Already tried that - thanks though.

I believe pcmcia.sys would try to load whether a card is installed or not wouldn't it?

 

Maybe someone knows if Dell provides any way to repair Windows XP rather than completely reinstall it? I know it's somehow do-able with a standard Windows XP disk.

http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/How-to-repair-Windows-XP-t138.html

If there is a pcmcia card installed in that laptop, power down and remove it, try to boot.

 

It will be on the right side of the Latop, just above the hard drive bay.

Yes those are good instructions, but the key part is "Boot from your Windows XP CD". Dell did not give her a Windows XP CD (which I don't think anybody does anymore). I believe her "system recovery" disk is actually stored on the hard drive in a special partition. There is no CD containing Windows XP at all.

 

Is there some way to do the repair with Dell's proprietary setup of the XP recovery partition?

 

 

 

"Is there some way to do the repair with Dell's proprietary setup of the XP recovery partition?"

 

No, you cannot repair, only do a complete reinstallation, losing all the data.

 

You can request a set of Backup CD's from Dell here,

 

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

Would the Dell backup CD have the repair option on it, or is it the same thing that's on the recovery partition?

 

As another option, is there anyway she can somehow get the data off that hard drive (pictures, etc) without it booting into Windows? Then she could just reformat the whole thing anyway.

"Would the Dell backup CD have the repair option on it, or is it the same thing that's on the recovery partition?"

 

No, No

 

You need the XPsp2 re-installation CD to do a repair.

 

Yes, mount the drive in another PC to copy data off.

So is the Dell backup CD a "XP sp2 re-installation CD" ? In other words is the back up disk able to do the repair?

 

I know it is possible to reinstall windows without doing a CLEAN install (no formatting), would that option be on the disk?

"So is the Dell backup CD a "XP sp2 re-installation CD"

 

Yes, when you request a set of backup cd's from Dell, they will send you the XPsp2 reinstallation cd.

 

 

A repair is a reinstallation of the OS, it just leaves all other data intact, this is the prefered method for your situation.