How do I get to the hidden recovery partitio on dell inspiron 1018 10monts old

Try this: Turn your computer on. As soon as you see the Dell logo appear on the screen, press and hold "CTRL" and "F11." This starts the Dell PC Restore by Symantec application.

The modern laptop usually have a hidden partition in which it can be access by a combination of pressed key from your keyboard. However, if your laptop has been upgraded to the latest Windows OS, then the recovery partition might've being deleted.
To try to restore it to factory setting, I will leave a link for you to follow and read on how to factory reset a Dell. DELL Inspiron Restore to factory default settings

For its time it was a good spec with Vista 64 and 4GB RAM and should still work well today. Three options.
1. Try logging into the administrator account in safe mode.
Start your PC and press F8 repeatedly before Windows loads to open Vista's Boot Options screen.
Select Safe Mode and press Enter.
On welcome screen choose the Administrator account, which by default has no password. Just hit return.
Goto Start / Control Panel / User Accounts and create a new user account with admin privileges
Close and restart PC and log into the new account.

2. Use a password recovery program
The following link shows 8 free password recovery programs.
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/passrecovery.htm

3. As a last resort reset to factory defaults. Dells normally come with a hidden recovery partition.
Either boot from the recovery disks you created or use the hidden partition for a fresh install.
To do a factory restore,on startup press Ctrl + F11 which will take you to the recovery partition so you can do a factory restore. This will then create new user accounts.
Good Luck

Hi,
you were right. There is a hidden partition for recovery purposes when your computer has OEM OS. You can see it by using partition tools such partition wizard home edition and you can download it for free. After you run this program you will see a recovery partition which is hidden from your sight. Hope this will answer your question.

You can easily reset your password with the help of windows password reset disk. If you don't have password reset disk then you can use stellar phoenix password recovery software to reset it.

To start the systemrecovery:

1. Restart the computer.
2. When the Computer logo appears on the screen, press the Alt and F10 keys repeatedly.
3. If you are prompted with a Microsoft Windows boot screen, press the Enter key.
4. After the system recovery application has loaded, follow the prompts to reinstall the Operating System.

If the ability to reinstall from the previous method is not available orfails, recovery of the Operating System will need to be from Recovery Media. Ifyou do not have a set of Recovery Media, you may purchase the set onlinefrom the manufacturer. Note: If your computer does not havean internal optical disc drive, an external optical disc drive will be requiredin order to recover the Operating System using Recovery Media.

1. Restart the computer.
2. When the computer logo appears on the screen, press the F12 key repeatedly to enter the computer's Boot Menu.
3. Press the CD-ROM drive eject button and insert the disc labeled System CD.
4. Close the CD-ROM tray.
5. Refer to on screen instructions to select either CDROM or USB CDROM.
6. The computer will boot from the Recovery Media
7. When prompted for the Recovery CD, remove the System CD and insert the Recovery CD.

Note: Ifthere are multiple Recovery CDs, please insert the first of the Recovery CDs.

1. After the system recovery application has loaded, follow the prompts to reinstall the Operating System.

you can try CTRL and F11 at startup, but that will only work if the recovery console is installed on a hidden partition

Sorry man I could not found any free one, check it out its not free.

http://www.user-guides.co.uk/cddownload/Dell/DellInspiron/Dell-Inspiron-6400-XP-Driver-Recovery-CD-Restore-Disk-878.html

make bios recovery cd o rfloppy from dell official site

if it is on the partition , it would show under the folder named:recovery.