Jc47,

 

Click on Control Panel|Administrative Tools|Computer Management.  Click on Storage in the left pane.  Click on Disk Management.  If Drive 0 in the right pane shows more than one partition and one of those partitions is around 4 to 6 gigabytes, then your system most likely has, or had, the Dell PC Restore by Symantec.

 

Just worked on an E521 last week that had the PC Restore partition.  I must note that it was purchased as a refurbished unit from Dell, so I can't say that all E521s had the PC Restore partition.  Dell computers that shipped with XP and were manufactured on or after July 16, 2004 have the PC Restore partition.

 

Another indicator that your system has, or had, a PC Restore partition is when you turn it on, right after the splash screen, does a blue bar pop up at the top of the screen with www.dell.com on it?

If it does, then your system most likely has, or had, a PC Restore partition.

 

It can be a little tricky to access the PC Restore partition.  The trick is to press the CTRL and F11 keys at the same time while the Dell logo is on the screen, then release them at the same time.  Quite often, this takes a few tries to get your timing just right.

 

Hope this info helps.

 

Tony