. I tried a reinstall and setup could not find previous Windows folder. I had to use recovery console to do BOOTCFG /add to put windows folder in the boot.ini file. Now the Inspirion 9400 boots ok, just not able to get CTRL-F11 to find recovery program. When the laptop boots there is no longer the www.dell.com blue banner before XP Home starts up.

I think at this point you need to run the Dell diagnostics  on the system. I would run the whole suite of diagnostics.

You can repair the PC Restore function of a computer that uses Windows XP by following directions found here:  Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition.  The only trouble is that by the time you follow all the instructions you will have done nearly as much work as you would have done if you simply performed a manual reinstallation.  I sort of think that this is worth while only if you really, really, like or need the programs that Dell originally delivered with the computer.

Actually, it sounds like the system is working properly, but the MBR no longer has the information that lets CTRL+F11 work.  Someone had a set of steps that would repair the MBR so Image Restore would work, but I can never remember whos instructions they were (I'm bad with names).