Media Direct cannot access HD?

Its interesting, when I tried to start up Media Direct Express for the first time, I got a message stating "Dell Media Direct Express cannot access your Harddrive. This may be because you have accessed Microsoft Bitlocker (Driver Encryption)."

I don't see how the heck this could be the case, since isn't it only available on Microsoft Vista Ultimate/Business?

The only thing I can think that may have happened is the fact that I had partitioned my HD when I did a clean install, and maybe that messed something up. If thats the case, does anyone have any suggestions of programs to check/change them from within windows?

EDIT:\\ Ei... actually, now when I try to start up the computer w/ Vista (pressing power button), its just going to the Media Direct screen instead... Now I can't get Vista to run. I have a feeling this is going to be very annoying

 

BitLocker is for Enterprise & Ultimate, it's not available on Business Edition.

You messed with the MBR when partitioning, and Media Direct doesn't like that.

 

Does anyone have any bright ideas on how I could fix this? The only think I can think of is use the recovery option and try fdisk /mbr

 

You need to restore the original Dell MBR. Try running dsrfix (Google for it).

 

I got it to work using the recovery option, so I didnt get to test your method but thanks still!

 

i'm having the EXACT same problem after a clean vista install.

how did you fix the media direct bitlocker problem?

also, i pressed the media direct button again to get back to vista.

 

One way is to reinstall Windows again. Boot and partition the HDD using MD installation DVD . This will create a new partition (prepare the Hard Disk) for MD, then install Windows and afterwards run MD installer from Windows to actually install the program on the newly created MD partition.

I know it is lot of work to reinstall Windows again, but this may be the only way to recover from it......

 

Aha, I have this as well. You can boot Vista once again by using the MediaDirect button, and it will be corrected after that. But any time you try and use MediaDirect again, it will go back to the beginning of your problem. I'm looking for a solution.

 

I am having this same problem. Have an xps m1210 that origianlly came with xp. I did a clean install of vista. Now media direct button only loads the vista partition, not the media direct partition.

I booted to a dos startup disk and ran fdisk. It seems that all partitions are there (50mb repair partition, 10gb recovery partition, 100gb os partition, and 1.5gb media direct partition). I tried running fdisk /mbr but it said innsufficient memory. Also, it seems that vista writes its own different type of MBR that can't be edited by fdisk. I also tried to run dsrfix, but this left the computer innoperable (I had to run vista repair at startup to have it rewrite the MBR). In fdisk I could see that the start sectors for the os partition and the media direct partition were exactly the same (in my case 1028). This is the problem...But I don't know how to fix the MBR under vista. Can anyone help?

 

So anyone find a workable solution with having to reinstall everything?

 

You are aware that if you press again Media Direct Button it will boot your OS, right? I mean, I had this and was looking for a solution, but since I found out you are not at risk of losing your OS, then I'm ok. If you press MD button and you get stuck with MD, all you have to do is to turn it off and press it again.

 

I am aware of that. Anyone has a solution of this problem? I don't know if Dell can help. There are a few post on Dell support forum and no one reply, including Dell Support.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Vistro 1500 Windows XP Pro.

this looks like the right thread.

I bought the laptop for my daughters 18th and spent a nice weekend configuring everything so she could just switch on and go with all her old settings. No hardware changes or major stuff. She wanted to watch a DVD so put it in and Media Direct came up. I'd never heard of it and it would not play because it said the DVD player was the wrong region.

I fixed the region thing ( It was set to the right region but I guess confirming it set something somewhere) and then started playing around to try and work out what this MediaDirect does. Amazing! you can use it without firing up XP so I tried it.

No go. It boots up to the set-up screen then tells me it can't read the hard drive beacuse maybe BitLockers got hold of it. Except this is XP. got the button switchover problem which caused a major panic but understand that now.

Anyway, Does anybody have a clue why a standard new Dell Xp laptop should have this glitch. I do not really want to start re-installing operating systems.

There is a Media Direct partition, showing healthy in XP. I tried the Dell MD repair utility but no difference.

Or should I just delete it without telling her and use media player instead?

 

I had the same problem and what I did was put the Dell MediaDirect CD in and run Delkit.exe from Windows to reinstall it, then you are good to go.

 

I tried that before I read up on DirectMedia. I think it said that it wasn't compatible. I'll have another go.

Am I right to assume that DelKit doesn't reformat anything?

 

Boot using the Vista DVD and choose the Startup Recovery option and it would fix the Vista MBR and you should be able to boot Vista....

But fixing the MD button - there are many ways and many different solutions you get....

 

Sorry for throwing this in.... what does Dell say?

 

Ash: If this reply is to me - Its windows XP not Vista

Milo: Haven't talked to a human; troubleshooting on the web site doesn't get me very far.

 

Hmm if that is the case does reinstalling XP work ? You can try to boot XP setup using the XP CD....

 

Well, I'm sure I could re-install XP and fix the glitch, but that is not something I'd undertake lightly. It took me 8 hours to configure this laptop just the way I wanted it and mirror her old PC.


