Thank you for your response. I've used the search feature and looked at most of the posts/threads relevant to my situation.
However, right now, I am pulling my hair out, trying to figure what Dan Goodell is talking about in the dellrestore section of his website. The site does note that it requires "an above-average understanding of the technical topics involved" to understand what is going on. The tutorial itself is very well-written and I can see how dedicated this person is to helping other people but it is not very user-friendly for people who are not that farmiliar with DOS and other difficult topics involved in the tutorial.
Is there a easier way around this ? What can Dell do to help me out here ? Its only been about 3 weeks since I received this desktop, and its already giving me problems. Further feedback would be appreaciated.
I seem to recall a thread about this awhile back about how you can buy and install Norton Ghost, and use it to access and use a recovery partition that is no longer accessible because of a change to the MBR. That might be simpler than the manual procedure.
I recommend you request whatever CDs are necessary to reinstall all software included with your system. If not now, someday you may need to perform a clean installation. (CDs may not be provided for preinstalled software that is freely available via download.)
You may plead a case to Dell, but they may not provide another image of your original system software configuration, and they may not support repair of the Dell PC Restore feature. Dell software reinstallation guides are available on-line, and Dell support can offer some help with those and other basic procedures. Dell also offers personal software support for a fee. These forums and other resources may be most helpful.
You may need the services of a competent PC technician, but the instructions and tools provided by Dan Goodell may become less daunting with further study and discussion. This page covers the automated repair process.
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm
Greatly simplified, the process boils down to a few basic tasks.
1 - Create a DOS boot floppy, CD, or flash drive with the dsrfix utility added.
2 - Run dsrfix, verify no fatal errors are reported, then run dsrfix /f.
3 - Run Dell PC Restore.
The other two alternate sets of instructions for recovering PC Restore (besides Dan Goodell's) can be found
here and
here.
Obtaining an XP reinstallation CD from Dell and doing a clean reinstallation is a better solution to the problem and in any case far more straightforward.
Message Edited by Denny Denham on 12-26-2005 09:28 AM
The links that you have provided me have been very resourceful and it has helped me to find out what was really the problem. The problem is that the hidden partitions cannot be located. With the dsrfix, I get two fatal errors that the 2 hidden partitions are not FAT 16 and FAT 32. With the MBR saver, I do get the blue bar to appear, however when I press CTRL + F11 it says , unable to restore image.
To my knowledge, if you format a visible partition, it does not affect the hidden partitions. Thus, I don't understand how I could have affected the two hidden Dell partitions. Additionally, my HD size is originally 160 GB. I do understand that, the HD sizes are smaller than what you buy for, however, my current HD size is 129 GB. This is ~80% of original HD size. Do you suspect that the hidden partition is gone or just modified ? Is there any way to fix this ?
Thank you for the help, I'm finding out more and more by the day and a bit more assistance would be really apprecaited.
"With the dsrfix, I get two fatal errors that the 2 hidden partitions are not FAT 16 and FAT 32."
How did you run dsrfix? If you used a bootable flash drive, did you remember to use the /81 switch? If you believe the two Dell partitions should still be there, then if dsrfix can't find either of them it usually means it's looking at the wrong disk.
If you have a way of saving a dsrfix log file (i.e., you have a floppy or flash drive), you're welcome to email me the log file for diagnosis.
I could really use your expertise, and I do appreciate your help. To answer your question, I have been using a USB Floppy Drive to boot to DOS. Yes I've tried from dsrfix /80 up to dsrfix /83, however, I was looking at the right drive when I was using dsrfix.
These are the results I get:
DSRFIX - Dell DSR Analyzer, version 1.0
Copyright 2005 by Dan Goodell, all rights reserved.
?ood : int13 extensions supported.
?ood : boot code matches dell mbr.
alert: pbr descriptor 1 is not type DE.
alert: pbr descriptor 2 is not type 07.
alert: pbr descriptor 3 is not type DB.
fatal: pbr1 is not fat16.
fatal: pbr3 is not fat32.
alert: backup partition table not in sync.
Notice that, the boot code matches the dell mbr. It used to be that everything was on alert with the 2 fatal messages, however, I have fixed that boot code alert message with the mbr saver(thank you dan for that tool).
Again, I would like to find out a way to see the hidden partition. On my Dimension 1100, I went to administrative tools > computer management > storage tools > disk management and found that there was a 55 MB utility partition and the 4 gb restore partition. However, when I do this with my Dimension 3100(the desktop in question, which has been formatted), I cannot see it.
I have mentioned in my previous post why I still think that hidden partition is still on my computer even if the adminstrative tools do not show it.
Dan, I have e-mailed you the logs. I hope when you have the time, you can have a look at this and spot what my problem is. I will keep trying for a week, and if we(community forums) cant figure it out, then I'll have to call in for tech service since Dell doesn't cover this and the warranties are strictly for hardware problems only(?).
Thank you everyone for the help, but I think we're very close to solving the problem.
Following several email exchanges, w0okie and I were able to resolve this issue. So I'll wrap up this thread with a summary for the benefit of forum readers.
w0okie had a 160GB disk with the usual three partitions, including the Dell restore partition at the end of the disk. He replaced the original XP with a Korean version of XP, and in the process inadvertantly deleted the two special Dell partitions. He then wanted to return to the original XP through the use of the Dell restore partition. Unfortunately, a partition is seldom recoverable after it has been deleted.
