MediaDirect Causing OS crash

I am having a problem with MediaDirect (MD 3.3) on my Vostro 1500. When I the use MD button while logged into Vista, it works fine. With the laptop power off, pressing MD button comes up with a screen of MediaDirect logo and displays the error message

'NTLDR file is missing, Press any key to restart'

Worst part is, once this error comes up with MD button, the same error comes up even on Power button and vista does not boot thereafter.

After a full reinstall with MD reinstallation disk (for partition) and reinstalling Vista OS, the MD button works from within Vista but switching on laptop with MD is causing the same problem.

I dont mind if the MD button does not work but causing the OS to crash is not acceptable.

Then after two-three reinstallations and tips from NBR, I learnt that the vista booting problem can be fixed by booting the OS from the reinstallation DVD and selecting 'Repair the OS startup' option.

BUT THE PROBLEM WITH MD BUTTON STILL EXIST. Please advice if I am missing something.

 

Hmm did you actually format your whole hard disk by booting using the MediaDirect Cd and then let it create the MD partitions and then only install Vista ?

Also note that while doing the above you should not press the MD button until you have installed Vista completely and installed MediaDirect from within Windows as well.... I m pretty sure this will solve the problem....

Believe my I made the MD button do some crazy things and messed up the whole laptop but ultimately I fixed it by following the above procedure.... Do let me know if you need further help....

 

From what I've read about the Media direct boot, pressing the MD button will have the primary partition switch from the Vista partition to the Media direct partition.
If, for some reason, you modified the partition table OR the boot sector you could end up in activating a partition that has no bootloader on it. That's the sense of the message. Some have reported that pressing the MD button again will set the Vista partition as active again.

What is your partition structure like?
What primary partitions do you have?
Try using GParted from a Linux live CD to see that, so that you can see exactly where MD is located, then you could try issueing the correct fixmbr command from the Media Direct dvd.

 

Actually when you press the MD button it does not switch any primary partition or anything....

The BIOS always looks for the Utility partition in your hard drive before booting into the primary partition.... Because one time I wiped out the whole hard drive and was not able to boot into the primary partition and the first DELL screen only was repeatedly coming....

But after using the MD cd to create that utility partition it was able to boot without any probs..... The utility partition also bootloads the MD partition when you start the system by pressing the MD button....

 

I downgraded an M1330 from Vista to XP and I deleted ALL partitions before I started. Now MD is screwing up the startup. Sometimes it will try to boot into MD and I haven't figured out how to stop it. I want to boot to XP and can't get it to (was most of the time, now 100% of the time). I noticed a glowing padlock light next to the MD button.

Is the solution to install MD from inside XP? If so, (1) how do I get into XP! and (2) will the MD CD create the MD partition non-destructively?

 

The MD CD will create the MD partition by wiping out the whole hard disk only and is not capable of fixing any MD related problems without destroying the data on the hard drive....

 

OK thanks.

Can I make a partition for it using PM, then installing MD? Or is what you said absolute?

Is there a way to turn off the MD feature completely, in BIOS? I didn't see it. The docs on MD are very scarce on info.

 

You nailed it Sredni Vashtar . It was interesting to see that OS did boot after pressing the MD button again. It goes something like this...
Laptop powered off --> Press MD button --> Crash with NTLDR err --> Power off --> Press MD again > Displays MD logo and boots Vista & then opens MediaDirect. Then the Power button works fine in booting properly thereafter.

And I was reinstalling Vista all the time for no reason.

I know nothing about Linux and appreciate (with generous reps) any directions on how to do that fixmbr thing. And I hope this would be for a permanent fix.

Regarding partitions, I used MD reinstallation disk to create it with option 2 that splits C: with 60 GB and remaining as D:

 

Ash...Thanks very for much for the tips. I did use MD to create the partition and did NOT press the MD button until I completed the Vista installation, driver updates & MD install. But was not lucky

 

Actually I meant rmbr (sorry, fixmbr is a command from the Vista DVD that rewrites or fixes the master boot record), which is a command accessible from the Media Direct disc. It has a syntax of this form

rmbr DELL 2 3

Where the two numbers refer the number of the primary partitions with, respectively, the partition with the OS to be booted by the power button, and the OS to be booted by the mediadirect button.
Counting start from 1, so you can have only 1 2 3 4 as choiches.
put the Media direct CD in and type
rmbr /?
for help.

