Control F11 Fix

John,

will this work if you did a clean install but kept the pc restore partition?

To: boppo

Yes, it will work.

The reason it will work is because your are restoring the MBR as if your PC just left the Dell factory.

From your question I gather that you rather restore your PC to the condition you first got your PC instead of the state it is now, which is a clean XP install. Am I right?

Good luck.

Message Edited by JohnUSA on 07-06-2005 11:45 PM

...and for those Dell's that do not come with a floppy drive as Dell has declared them obsolete?

I will keep the clean install but if I sell it I would like to have that option back. I hope it works cuz my girl friend will kill me if I turn it into a brick.

thanks.

Regarding those users who don't have floppy drives,  you can buy a USB external floppy drive from Dell, it is only about $25, you can buy it here:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?sku=A0005199&Page=productlisting.aspx&spagenum=1&items_per_page=25&orderby=final_price&sortdirection=&image_flag=True&show_summary=True&category_id=5693&brandid=&mnfsku=&SearchType=&Pageb4Search=&ModelSelection=&iCompatid=&selectiontypeids=&l=en&c=us&cs=19&SubmitSearch=&servicetag=&reset=True&k=&mnf=&prst=&prEnd=&InStock=&refurbished=&fe=

Or, you need to find a PC (a friend or at work) that does have a floppy drive AND a CD burner.

Run the "boot98se.exe" file to create the floppy boot disk.

Copy all the files from this boot disk to a clean folder which you would call DosBoot.

Create an additional folder and call it DSRFIX, and copy the four files from "dsrfix.zip" into this folder.

Now burn all the files in the "DosBoot" directory on a CDR. Make sure you burn what is inside this directory only. Do not burn if you see DosBoot folder on the CD. You want to see ONLY all the boot files only, and the DSRFIX folder.

Make sure your PC Bios is setup properly to allow cd bootup.

Put this newly burned CD in your CD drive and reboot.

After booting, change to the DSRFIX folder on this same CD.

To change, type:

A:\ cd dsrfix       (even though you are reading a CD the drive letter will be "A" because of the boot files)

Now follow my previous instructions to update your MBR.

Good luck.

 

Message Edited by JohnUSA on 07-06-2005 08:47 PM

Message Edited by JohnUSA on 07-06-2005 11:44 PM

first and foremost thanks for these helpful fix!
i did almost similar with the once u mentioned except that i downloaded a WIN ME boot disk ISO then burned it to my CD. and these are the steps i did:

1. boot to DOS w/ CD support
2. initiate the DSR fix, since i have a CD support i accessed the files on my CD
3. i succesfully brought back the ctrl-F11 function

but the problem happend after the CTRL-F11:
after the short message on PBR descriptor 2.. done
win 98....

a box popped out with a header DELL PC Restore by Symantec and the contents says The Dell system recovery tool has detected an unsupported change in you master boot record.
The tool cannot run at this time.
Please call dell technical support assistance.
Caution: do not manually shut down your computer. CLick the FINISH button to reboot.

then after rebooting it hangs up on LOADING PBR FOR DESCRIPTOR 2... done

fyi, it's a inspiron 6000 recently bought last quarter.

TIA!

To: 13sinned

Please go to the URL: http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_other&message.id=239868

and ask Dan Goodell (user name: dg1261) the same quesion that you asked here. He may know about the error that you are experiencing. Goodluck.

hi john thanks for the quick reply.
i already sorted out the problem and i guess i was too excited at first by jumping easily to conclusions.
anyways, i used dan's way of directly launching dell's recovery program instead of going to the ctrl-F11 route where the system is too meticulous for allowing me to use the recovery system.
anyhow the only stumbling block i encountered was being to naive on understanding how dan created the procedure. in my case its abt having only 2 partitions instead as illustrated on his table of having 3 partitions. this is the modification that i did to fit my situation:
1.used ME boot disc image for CD loading.
2. loaded CTMOUSE
3. launched PTEDIT
4. modified only partition 1 and 2 as 07 and DB>0C. then set 0C as bootable (80)
5. reboot on DOS
6. restore ghost image
7. re-set partition type byte to its regular values.
this proves dan's findings as long as the partition that has the ghost image.

JohnUSA,

I just used your instructions to restore my Inspiron 6000 back to the factor image. Thank you

The only additional instruction I would add to yours would be to make sure that you burn the Win98SE image as a bootable iso onto the CD. Don't just copy the files, or else your computer will not boot from it.

Once again, thanks so much for these instructions.

hobbes

Please help, I burned the files as directed on a cd using Nero with the bootable cd floppy imulation option., DSRFIX folder and the boot files individually. My computer booted to dos prompt just fine,

"Here is what comes up on my screen....

SUCCESS !!!!  Well after much brain busting and GREAT help from this forum and especially my hero's

"JohnUSA  and dg1261 " who are the greatest by the way... I have restored my master boot record.

I thought maybe I didn't have cd rom support with my dos boot cd , because when I typed "D" or "E"  at the prompt I just got nothing, This is what I did after the prompt came up after adding " : " after the d .

[DR-DOS] A:\>    I typed "D:".

[DR-DOS]D:\>  I typed "cd dsrfix".

[DR-DOS]D:\DSRFIX>    I typed "mbrsaver /r dellmbr.bin".

I didn't use the "MBR Saver feature". Then I just followed the directions as JohnUSA gave when the MBR Restore questions came up.Everything went as it should and it restored my previous Dell  MBR. I tried the ctlr and f11 keys upon restarting and the Dell restore option was there. It is great knowing that this option is available again (since restoring with cd's is a pain !). Thanks again for the support and I hope this may help others who aren't too familar with dos as I am .

Glad to hear you finally got it sorted out.  With few systems coming with floppy drives these days, more and more people will be resorting to bootable cds to facilitate repairs like this.