XPS M1530 - Finally, removed Media Direct & resize partition WITHOUT reinstalling OS

I got my XPS M1530 and just like other laptops I have, I resized the partition rather than reinstall as there is not much bloatware installed in my unit. However, I found out that this messed up Dell Media Direct 3.0 (MD3.0) and not only that, it caused my Vista OS to blow up and no longer bootable (search my post on this) when MD3.0 hardware button is pressed.

I spent the last hours trying to fix this and I think I may have figured it out how to:
- Remove and reclaim ALL Dell partition (Recovery, MD3.0, Diagnosis)
- Disable MD3.0 hardware button. The end result is that pressing this button will just start Vista OS, not MD3.0

All without requiring OS re-installation.

Here's what I did:

I. Software requirements
You MUST have the following software and CD:

1. Acronis True Image 11
This software allows you to IMAGE your hard drive (ALL partitions). It's like taking a snapshot / photocopy of you ENTIRE hard drive and you can restore in case of failure. The install CD is bootable so you can image your HDD to an external USB hard drive, boot using TrueImage CD and restore.

2. Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0
This software allows you to re-partition your HDD, including merge, resize, create, etc. without re-installing your OS. You play around with all these partition change and see the graphical result BEFORE committing the change.

3. Dell OS Re-install CD (comes with my laptop)
Required to fix the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MD3.0 changed the MBR and resizing your hard drive partition will messed up MD3.0 MBR.


II. STEPS
1. BACKUP your HDD using True Image. When backing up, choose to image the ENTIRE hard drive. If things doesn't work the way it is, you can restore the HDD, no problem. I recommend backing up to an external USB Hard Drive with at least 100 GB space.

2. UNINSTALL Media Direct 3.0 from Vista OS (Start -> Control Panel -> Program and Features)

3. Using Disk Director, you'll see 4 partitions (drive letter maybe different in your laptop):
- Dell Diagnosis
- Recovery (D:\)
- OS (C:\)
- Media Direct 3.0

4. Using Disk Director:
- Delete ALL Dell's partition except your OS partition (C:\). This will create 2 empty partitions while the OS partition still intact
- Create these 2 empty partitions as Primary partitions
- Merge the 1st primary partitions (the one on the left side of the graphical representation of your hard drive)
- Commit the change and reboot

5. Disk Director will do its thing, but error will show up. Insert Dell OS Reinstall CD and follow-prompt. When shown, select "Repair your computer". Restart

6. In Vista, use Disk Director to:
- Merge the 2nd partition (the one on the right side of the graphical represenation of your hard drive)
- Commit the change and reboot.

7. Same like #5, error will show up. Follow the same step as #5.

8. In Vista, use Disk Director and you now have ONE big partition (C:\). From here, you can re-partition your HDD. C:\ for OS and D:\ for Data.

Now, when you press the Media Direct hardware button, Vista OS will start and not Media Direct.

 

Nicely done mate this will help alot of people, I may wish to do this myself when I get my M1530.

 

Why didn't you just use the disk management tool that comes with Vista?
It can remove the unwanted partitions and stretch the C: partition to fill the drive. You shouldn't need to restore your MBR and If you accidentally hit the MediaDirect button it should just boot Windows normally anyway as it is the only partition on the drive.

 

where is this disk management tool you speak of? I've been trying to remove that partition forever and have had no luck!

 

Look in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Now Disk Management__ select drive to resize or shrink by right clicking onto it.

 

You're amazing thanks!

 

That's what I thought originally, but when I just resize the OS partition (C:\) or even delete the Media Direct partition, hence reclaiming the space, Vista will not boot especially when the Dell Media Direct hardware button is pressed. So that button becomes a ticking bomb for me.

I haven't tried the Disk Management feature, but if you (or anyone else) have tried, please post here. I'd love to have a simpler method.
Note this is for Media Direct from boot-up, NOT in the OS itself.

Either way, I'd recommend anyone to use Acronis True Image to backup your HDD first.

 

Ianwarrior...

This a thread well deserving of reps (done). Its nice to see that you did alot of background investigating before you jumped and did it properly, now detailing it for many others.

Good Job!

 

Thanks for rep, Flamenko!

I spent almost the whole day fixing the Media Direct issue and I saw many people have issues with it also, so I post it for everyone benefit.

Everyone, if you decide to do my method of removing MD above, please post if you're successfull or not, I may be able to help.

Either way, before you do anything, please IMAGE your hard drive using imaging software like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. I use both for my 4 laptops and I found True Image to be less resource intensive and much more user friendly. Both imaging apps can image your drive whille Vista is running and also do incremental image, so that's a big plus

 

Hi All -

I just received my Dell XPS M1530 and I love the machine. I do a bit of development, so I had to install Windows XP on it. Everything is working ok so far, except for the dreaded Media Center button. Already reinstalled XP 3 times in 2 days Would the solution posted above work for XP installs as well? I don't mind if the MD button starts notepad or even the XP OS, as long as it leaves the MBR alone.

Can someone please confirm.

