Thank you.  I will try the phone call route with Dell.  I looked online and didn't get very far and assumed it was because the computer was no longer under warranty.
Running Windows 8 on an Inspiron 15 and the hard drive crashed (cannot boot).  Of course, I did not make backup Recovery DVDs, and I am beyond the warranty period so cannot get them from Dell.  However, I was able to boot the system running Linux, create a RAW image file of the OS partition, and then was able to recover my data files.  Which made me wonder--are there files in separate partitions that could be recovered to create a recovery/restore disk?  My goal is to replace the hard drive and reinstall Windows 8 on the new drive (assuming that the product key, which I do not have, will reactivate automatically.) I haven't seen anything in the forums about this approach to generating reinstall disks. My alternative, since I have been able to recover my user files, is to purchase a new laptop.
Restore Installation Disk for Windows 8 from Corrupted HD