when you boot the pc before it boots to windows there should be a bright blue line at the top of the scree before it asks you to press F12 or F2.

hold down the CTRL button while taping the F11 key so as too hit the 2 seconed cycle when the blue line apears this will boot you to the restoration services

 

If the Symantec PC Restore utility won't work, but still resides on your computer, a Dell customer has figured out some ways to get it to work again. Note - If you removed this partition, it is not recoverable, cannot be downloaded from the internet, and cannot be shipped from Dell. Click here for ways to fix Symantec PC Restore . Users have also reported that the partition can be restored with Ghost 2003, and Ghost 9 using the '03 capabilities of it. If you boot to the Ghost 9 CD, select Advanced Recovery Taks, select Utilities, then Restore Legacy IMage it should work - but you want to verify the image before attempting the restore. It's in a folder called IMG.

corjello,

The tutorial for formatting and reinstalling the operating system is here but it requires an MCE DVD. As noted above you can request this from Dell (use one of the links in here but as also noted in the same post, if you are no longer under warranty, Dell may not agree to provide one, in which case retail purchase is your only option.

or make an image of your exsisting OS and back it up on CD

if your still under warenty then you can request an operating cd from dell suport if not you will have to buy the OS.

 

the ctrl f11 doesnt work...

)corjello(

Ok I have a Dell dimension 9150 with xp home.
I just baught xp media center edition (from ebay)
can I can I wipe xp home and reinstall media center or not
becaues I'm having a heck of a time getting this done.
Starting to lose hope.