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    New HArd Drive...now what

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by saydee, Mar 1, 2009.

  1. saydee

    saydee Newbie

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    Apologies for this silly question...

    I home build all my systems, so I'm comfortable with installing all the usual software.

    I have a new-to-me M1210. I upgraded the drive to a speedy Hitachi 7.2k 160GB drive and I'm wondering...what now.

    I like the media direct feature to load a DVD for a long flight or whatever, so I'd like to use that. But I'm not so interested in a repair partition, or whatever that is.

    Do I need to create two partitions, one 10GB for the Media Direct and the rest of the drive for the Vista OS?

    Also what order do I install the CD's? Gosh, I hope the seller included all the ones I need...what should I have gotten CD software wise?

    Thanks for the help...
     
    saydee, Mar 1, 2009
    #1
  2. mystery905

    mystery905 Notebook Deity

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    The safest way would be to clone the older hard drive to your newer one (being in an external usb enclosure). Use something like Acronis TrueImage.

    Afterwards, swap drives, boot up with the new drive, and use partition software to delete your recovery partition if you like.
     
    mystery905, Mar 1, 2009
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  3. saydee

    saydee Newbie

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    I'd prefer to start with a fresh install. The previous owner gave it to me their stuff just deleted off.

    Which DVD do I start to install first? I partition from there I would guess. Never having done and install from an OEM I'm not sure how the install goes...
     
    saydee, Mar 1, 2009
    #3
  4. saydee

    saydee Newbie

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    I'll reply to myself...

    I was told by someone that I need to install the DVDs in a certain order:

    1. Media Direct
    2. Vista OS
    3. Dell Drivers

    Is this correct for a new hard drive install? If so does the Media Direct create its own partition? Do I create partitions with the Media Direct, or does the Vista DVD create the OS partition and the recovery partition?

    Thanks
     
    saydee, Mar 2, 2009
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  5. coolsurf

    coolsurf Notebook Enthusiast

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    there's a thread in here about installing Windows Vista on XPS laptops. You must use Media Direct CD first so that you can partition for the media direct and it will install a special driver (AHCI) for your SATA harddrive to be detected for windows vista operation. Then after that, just follow the instructions on the thread on installing windows vista....... the media direct CD will tell you what to do.
     
    coolsurf, Mar 2, 2009
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  6. jnewell

    jnewell Notebook Consultant

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    jnewell, Mar 2, 2009
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  7. coolsurf

    coolsurf Notebook Enthusiast

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    nice article you found there. But I think it applies to Media Direct 1 & 2. Because I upgraded my hard drive and used acronis cloning. I just cloned it and it copied everything..... if I have the old MD 1 or 2, I might have some problems cloning the HD as stated by the article unless I went through the steps he describes to include that HDA thing.
     
    coolsurf, Mar 2, 2009
    #7