Vancemann,   This post will tell you how to manually install Windows Vista on your computer.   How To Restore or Reinstall Microsoft® Windows® on a Dell™ Computer     Rick
Hello all, I am new to this forum and I am hoping that someone here could help me based on their expertise or past experience. Just the same month that my 1yr warranty expired, my laptop decided to give me trouble. One night the laptop did an automic update and the day after, I got the message: "missing boot file, error 000000034" or something like that.  I had no choice but to bring out the vista reinstallation CD. After a bunch of  tests (including dells hardware test), windows was still unable to repair or start.  When I tried safe mood, it got stucked on on some file (I dont remember) but I think it was crocdisk or something. I eventually had to reinstall windows and everything started up fine but sometimes it would take a long time to load with a blank screen.  I reinstalled windows again but instead I restructured the HD for the OS to have its own partition. It worked well until I installed the drivers and did vista's update (260mb download or 81 files). After all the updates were installed, I restarted and the computer did not start so I restored it to prior to the updates.  The computer started up that night but the next day it would not start up pass the dell screen.  All I get is a black screen and I hear the processor working for a few minutes then stops.  The windows CD said unable to fix, contact manufacturer, send etc.. As I type this I am doing another test and where I hold Fn button while I power on and all the test have passed so far. Recent info: Bios version is updated to  A15> The hd has 3 partitons, First one is a small 78mb (some format I dont recognize)  the second is vista's NTFS partition a 25.7 gig. the third is the rest of the 120gig drive.  Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You Vance
Help!! Vista will not start my XPS M1330 after update.