I was rather hoping someone would have more of a quick fix

 

No no I do not mean a fresh install but a reinstall to fix any problems in XP - which I hope also fixes the boot record and other booting issues....

 

Don't boot with MediaDirect CD, just run DelKit from Windows then you are safe!

I need to clarify a few points:

1) After got BitLockers problem you are stuck with MD and can not go back to Windows. Try to play around with Power button or MD button by turn it on and off several times until you can normally boot back to Windows.

2) From Windows (XP or Vista), insert the MediaDirect CD in the Drive, if it's not autoplay then you must browse the CD for DelKit.exe and run it. This will fix any corruption from MediaDirect partition. No reformat/repartition with this action.


My system Spec:

Dell XPS M1330 Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, 1.5GHz, 667Mhz FSB
2GB DDR2 RAM
160GB SATA HDD

 

It does not work. I have tried. DellKit ran but won't allow me to reinstall since MD is already installed on the system.

 

Heh, nice to hear I'm not alone. Vostro 1500, XP Pro, 160GB hdd. My situation's pretty much the same, except in my case I did a clean XP Pro install and also created a new partition. It was simply to separate programs and data. I checked disk management beforehand and saw the 4 existing partitions and opted to delete the 3GB one, I assume it was the restore partition. I left the MediaDirect one in tact, as I naively assumed that leaving it untouched would keep it running.
So after the painful reinstall of XP and the various drivers etc. I had to go hunting for (not all were on the disc I got from Dell), everything seemed to be back in working order. Except when I pressed the MediaDirect button from within XP I get the message it was unable to launch, and to reinstall. I got the reinstallation disc and noticed that it was labelled "For reinstalling MediaDirect on Inspiron 1520 Computers." I tried it anyway. Autorun led to me being told the reinstallation disc wasn't compatible with my system, as did accessing the dellkit.exe file myself.
I tried booting directly into it and found myself in the same "Cannot access Hard Drive" bitlocker nightmare scenario for a while. I don't know if a reinstallation/repartitioning would rectify this, but I've spent the best part of 2 days getting the programs I want up and running so I'm not really willing to go through that again, especially if the payoff isn't guaranteed. I don't suppose anyone's come across a fix for this yet?
I remember in the original start menu the MediaDirect icon was there, can anyone check the target and see if it actually points to the MD partition or to somewhere on the C: drive?
Oh and I also must voice my discontent Re: Dell customer support. I paid extra for a 3 year warranty, I go to contact them about this and I'm told that the system is not yet covered by chat or e-mail support! I'm supposed to pay to call them for a service I've already paid for! Beautiful.

 

i fixed the problem after just installing MediaDirect using delkit from dvd in Windows environment. thought i'll have reinstall the whole system again.

 

I have had no success getting MD to work -- I can thankfully get back to Vista when if fails though, but is there a workaround?

 

hii guys
the same problem but I format the media direct partion
with no
use

 

Same for me. Anyone had repair it without reinstalling everything?

Thanks and regards!

 

Yes there is a solution some thing called dell media direct repair utility which can be downloaded from dell site.
I am not tried it yet but i hope it will fix the issue

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop and one morning I also got the message "Dell MediaDirect Express cannot access your hard drive" etc. I could not power up Windows XP, and if I pressed exit on the error message the computer just powered off. If your computer is switched off, you can start Dell MediaDirect by pressing the button with a picture of a house on it, on the Inspiron it is an inch to the left of the power on/off button. This takes you quickly to Dell MediaDirect, without having to load Windows. If you get the Dell MediaDirect error message, there is a simple remedy. Just power down your computer so all is switched off. Then don't press the power on/off button, just press the Dell MediaDirect button (with the picture of the house on it) - and lo and behold the computer will power up Windows XP rather than Dell MediaDirect! Problem solved! No partitioning or anything required. I expect the problem was originally caused by pressing the Dell MediaDirect button to start the computer instead of the power on/off button, they feel the same in half light in the morning on my Inspiron.

 

hayessteph ... you are a total life saver. It worked for me. I was in a repeating loop of non-os booting "Dell MediaDirect Express cannot access your hard drive" etc. I powered everything off and instead of turning on my computer with the power button, I pressed the Dell MediaDirect Crapress button again and viola - it booted into my OS.

The Dell Media Express button person needs to be fired.
Thanks!

 

I encountered the same problem while attempting to fix my friend's Dell Vostro 1400, which had this issue. We tried booting with the Media Direct button, we tried booting with the power button, we tried holding both, and also pressing the MD button repeatedly. Nothing we tried seemed to work, it always booted back into Media Direct, with the "bitlocker" error message. Keep in mind, this computer had Windows XP on it, using the standard Dell image and partitions, so it definitely wasn't bitlocker.

We were able to boot back into Windows my selecting F12 at POST (to enter the boot menu), then choosing the option to load Windows normally. For anyone having trouble getting back into Windows from Media Direct, I'd recommend also trying variations using the F12 boot options.