However, w0okie caught a break. It turns out his Korean XP was an older version that was bound by the now-familiar 137GB limit, so when it was installed it only created a single 137GB partition. The space the former restore partition occupied at the end of the disk remained safely out of reach, so was never overwritten.
With the use of ptedit and Mikkelsen's findpart (
www.partitionsaving.com), we were able to manually resurrect the restore partition, then use it to restore the original "as-shipped" XP into a 149GB partition using the rest of the disk.
Since the Korean XP had overwritten the space of the former utility partition, we could not recover that. Without a utility partition, the usually automatic restore process (Ctrl+F11) could not work as Dell intended, so the restore has to be done manually.
So, not quite like new, but at least the restore partition is back and manually usable, and he has his original XP back and working.
osprey4
4 Operator
•
34.2K Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 00:00
w0okie
27 Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 07:00
However, right now, I am pulling my hair out, trying to figure what Dan Goodell is talking about in the dellrestore section of his website. The site does note that it requires "an above-average understanding of the technical topics involved" to understand what is going on. The tutorial itself is very well-written and I can see how dedicated this person is to helping other people but it is not very user-friendly for people who are not that farmiliar with DOS and other difficult topics involved in the tutorial.
Is there a easier way around this ? What can Dell do to help me out here ? Its only been about 3 weeks since I received this desktop, and its already giving me problems. Further feedback would be appreaciated.
Highlander_821
31 Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 10:00
GreyMack
2.2K Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 11:00
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm
1 - Create a DOS boot floppy, CD, or flash drive with the dsrfix utility added.
2 - Run dsrfix, verify no fatal errors are reported, then run dsrfix /f.
3 - Run Dell PC Restore.
GM
Denny Denham
2 Intern
•
18.8K Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 15:00
The other two alternate sets of instructions for recovering PC Restore (besides Dan Goodell's) can be found here and here.
Obtaining an XP reinstallation CD from Dell and doing a clean reinstallation is a better solution to the problem and in any case far more straightforward.
Message Edited by Denny Denham on 12-26-2005 09:28 AM
w0okie
27 Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 21:00
To my knowledge, if you format a visible partition, it does not affect the hidden partitions. Thus, I don't understand how I could have affected the two hidden Dell partitions. Additionally, my HD size is originally 160 GB. I do understand that, the HD sizes are smaller than what you buy for, however, my current HD size is 129 GB. This is ~80% of original HD size. Do you suspect that the hidden partition is gone or just modified ? Is there any way to fix this ?
Thank you for the help, I'm finding out more and more by the day and a bit more assistance would be really apprecaited.
dg1261
623 Posts
0
December 26th, 2005 23:00
"With the dsrfix, I get two fatal errors that the 2 hidden partitions are not FAT 16 and FAT 32."
w0okie
27 Posts
0
December 27th, 2005 06:00
I could really use your expertise, and I do appreciate your help. To answer your question, I have been using a USB Floppy Drive to boot to DOS. Yes I've tried from dsrfix /80 up to dsrfix /83, however, I was looking at the right drive when I was using dsrfix.
These are the results I get:
DSRFIX - Dell DSR Analyzer, version 1.0
Copyright 2005 by Dan Goodell, all rights reserved.
?ood : int13 extensions supported.
?ood : boot code matches dell mbr.
alert: pbr descriptor 1 is not type DE.
alert: pbr descriptor 2 is not type 07.
alert: pbr descriptor 3 is not type DB.
fatal: pbr1 is not fat16.
fatal: pbr3 is not fat32.
alert: backup partition table not in sync.
Notice that, the boot code matches the dell mbr. It used to be that everything was on alert with the 2 fatal messages, however, I have fixed that boot code alert message with the mbr saver(thank you dan for that tool).
Again, I would like to find out a way to see the hidden partition. On my Dimension 1100, I went to administrative tools > computer management > storage tools > disk management and found that there was a 55 MB utility partition and the 4 gb restore partition. However, when I do this with my Dimension 3100(the desktop in question, which has been formatted), I cannot see it.
I have mentioned in my previous post why I still think that hidden partition is still on my computer even if the adminstrative tools do not show it.
Dan, I have e-mailed you the logs. I hope when you have the time, you can have a look at this and spot what my problem is. I will keep trying for a week, and if we(community forums) cant figure it out, then I'll have to call in for tech service since Dell doesn't cover this and the warranties are strictly for hardware problems only(?).
Thank you everyone for the help, but I think we're very close to solving the problem.
Message Edited by w0okie on 12-27-2005 02:24 AM
dg1261
623 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2006 22:00
Following several email exchanges, w0okie and I were able to resolve this issue. So I'll wrap up this thread with a summary for the benefit of forum readers.
w0okie had a 160GB disk with the usual three partitions, including the Dell restore partition at the end of the disk. He replaced the original XP with a Korean version of XP, and in the process inadvertantly deleted the two special Dell partitions. He then wanted to return to the original XP through the use of the Dell restore partition. Unfortunately, a partition is seldom recoverable after it has been deleted.