There is NO DOS in Windows XP.  There is a built in limited DOS emulator, but that's all.

 

You can't boot to DOS, like you could with older operating systems since it's not there, and DOS does not recognize the NTFS formatted hard drive.

Cooldep, the link you provided has the answer to your question at the bottom of that page, but sorry, I see no indication from your post that Disk Management reveals a hidden partition on your system other than the Dell Utility partition containing Dell Diagnostics.

 

 

GM

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_other&message.id=239868

 

 

there is the above article on recovering pc restore partition

 

you should be able to boot to cd, there are instructions in the above thread on how to do this,

 

as previously pointed out, pc restore is most likely gone, but this is worth a shot

If you did a clean install, the MBR was altered and access to the restore parititon is more than likley been erased.

Heres the long version............

 

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&dn=1090151
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm


Systems shipped after July 15, 2004 came with Symantec PC Restore. This utility restores the computer to an "as-shipped" condition. If you haven't reformatted, repartitioned, or otherwise modified the master boot record, it should work.

If the Symantec PC Restore utility won't work, but still resides on your computer, a Dell customer has figured out some ways to get it to work again. Note - If you removed this partition, it is not recoverable, cannot be downloaded from the internet, and cannot be shipped from Dell. Click here for ways to fix Symantec PC Restore. Users have also reported that the partition can be restored with Ghost 2003, and Ghost 9 using the '03 capabilities of it. If you boot to the Ghost 9 CD, select Advanced Recovery Taks, select Utilities, then Restore Legacy Image it should work - but you want to verify the image before attempting the restore. It's in a folder called IMG.

Systems that shipped beginning in early 2005 ship without Windows XP. You can contact Dell and request a CD and wait for it to ship, see Contact Us at the bottom of the page. And you'd need the other CDs from Dell or you can't reinstall that particular piece of software.

As I have tried to point out three times in that thread, the thread started by JohnUsa is obsolete.  I should know, because he's making reference to files I initially provided but which are no longer available.  Unfortunately, people keep referring others to it when it should be removed in it's entirety.

 

Trying to use the convoluted techniques delineated in that thread will prove futile--especially if you don't even have a DSR partition.  As the others in this thread have already pointed out, if Disk Mgmt is only showing the two partitions you mentioned at the top, then you do not have a DSR partition, and you are wasting your time.

 

 

Dan Goodell