I want to install Media Direct & Windows XP Pro instead of Media Center

Hi everyone well I just got my e1505 6400. It came with Media Center 2005 and of course Media Direct. I am thinking of ditching Media Center 2005 for now untill I get an external TV tuner. I have noticed that boot times are slower with Media Center as opposed to Windows XP Pro. Question is are there any tutorials to reinstalling Dells Media Direct with an XP Pro installation? I have already done a reinstall using an e1705/Media Center 2005. Is it the same process or since I am using a standard XP Pro CD and not Dells are there other issues to contend with?

There are 4 partitions on my e1505. First is FAT (47mb) EISA Configuration partition. One called MediaDirect (2 GB) & the other is a FAT32 (4.74) partition. I am assuming the later is the Dell Restore partition.

 

You can just format the XP partition with XP Pro. MD should work. You will need to request Dell Media Experience (at least most users on the older systems needed it) in order for the MD button to work in XP.

MCE shouldn't be affecting your boot time that much though. It is basically the same as XP Pro minus the ability to login with domain networks, so you'll most likely get the same affects whether you have XP Pro or MCE on there since the core system is the same.

Have you gone through MSconfig and services.msc and turned off any unnecessary software/services that you do not need?

 

Hey Southern girl thanks for the reply,

Well I am comparing my friends 1505 with mine his has XP Pro mine has Media 2005. I am actually now thinking of keeping Media Center.

Any foreword on the partitions? Obviously keep Dell Media Direct but that other 2 not sure yet.

I have the Dell Media Direct cd that I got dell to send me for my e1705. That should be the same right?

 

Well the install didn't work the way the old one did. Basically I restarted the e1505 with the windows Media Center 2005 cd. I then deleted the main partition that housed windows and I deleted the 4 gig dell backup partition. At that point normally you would have 1 unallocated partition but for some reason the 4 gig partition stays at 4 gig and the main stays at 120 gigs. Both partitions were not combining.

Also I realized that the Dell MediaDirect I currently have on my system is the newer version that lets you open up word doc and calender etc so I have just requested the CD from Dell.

Has anyone out there recieved the new Dell MediaDirect Cd?

 

Search for a thread on it, there is a specific part for the CD you need to order that includes the text MDRT;3; or something similar.

That's how I got 3 on my M1210

 

This is what I got it in.

Part: DN293

Desc: KIT;SW;MDRT;3;SERVICE;DVD