Making clone image of Vista and MediaDirect 3.3

Hey guys, I've been reading though a lot of the posts on your forums, but couldn't seem to find the answer to my questions.

I currenty have a Dell m1330 which comes preinstalled with Vista. I have successfully wiped the recovery partition and reinstalled Vista and Mediadirect 3.3. The system works flawlessly, including being able to boot into Mediadirect with the hot key when the system is powered down (i.e. vista is not loaded when the hotkey is pressed).

I have been trying in vain to create a backup of my hard drive with Acronis True Image 11. Every time I restore the disk image, Vista work perfectly, but the hotkey for Media direct does not work correctly after restoring the image. When the hotkey is pressed with the laptop powered down, the Mediadirect splash screen loads, but then it progresses into vista, where Mediadirect loads within the OS. I have tried the following:

1. Uninstalling Mediadirect within windows and then reinstalling.

2. Deleting all partitions and leaving Acronis to restore all the partitions (i.e. Vista partition, 46 MB recovery partition and 2Gig Mediadirect partition)

3. Wiping the partitions with the mediadirect CD and restoring only the Vista partition. Then reinstalling the mediadirect CD within Vista

4. A) Wiping partition with mediadirect cd
B) Installing a fresh Vista, but NOT the Mediadirect CD through vista
C) Made a fresh image without mediadirect
D) Tested this image again by wiping partition with mediadirect CD. Restored image. Then installed Mediadirect for the 1st time through Vista. I have tried both not restore and restoring the MBR.

With all the above methods, Vista boots flawlessly, but mediadirect will NOT boot without loading into Vista. I am at wits end, please help.

Thanks in advance

 

uninstall the media direct....its useless crap....atleast dont cry about losing it .......(sorry that i cant help here as the first thing i did on my lap was to uninstall MD)

 

Try using Acronis True Image Echo Workstation. Create the back up with that then try the restore. MD works fine for me like that. You can try the trial.

 

The solution is much more easier....

Just after choosing to restore partition C within Acronis, select the option "Yes, I want to restore another partition or hard disk drive" and at this second phase, choose to restore "MBR and Track 0".

The process must be done in the above sequence.... first choose partition C and leave blank the checkbox of MBR, and THEN choose MBR and leave blank the other checkbox...

This procedure should restore your original configuration of MediaDirect and Windows, even if it isn't working at the moment...

It is tested many times... working flawlessly at a M1330+XP+MD combination

 

Thanks for your quick replies guys.

Dith, when you restored your computer, did you erase your partition with the Dell Mediadirect disc 1st? Or did you just make acronis restore the C partition, then the MBR + tract 0, leaving the mediadirect and 46 mb fat 16 partition alone (with mediadirect installed from previous installation)? Does Acronis wipe the whole C partition automatically before it starts retoring the backuped C drive image?

Cheers

 

I just tried again. This time I just used acronis to restore the C partition, THEN the MBR with track 0. Still doesn't function properly. Mediabutton loads into Vista. Any ideas?

 

Sorry for the delay...

Yes, Acronis does delete partition C, and then recreates it... filling it with the backup data.

In your case, there might be a failure of MediaDirect partition (that partition is a custom-"cut down" XP installation, that works in hibernation mode... and needs its custom bootloader)

If the you suspect that the MD partition has problems, you should:
1. create an Acronis restore "usb flash disk" (from acronis menus)
2. backup any existing data and write the acronis .tib files on a DVD or an external hdd
3. insert the MD disk and boot the laptop from it
4. follow the onscreen instructions, wipe the harddisk and create 1 or 2 partitions (in my case, I create 2 partitions.. C and D... a 40GB C for XP and the rest GBs as D for data)
5. when prompted to insert the WinXP disk and restart, press enter to restart, but insert the Acronis restore cd or usb (you must select the apropriate boot device by pressing f12 at boot! If you miss that,restart the laptop and try again)
6. the acronis bootable media start the same familiar interface of Acronis (windows version). Follow the SAME procedure I have described in my previous message: at ONE session of Acronis Restore, choose first partition C, then "Yes, I want to restore another partition or hard disk drive" and choose MBR

It has worked for me many times... I cant see a reason that it doesnt work for you... The only different in my case is that I have WinXP installed (not Vista) and I have created 2 partitions...

 

IMPORTANT!!!!

RIGHT after acronis has finished its job, it boots the laptop from C... That means that you are facing the VISTA screen...

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING:
Because on the restored acronis image, the *Windows version* of MediaDirect is already installed, there might be a conflict. You should:
1. Uninstall (from Add-Remove programs) the MediaDirect (don;t worry, this is the Windows version)
2. Insert again the MediaDirect disk and follow the onscreen instructions

DO NOT press the MD button on the laptop before you complete the above steps

Hope it works for you the same way that does for me

 

Hey Dith thanks for all your help. I've decided to put it in the "too hard basket". I've in the meanwhile installed Ubuntu 7.10 with Compiz and overwritten the MBR anyway.

Hahaha. Wasted so much time.

 

Ok.... it's your toy anyway

Have fun!!