MediaDirect and Partitions problem

Hi all,

I've just got my Inspiron 1705. I got it with 2 Partitions of 60 and 10GB.

By mistake i ran Partition Magic on Vista and it messed everything up for me. Gave me BSOD and i couldnt reinstall Visa because it didnt see my HD or something so i decided to make clean install of XP on the 60GB partition

Now i didnt delete any partitions but when i ran Paragon Partition Manager on XP it wrote that all my partitions are Invalid and not formatted. now i deleted the 10GB partition and created it anew with NTFS. (the 60GB still showed Invalid).

I tried to repair Media Direct by going into DOS and running Repair but when i loaded Mediadirect it would just get stuck in splash screen/blue background window and every time i loaded my computer it would try to load Mediadirect and not my OS. So i installed a new copy of XP on the 10GB and then i saw that it created new partition on drive letter C (where my previous XP install was) and it was named MEDIA DIRECT.

I'm very confused about it all now after i read few threads here.

What will be the best way for me to just install XP and have Medidirect? Once again i still have all the default partitions that came from Dell but that indication from the Partition Manager software that their are invalid bothers me...

please help

 

just install media direct firmware from Dell.com and it works. no problemo.......

 

What firmware? Can you please give me direct link
thanx

 

Now i tried and reinstalled back Vista and when i press MediaDirect, sometimes it loads MediaDirect and just getting stuck at splash screen or sometimes loads Vista instead...

I also sometimes have a boot option of:

Windows XP Proffesional
Windows XP Embedded
Unpartitioned Drive C: (something like that).
(guess from my previous installs)

Its a big mess....

Can someone please tell me how to make a clean fresh partitioning and installing Win XP and making that damn Mediadirect work please?

 

What are you talking about ? fixing MD is not firmware related issue.

Anyways....
If you are up to reinstalling XP again, then put in the MediaDirect3 DVD boot from it, and prepare the hard disk for installing MD. This will wipeout everything on the HDD and will create 2GB partition at the end of the disk for MD and another primary partition for the OS. If you want to have 2 data partitions then you can make a smaller OS partition (after installing WIndows, use the disk manager to create a new partition to use the rest of the space)
Then install XP or Vista on the newly created primary partition, afterwards run the MD setup inside Windows. This will install MD3 on the previously created MD partition.
If you create just 1 primary partition for XP/Vista then that is the end of the process; but if you created 2 partitions then you may have to edit the boot.ini file of the Media Direct XP (Windows embedded) installation to reflect the new partition. Post what happens after installing MD.

 

Thanks for your reply.

I tried to follow a guide by a user here. So i deleted the 2 partitions (1 OS, 1 Recovery) in Win XP setup and was left with 1 ~50MB or so of Diagnostic, 1 Unallocated space (main) and another Unallocated space of 2GB (which was there all the time and i guess is what MediaDirect uses). After the installation of XP on main partition i ran the repair utility. and now it gives me "Extended partition table error" (not for the first time).


Now, about the MD3. Is there any link where i can download this software from or i have to call Dell and order it from them? (i heard it takes some time until you finally get the DVD). If so, whats the best way to get it from them? Phone? or Tech Online?

Thanks for your help again.

 

When you are deleting / configuring partitions, dont delete the first 50MB partition.
I assumed that you already have MD3 since you mentioned that you just got your 1705. DELL started shipping MD3 several months ago. I didn't know that they still ship MD2, unless you got a refurbished notebook from DELL outlet.

However ,you can call DELL and ask them to send you a copy, or you can try to download an image which was uploaded by a user at notebookforums from MegaUpload. ( Link to notebookforum thread [go to post 66]).

 

I didnt receive MD3 so thanx a bunch for this link.

I'll try it out when i'll download it. I assume installing is self-explanatory yeah? or i need to know something?
Right now i have WinXP with 1 Partition. Should i just pop in this DVD and boot it up? or is there some procedure?

thanx again PheonixFx

 

The installation requires a full format so it would be a good idea to prepare yourself by backing up all your data.

 

Well, its a new comp so nothing to worry for me

I'll update when i'm done, thanx

 

ok, this really starts to annoy me very much.

