Hmm, I don't have the Dell Backup & Recovery option in that list of recovery tools. I have startup repair, system restore, system recovery image, windows memory diags, command prompt. I chose system restore, but for some reason there is only one restore point even though I have had this computer for over two years. This restore point was made immediately after I downloaded Reaper, but before most of my problems...maybe it will work? I'm trying it right now. I am worried that maybe there isn't a recovery partition here since there are no Dell options in the list. I tried changing the boot order last night so that it started with the CD/DVD drive, and it does boot from the CD but maybe the CD doesn't have the right stuff because it doesn't load up anything. It just says "press any key to boot from cd or dvd" and then it does a "windows is loading files" screen and then it just goes blank and then reboots. OK, the system restore just finished -- but now it says "windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <windows root\system32\hal.dll, Please re-install a copy of the above file." Is that something that can be done?