You either find some guru to work on it as any web forum can't help as the details get too deep too fast.
Or you start over. Dell has many of the OSes for download such as http://forums.cnet.com/7726-13974_102-5325452.html?tag=posts;msg5325452 so it's never an issue you are missing the DVDs today.
In fact, I wonder if this is the usual discussion about PC backup. It's never been optional.
Bob
Hi guys could really do with some help here having an awful time with this, trying so much to avoid a system wipe as I have too much uni work unbacked up on my drives and no recovery cd that I can find (yet).
I'll start from the beginning and run you through what Iv tried so far; I ran a system restore last night and it froze up for maybe a half hour, so I switched it off - held down off button for 10 seconds (really regretting this now).
When I switched it back on it boots to Startup Repair which concludes that it cannot repair this computer automatically, option to send report leads to the unplug any devices page and restart. Other option of dont send followed by the view advanced options for startup recovery and support leads to the following;
Startup Repair... no result just a cannot repair automatically as before,
System Restore... no result claiming no restore points have been created,
System Image Recovery... no result as I dont have one, (presuming this is the last resort to wipe and replace)
Windows Memory Diagnostic... shows no problems with memory found,
Command Prompt; I basically have been trying many different options from various forums all night mainly this one http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/system-recovery-options-help
[QUOTE]X:\windows\system32> diskpart
DISKPART> list disk
DISKPART> select disk 0
DISKPART> list partition[/QUOTE] Results are Partition 1 Primary type size 100 MB offset 1024KB and Partition 2 Primary type size 297GB offset 101MB
Scotts next instruction; [QUOTE]DISKPART> select partition 2
DISKPART> detail partition
DISKPART> exit[/QUOTE] results with; Volume ### = Volume 2. Ltr = D. Label = Blank Here. Fs = NTFS. Type = Partition. Size 297GB Status = Healthy. Info = Blank here.
Next step exit Diskpart and return to system32> chkdsk /F c: reports that Windows has checked the file system and found no problems. It did this very quick maybe 3 seconds, thought thats not right so presumed i was checking the wrong drive and that it should be chkdsk /F d: as thats where my os is, results then showed file system as NTFS, cant see a volume label indication and Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
Next step was to exit command prompt and restart with no results (I realize now I didn't actually fix or do anything in command prompt), so I restart this time tapping F8 and try Safe Mode options all 3 of them and they all immediately go to the windows loading files then back into Startup Repair and the merrygoround continues. Also tried last known good configuration from this F8 window to the same result. Back to command prompt I also searched; chkdsk with no problems found. Finally I tried Scotts last instruction [QUOTE]Finally, here is the next thing to try. We are going to run chkdsk with a different parameter, /R, which will do a surface scan looking for hard drive errors. This command will take longer to run, much longer. However, it should give you a progress indicator, probably percent complete. So, power up, F8, Repair Your Computer, Command Prompt, and type:
chkdsk /R c:[/QUOTE] but changed the c: for d: which took around an hour and found no problems.
If you can offer any help guys please do, if you need any other info please ask ill be sitting here for as long as it takes to fix this or find a solution. Please note I am not a wizz with under the bonnet or behind the scenes on these but will follow instructions to the letter. I thank you in advance.

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