I got the MD3 DVD and booted with it. It asked me for 2 options.
So i chose to make 2 paritions. Installed XP Pro on C: and then i loaded MD3 in windows (for some reason DVD doesnt want to auto-load) and went into WindowsMD3 folder and installed the software from there.
I turned off the PC and pressed Media Direct button and it gave me NTLDR error (file is missing). I fixed that and then it gave me Hal.dll error so i decided to just start all over and this time i chose option 1 - one partition C: and this time i also installed Quickset (i saw some user suggest to do that) and again it gave me the same error so now i cant boot to XP again.

What am i doing wrong?
Can someone please give the whole procedure to this installation?

This is really frustrating, any suggestions PhoenixFx?

thanks for help...

 

You need to install the Cyberlink PowerDVD CD first. So you put the Media Direct 3 DVD in first, make your partitions, reboot and install XP. Then install the System software, quickset, and all the drivers.

Lastly, install Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 and THEN put the MediaDirect 3 DVD back in and it will properly autoload. Do not try to override the autorun, but running something from any of the directories. It will ruin your Windows install and you will have to start again.

What many of the forums should warn is two things, DO NOT run the Media Direct repair utility for Version 2.0 on Version 3. and do not try to finish the installation with installing PowerDVD first.

 

Mine wouldnt autorun either, I just run dellkit manually to install it.

Also, I didnt get a powerlink DVD with mine, is it on the utilitys disk?

 

Ok here is how you can fix the missing NTLDR error:

You get that error because you have more than 1 partition. I think MD installer assumes that it is always the 3rd partition (diagnostic, OS partition and then MD). Therefore the boot.ini file of the MD XP installation is hard coded to load it from the 3rd partition, or something like that causes it to have an incorrect partition entry. All you have to do is change the boot.ini file of MD installation.

• Put in the Windows XP installation disk and run setup.
• Select the option "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R" Then select the MD XP installation (usually the second option listed with a drive letter like E: or G: etc. with the normal XP installation listed normally as C:. Make sure ou selected the proper installation by typing a dir command to check the file structure)
• Leave a blank for admin password and log in.
• Copy the boot.ini file of the MD XP installation to C: drive and reboot. (use a different name or copy in to a sub folder under C:. Don't replace the boot.ini file of C: drive
• Boot in to normal Windows and load the copied boot.ini file in the notepad.
  It should look like this :
  
  [boot loader]
  timeout=0
  default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(X)\WINDOWS
  [operating systems]
  multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(X)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Embedded" /fastdetect /KERNEL=NTOSBOOT.EXE /maxmem=256
  
  X should have a value like 2 or 3 (I cant remember exactly).
  
• Increase that by 1 (assuming you only have 2 partitions) and save the file.
• Again boot in to the recovery console and replace the old boot.ini of the MD XP installation with the modified file.

See if that helps.

 

Hi again

Thanx for your replies.

PhenixFx, when i try to repair i go to repair (first of all i dont have any options besides 1 which is D:\Windows) but for a strange reason when i DIR C: it says its a MEDIADIRECT partition and my D: is my Windows partition. There is nothing on the MediaDirect partition.
Should i maybe reinstall Windows again and change boot.ini?

I dont have the Cyberlink DVD and i cant autorun the MD3 DVD from windows.

What else do i need to install from that DVD? It wont work unless i install PowerDVD? (I have my own PowerDVD- not Dell) and do i need to install anything else before i launch Media Direct button like system files and any spesific drivers? (I dont think i got any XP drivers on that Drivers and Utilities CD).
Where do i need to install it all? (I installed it on my C: partition in Program Files).

Thanks for all your help so far...

 

Ok, i decided to start all over again (i dont have patience to fix these errors).

This time i partitioned with option 2.

Windows Storage Management:

1. 47MB
2. C: - 15GB
3. D: - rest (RAW)
4. MEDIADIRECT

So its a fresh XP Copy with nothing on it.

Once again i cant autorun MD3 DVD from windows i get error:
"The applications has failed to start because the application configuration is incorrect. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem"
When i'm checking Autorun file this is what it has:
[autorun]
open=Dellkit/MD3Recovery.exe "Dellkit/Dellkit.exe"

Please tell me in as much detail as possible what is the procedure of installation next, also PheonixFx, do i need to make any moddification to boot.ini right now? (boot.ini loads from partition (2)).

Thanks guys i'll be waiting for your help

 

Ok, i got it!

all i had to do was open the DVD and just run Dellkit.exe

Thanks for the help PheonixFx, Reped.

 

Running DellKit.exe also worked for me. Thanks for the tip!