The role of Linux in this is just to provide you with a free partition manager to allow you to see the exact location of the OS and of media direct.
Just grab a free live CD (Ubuntu, Knoppix, Mepis, have your pick), boot from it and run Gparted ("Partition editor" in Ubuntu). you will see your partitions named as
sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4
You can see where they are in the picture.
Make a note of which is the OS partition and which is MediaDirect's partition (the size is tale telling: MD is 2.5 GB, Vista is bigger, the data partition is 60 GB and the diag is only a few MB at the start of the disk). Then exit linux and use the Media Direct cd to issue the rmbr command.

So, you may have
1: DELL boot and diag
2: OS
3: data
4: Media direct

in this case rmbr DELL 2 4 should do the trick. But read the help file for rmbr before using it.

 

Do you have access to the code?
I'd really like to have a look at it, to see if I can boot with the MD button from a logical partition.

OMG. So it is not possible to wipe the first partition of the hd?
I thought someone had done that.
Not a big problems, for a few hundred MB, but with the 15 partition limits set by Linux, it could have come in handy....

Could it be the you did not set the primary partition as active?

 

I had set the partition as Active and it was not the problem for sure.... I merely had 4 partitions or so and first stage of Vista Install went on smooth by booting from the DVD.... But later when it restarted it was not at all booting and not giving any errors too.... Then when I freshly created the MD and utility partitions using the MD cd everything became alright....

 

I fixed it by first booting from the MD disk which created the partitions, then installing OS and drivers, then downloading the hotfix from Dell support and install it, then install the MD from windows.

Mine would go into a state of hibernation if I didn't install the hotfix before reinstall of MD in windows mode. Hope that helps!

 

What hotfix did you download ? Do you have a link to it ?

 

I am exactly in the same situation. I don't mind too if MD button doesn't work but causing the OS to crash is clearly not acceptable.
I followed the procedure : preparing harddrive using the reinstall CD of MD, reinstalling Vista (all the drivers except the one for Bios + QuickSet) but the last one, reinstalling MD didn't work after 4%. The install program said MD doesn't take into account my system : Vostro 1500 + Vista Pro. The install CD I received for MD is for Inspiron, is it the same for you ? Where can I download another install program ?
Thank you very much for you help, je galère trop...

 

The MD install program for Vostro and Inspiron are totally different and I've come across many ppl complaining the same.... Unfortunately MD CD is not available for download as such and the only way to get it is to request DELL to send you the disc once again.... I'm sure they'll send it to you....

 

Thank you very much for your quick help. I call Dell, it was difficult but they will send me a install CD for mediadirect for Vostro (I hope so because they seemed to be quite lost when I explained my situation).
It's strange, I saw nowhere people talking about a problem similar to mine, you're thanskfully the first one telling me what I have been wondering to know for a long moment.
If it doesn't work, is it possible to desactivate the button as it crashes my OS ?

 

Situation: Inspiron 1520 with Vista Home Premium

Goal: dual boot to XP and Vista, with working Media Direct AND a data partition.

I would like to partition the drive with a Vista partition, an XP partition, and a Data partition. I understand that Media Direct requires two partitions, the Dell Diags and it's own partition. So to achieve my goal I will need five partitions.

Since Media Direct must "prepare" the hard drive before I install XP...

I was thinking I could shrink the present Vista drive, expand the Restore partition, and create another logical drive in the extended partition.

Would that process totally destroy, beyond recovery by partition table editing, the present Vista installation?

Which drive letters would which partitions would end up with?

Suggestions on how I would go about this?

Xonk

 

You can refer to my guide in the signature dude... You can ommit the linux part of it thats all... For installing Xp with Vista it is a slightly complicate process but I am willing to help you if needed....

 

I have been following your "HOWTO on installing Vista + Linux + MediaDirect" thread for several days. I posted here specifically because it is Media Direct 3.3 that concerns me the most.

After seeing the inconsistent results and information provided by Vista's Disk Management Console... I have elected to work with the GParted-Clonezilla LiveCD.

