Hi Cindy,

The startup repair you tried, I presume you booted in from the dvd ?

Are you able to get into Safe Mode ? Usually you press F8 after the
bios screen, but before Windows starts loading. ( check your manual )

A clean reinstall from the dvd would likely do the job.

Dell have been sending reinstall dvd's that seem to be pretty much
straight copies of the MS dvd (with some ranges anyway).

If you have one of these, you may be able to save your existing files
into a folder called Windows.old.

To do this , when you get to step 10 of the tutorial, do not select
Drive Options ( advanced ) and do not format the partition. Simply click
on the partition you wish to install Vista and with any luck , it will
ask if you want to save all the files currently on that partition into a
Windows. old folder. You will then be able to access them from your new
Vista installation. You will still need to reinstall your apps. and set
up the o/s as before.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/11...-version-vista.

Hope it helps

SIW2


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SIW2