Ok ty, i will try...but my compruter is not a laptop, will it work anyway?

DO YOU HAVE XP DISC ? IF SO SWITCH OFF COMPUTER RESTART WITH DISC IN AND PRESS ANY KEY WHEN TOLD FOLLOW WHAT IT TELLS YOU TO DO ,WHEN IT IS FULLY LOADED DO NOT PRESS ANY KEY OR IT WILL REBOOT AGAIN ,TREV

I have a similar problem to the first guy who posted on this thread - I want to do System restore

My Dell 3000 was not shipped with a restore disk, and I think the one that should be on the hard drive partition has become corrupted, so F11 does not work

I have looked for a disk from Dell and/or MS but not been able to locate one.

Anyone got ideas/suggestions?

Does not matter if its a laptop or a desktop, if the Symantec Restore Utility is not corrupted and was offered on your system, it will work

Easy fix Guiter.

Request for back up CD's for Dell's operating system, and drivers form link

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1  

Here are some good links:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_clean.asp
http://www.djdenham.com/Install%20Procedures.htm#Install

Driver Installation:
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&cs=19&docid=1A0C0937D62A8739E0401E0A55174744&journalid=4F1F82483DC811DBAE564F9328EE04A4&l=en&s=gen

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&dn=1090643

To find and download the drivers for your system, scroll down the page on click on
"Drivers and Downloads". Then enter your Service Tag or model number of your computer.
Select your operating system and then download the drivers that you need.

thanks a lot guys.

I tried the Dell US support site but as live in the UK they redirected me to Dell UK. Dropped them a line and waiting on a reply