Here is what I have done so far:

I used Clonezilla to image the Vista partition and burned that image to DVD. I also saved the factory image from the Restore partition to DVD. Not that I expect to use the images, but DVD's are cheap, and it was good practice.

I used GParted to shrink the Vista partition to 40 gigs, then booted into Vista and let it "repair" the Vista installation. There was no feedback, but I assume it was doing a chkdsk operation, such as XP would do in similar circumstances. Vista was happy, so...

GParted is now moving the Vista partition so as to free space I can add to the Restore partition. I will again boot into Vista when GParted has finished moving the partition, and I expect Vista will "repair" itself again. If not I will do a manual chkdsk.

I will then add the 30 GB freed up in front of the Vista partition to the Restore partition.

That will leave the sacred Dell Diags and MediaDirect partitions untouched. The Restore partition ("D" "Data" Drive) would now be about 40 GB. Vista would have a 40 GB partition, still seen as "C". That would leave the rest of the drive, between the Vista partition and the sacred MediaDirect partition, as free "partitioned" space.

Normally I would then boot the XP Install CD and let it partition and format the free space.

But I understand I have to use the MediaDirect Reinstall CD to "prepare" the drive for my XP Institution.

In your EXCELLENT "HOWTO on installing Vista + Linux + MediaDirect" you give directions on using "Option 2", but I'm not clear what Media Direct will do to the partition structure at that point?

 

Okay Xonk I created a thread especially for your query here :

Dual booting Vista/Xp on your DELL

 

rmbr is not available on my MediaDirect 3.3 Reinstall CD. But I do have an empty "TOOLS" directory.... is my CD missing that utility? Does the MD 2 version work with MD 3.3?

I now have Dell Diags on partition 1, Vista on partition 2, Restore on partition 3 and MD on partition 4.

If I installed XP on partition 3 and used the command:

rmbr DELL 3 4

Would I then have MD working with XP?

 

I am having this exact problem. I reloaded my system with Vista 64 bit when i got it so the partitions and OS aren't original.

I tried using the rmbr utility under a Vista 64-bit command prompt with admin privileges and it seemed to run... but it didn't fix the problem. Is this utility the key to fixing this issue? Does this utility only work on XP or something?

Has anyone fixed this problem, and if so, how?

Thanks!

 

THERE's two ways to recover your XP after crashing XP MBR by preesing MediaDirect Button
To Recover your data there's only 2 options otherwise you need to just repartition your XP
That's wat nobody like to do.

O P T I O N -------- 1

Enter Windows XP Recovery Console. The Recovery Console is an advanced diagnostic mode of Windows XP with special tools that

will allow you to restore the boot.ini file.

It'll ask for your Administrator Password - Type in if you have one

(If you can't get access throught administrator password in repair console then just read OPTION-2 written below and come

back to Option1 )


When you reach the command prompt, type the following command and then press Enter.

bootcfg /rebuild
The bootcfg utility will scan your hard drives for any Windows XP installations and then display the results. Follow the

remaining steps to add your Windows XP installation to the boot.ini file.

The first prompt asks Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All).

Type Y in response to this question and press Enter.

The next prompt asks you to Enter Load Identifier:.

This is the name of the operating system. For example, type Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition and press

Enter.

The final prompt asks you to Enter OS Load options:.

Type /Fastdetect here and press Enter.

Take out the Windows XP CD, type exit and then press Enter to restart your PC.

Assuming that a missing or corrupt boot.ini file was your only issue, Windows XP should now start normally.



O P T I O N ------- 2

1-Try installing a new XP and when you get to the partition interface in installation environment

2-Delete mediadirect partition (should be last one) Approx 2GB

3-Install a fresh XP to some other partition other than your previous XP

4-Now go Start and then clik on control panel

5-Administrative Tools (3rd option in Local Users and Groups)
click on Computer Management
Local Users and Groups
Open Users
Go to Administrator, Right Click Set Password and Set it up as u like

and go try OPTION 1 now

when your selecting the OS choice enter the old xp location by preesing number 1 as now you have 2 xp installed



[NOTE: I found this working for me, but still haven't pressed by mistake MediaDirect Button to check if it's still doing

the same thing, can say don't want to loose my data. If you could try give a try but beware of all tht process again if you

crashed XP]
Still haven't found any solution for this crack button if you get any pls let me know
Thanks!