Just got my first Dell, very pleased overall. Does exactly what I wanted it to and there`s very little I`m not happy with. The only major gripe I`ve got is that I can`t access the Restore partition on boot.

 

I`ve pressed Ctrl+F11 to no avail, it boots straight into Vista every time. I can access the restore application interface through the Windows UI but obviously can`t run it from there.

 

I don`t want to do a restore, I`d just like to familiarise myself with it in case I do need to use it in the future....it`s always nice to know that a quick fix solution is available.

 

I`ve no idea why I can`t access this partition, I can get into Bios setup, Diagnostics and the Boot manager, so in my eyes this rules out my USB keyboard as being the problem, but it just won`t access the recovery partition. I have read afew posts on other forums about people having the same problem, but these were all with XP machines.

 

I do have the Vista Installation disc that came with my machine, but I rather fancy the idea of pressing a button to restore it to it`s "out of the box" state, rather than starting from scratch with a new installation should any major problems arise.

 

If anyone can shed any light on the problem I`m having it would be much appreciated.