Did Installing Vista kill my factory image?

Question

Hi everybody. I installed Vista Business edition thinking that if I ended up not liking it, I could easily use the system restore partition that came with my machine to go back to WinXP MCE. Well, tonight I backed up all my files and rebooted, hit ctrl+F11 and nothing! Did installing Vista somehow kill my recovery partition???? I appreciate any advice on this.. thanks!

Ninefoot3 · Answer

if you formatted the drive completely (deleting existing partitions) odds are yes.   if you just formatted the C: partition and left the other one, you should be okay, but I'm unfamiliar with Dell's restore software and don't know if the info on the 'hidden' partition access info on the Factory C: partition in order to return the disk back to the stock image.   Someone verify?   You'd think just using the Dell XP cd would work...

pcgeek11 · Answer

If you didn't delete it it is still there, but Vista did over write the Dell MBR ( that is where the restore Ctrl + F11 functionality is ). Check here:   http://www.goodells.net/   pcgeek11

GTAGeddyFan · Answer

pcgeek, Thank you!!! Worked like a charm and now I'm back on XP... YAY!!

querry1 · Answer

True...at startup look for the blue bar with Dell written in it. If it appears it means your quick restore has only been disabled. Burn the goodell fix to cd. Restart the computer with the cd loaded. Be sure to read the instructions at the link. The repair utility will load and you have to enter a few simple commands. Restart the computer and hit ctrl+f11...Back to factory specs in 10 minutes...

querry1 · Answer

Here is a better link....   http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Windows General

Did Installing Vista kill my factory image?

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