xp came on the computer when i purchased it from dell like five or so
years ago. it is a dell demision 2650 it crashed and now not all of
the original files are still there. i had to dl a program to find
recycle bin and still things like system restore and defragment are
still missing. how would i find the file(s) that reboot it? if they
are on there. ?
If a Dell has a hidden recovery partition, it can normally be accessed
by pressing Ctrl+F11 immediately after turning on the PC.
I went to the Dell site, and I see no evidence of that model number. Was
that a typo?
Your best bet is to go here:
http://support.dell.com/support/index.aspx?~ck=pn
Click on Drivers & Downloads. Then enter your Service Tag number. After
you select your model and number, you can click on the link for Manuals
on the left-hand side. Eventually, you will find reinstallation
instructions. The Control+F11 option may or may not be there for you. If
not, that means Dell shipped you your PC with the Reinstallation CD (or
a Recovery CD). Look harder for it!
Or if you know anybody with a Dell XP Reinstallation CD, that's good
because that disk will work on your PC, too. There is no need to
purchase XP again (at least for this particular Dell); you already have
a license to run it.