Just to update Dell is starting to ship CDs with its systems again. By the way you do not need to pay for the Restore CDs. If you do not have the Restore CDs. This is what you're going to do.
1. Call Dell Tech Support.
2. Explain to them that you want to reinstall OS manually and delete preloaded apps; They will verify what CDs you receive together with the System. They will be sending the following if missing. OS CD(XP/Vista only), Drivers CD(if system is still shipping in dell.com), Optical Drive Media(Sonic,Cyberlink,Roxio), Expansion Card Drivers CD(Desktop only).
3. Just ask them nicely and they will be giving it.
Believe me I work for Dell Tech Support and this is the process.
Note: They might also ask you to ran a Diagnostics for your HDD just to make sure its fine. It will be better to ran Diags before calling them.
IMPORTANT: DELL IMAGE RESTORE (VISTA)
For Dell System that came with Vista. This is how it works:
1. Keep tapping F8 on Boot to access the Windows Advanced Boot Menu
2. Look for the option that says 'Repair Your Computer' and hit Enter
3. Follow the prompts then click on Dell Factory Image Restore then follow the prompts again.
If you do not see the option Repair Your Computer, the MBR might be corrupted or you've deleted the partition.
You can try this:
http://support.dell.com/support/topi...C1F&l=en&s=gen