Hey Charles,
I have consulted with my colleagues and they agree with what we have done so far. Nobody screwed up, we´re just in a tough spot. Most computers would work properly with the standard MBR. Yours does not
I have some new instructions.
Insert you vista CD in the Dell and boot from it.
As you reported earlier, it will not find any harddisks on your system, correct?
Is there an option to install customs drivers, or something? What are the options you find?
If there is, I want to try the following.
Download this file on your working computer:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=62Y9K1VQIt is a zip file.
Unpack the zip file.
Burn the files on a CD.
If you don´t know how to burn files to a CD, download imgburn
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=downloadUse the write files/folders to disk option and burn all the files that are in the zip file to a CD.
These are Dell pre OS-install disk drivers.
See if you can install them and have you vista setup disk find your harddisk.
If it does, report back to me please.