Is it possible and or has any one done this with dual boot with xp and vista. For some reason I am at a point where the Dell diag works, I can boot into XP and Vista, but can not get the F11 key to work. DSRFIX reports everything good, and the fat32 partition is there and is in the fourth position, but cant get the F11 to work. Any ideas what to try next?

If I hit the F11 key too much I get a NTDLR missing and it wont boot. If I run the dsrfix it fixes it where I can boot into both os's. But if I try the F11 key again too much it gives me the NTDLR.

Update: Afer I get this message and run ptedit, the boot partition is getting changed from the os partition to the DB partition. Why is this happening when I hit the F11 key. I can run DSRFIX and I can boot again but again hitting the F11 key screws up the boot partition. Need help PCGEEK04.

The Dell System Restore process does indeed make the Restore partition ACTIVE... that is how it is able to boot itself and restore the image. Under normal operations... once the RESTORE process is complete... the REstore Process Makes the Windows partition active and re-hides itself... your process is HANGING after it un-hides and makes itself active, but before the restore kicks off.

Yo uare stating that you are running DSRFIX... are you using the pbr4 function? If the Restore Partion is the forth then you need to run DSRFIX /PBR4...

give it a shot.

Are you running normal 3 partiton or a 4 partition drive?

No worries...you can restore the functionality. You will need to get a GHOST image of that partition from someone... I would suggest eliminating the FI.GHO files before creating the image...

Also, you will then need to adjust the Service Tag numbers within the files once restored. GooDells has instructions for this on their site... I will not duplicate the wonderful content they provide.. Check em out.

NOTE: In testing... I did this very thing to make sure it worked. I GHosted my Restore Partition (minus the *.gho files), then deleted the partition. Rebooted and verified windows worked properly...

I also took an image of my wife's E1705 RP... I then proceeded to put My wifes RP on my system.... It worked fine, but you have to use an imagethat has captured the boot information... simply copying the files will not work.

My system restored properly, but then showed my WIfes Service Tag info... I went to GooDells and found the info for editing this... All good in Notebook Land again...

IT will work.. If you get it done properly... Take your Time. Double Check everything. You will be fine.

this thread still kicking ? I may write up another one soon with the easy process..... that only if I have time to mess around....

xccess21.... You are the..uhhhh.... pooop?... lol..

thanks for all the input and attention in this thread..

I am just as amazed as you that the thread is still kickin'.... Laters

good threads never die

Hi there, I managed to successfully create and envoke a new ghost image for the Dell System Restore following the tutorial provided by PcGeek04. All the procedure worked beautifully!

Thanx for this wonderful thread.

No Worries.... Glad it is helping... and still alive and kicking!

SHOOTZ... thanks...

I have a question, hope I am not becoming a pain:

If I were to take some space from my C: and transfer it to my 4th primary partition and then install VISTA on it. Would I still be able to use the DSR of the XP on the 2nd partition?

Maybe I am getting way ahead of my skills, but I was just thinking of giving VISTA a try without deleting my XP.

I dual booted xp/vista for a time....

Just came across this thread.I own 3 Dell's, all desktops.A 8200 and 2 9150's.Maybe i missed it somewhere but can i make ctrl-f11 work on the 8200?It didn't have this originally but it would be nice if i could make it myself.It's my daughters pc so she messes around with it alot.Would save me a great deal of work each time i have to fix it! (reinstall that is!).
I'm going to try to get it to work on my own 9150, it came with the restore function, but had raid 0, i changed it to non raid because it suited me better (Dual boot XP/Vista) and now my restore image and partition is gone.I did backup the original image but it's full of preinstalled stuff i don't want.
But i would really like to know if it is possible on a pc which didn't have it originally.

P.S.
I also own a Inspiron 8000, would be nice to add this function to that one also!

Now is the time to get a free copy of Ghost 10 which comes with Ghost 2003, before they're gone. Frys.com has a $50 rebate that ends at midnite tonight. Ghost 11 is rumored to drop Ghost 2003, which means that you will no longer be able to buy a new copy of 2003 when the Ghost 10 copies are all gone.

Got the whole stuff to work on my daughters Dimension 8200 except for 1 thing.After i restore my custom image, Ctrl-F11 works, (Dimension 8200 originally didn't have the resore function) you have to reboot.After reboot it loads pbr 1 and says "invalid system disk".
I've tried it with the original files, my wife's pc still has the resore function so i can borrow some stuff from hers.No luck, tried it with the sys files from an old Win 98 boot disk, no luck either, tried it with the sys files from a Win XP boot disk no luck either.All the right files are on the DellUtility partition, it's the first and fat16.All the right files are on the DellRestore partition, its third and fat32.
DSRFIX reports that everything is oke, The disk types are oke if you check them with Ptedit.
What could still be wrong?

Fixed it! Made an image of the Utility partititon from my wife's pc and now it's working like a charm!