Many thanks in advance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
XPS M1530 | C2D 2.0 | 3GB Mem | 250 GB 5400RPM | 8600M GT DDR3 | 15.4" WXGA CCFL

 

Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 costs $49.99. Who is going to pay for that?

 

I would assume it works, just use the Windows XP CD to "Repair" the installation when the partition is "damaged".

 

Same people who pay $49.99 and up for a game...

 

What I wanted to say is it is not worth it! Ubuntu all the way!

 

49.99 is a relatively small price to pay than spending hours trying to reinstall every piece of software.

lanwarrior - can you please elaborate on "just use the Windows XP CD to "Repair" the installation when the partition is "damaged". How can I do that? I have been reinstalling the full version of XP.

 

Addi,

What I meant is that in Step #5 and 7, use WinXP CD instead of Dell Vista OS CD.

The reason that the OS CD is required to repair it is because I THINK somehow the Media Direct Button is wired to look for the Dell Media Direct Master Boot REcord (MBR). Since it no longer exist, the CD is prompted and by using Windows XP/Vista repair CD feature, the button is now looking at the Vista MBR instead of the Dell Media Direct.

The end result is that when I press the Dell Media Direct button when the laptop is OFF, the laptop just boot up to Vista.

I never tried this on XP though, so your result may vary.

BTW, Disk DIrector also have a feature to do dual-boot and their website have knowledge base and forums to do XP and Vista.

 

Ubuntu is nice, but not for everyone. I see in your past post that you always "advertise" Ubuntu. Please don't troll this particular thread with your Ubuntu ads.

 

Hi Ianwarrior,

how about this solution provided by dell..
http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...3A2CA8B51A7225E040A68F5A282709&docid=321541#1

 

Salmoon,

That solution does not remove MediaDirect, which was what I am trying to do. Actually, the link said:

MediaDirect Must be Reinstalled Prior to Installing Microsoft® Windows®

 

Well, I've deleted by accident that 2.5GB partition of media direct and changed it into logical part G: (I was trying to shrink C: and extend D: or create new partition)last night but fortunately I'vent pressed media direct button. (I've XPS M1530).

Now I just want to media direct back at its place and C: and D: drive with 50:50 partition and I hope that dell process should help me out. I'll do it tonight at home. Any commnets are welcome ...

 

Here's my situation: I have a new 1420. I'd like to keep the MediaDirect as installed on it's own partition, and reapportion disc space on the two other existing partitions (c: OS - Vista; D: data) without having to reinstall anything. Can I use the Disk Management tool in Vista to shrink the c: partition for the OS and expand the D: partition currently used by the Dell recovery app and wipe it (format) to use as my data drive?

EDIT: so just checked out the tool. Total space on the c: is 290GB; free space is 259GB. But it only would allow me to "shrink" the volume by up to 120GB, leaving a total of 170GB, way more than I want for the OS (thinking 35GB max). Also - option to "expand volume" greyed out on D: partition.

 

Hi 24Peter,

My situation was same as urs. And last night I've done it successfully with the help of dell's procedure. Here it is .
http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...3A2CA8B51A7225E040A68F5A282709&docid=321541#1

 

Hi salmoon - thanks for the link. I had already seen that and was hoping there was a way to reapportion my partitions within Vista so I wouldn't have to reinstall anything. Les has added to the dell reinstall procedure here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838 So I guess that's how I'm going.

 

does acronis work with vista x64?

 

Good evening, I've just registered because I liked this forum a lot. It's kinda the best notebook discussion board on the net.

Now, I need some advice here:

By saying this, you mean running Disk Director from Vista or via an ISO-made Bootable CD-ROM?

I've tried and tried to merge the first(~48MB) partition with the C (Vista) partition and it never queues it as an action, so I could click the "commit" button.

Then, by saying "Repair your computer" you mean selecting the first option, the one read "Repair Start issues (something like this)".

I dont want that the MD3 button to make crap of my disk, because I want to dualboot Vista and XP, but fixing the MD3 button risk.

Thanks in Advance!


---------------EDIT by netshark
Well, yesterday I reformatted with Flamenko's (bloatware removal and reformat) guide at this forum, using the MD3 disk and everything he posted.

So... now thinking about it, wouldn't it be better to delete ALL partitions with disk director, and then install Vista with the OS reinstall disk? I mean, bypassing the MediaDirect installation so It wont alter the MBR that you "repair" in these steps?

I'm just saying this so users that want to reformat their laptops, can get rid from MD3 from the very beginning.

What do you think?


-------------EDIT 2 by netshark
Now I installed Disk Director on my Vista, and followed the same Merging steps. I merged the first tiny partition to the C partition, and pressed Commit. A reboot was required to complete the operation. Reboot.
Now it looks like its going to work... nevermind.

=====================================
(LOL)--------EDIT 3 by netshark

At this step:

Not any error ever appeared, and... my partitions come as next:



And when I boot from my Dell OS Reinstall Disc, and select "Repair my computer" it tells me that it can't find any errors, just giving me the chance to restart the machine. So... is there any way to repair the MediaDirect-ish MBR?

 

Well... forget about my previous post.

I reinstalled all over again, and got to Dualboot Vista/XP and Mediadirect.

Thanks anyway... xD