The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Mediadirect confusion - advice?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by sach_160, Aug 17, 2006.

  1. sach_160

    sach_160 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi all,

    I've read all the post on mediadirect repair/reinstallation on this forum and other places by googling and I'm a bit lost now. I'm hoping someone here can help/advise.

    I have an inspiron 9400, 100gb hard drive that i received last week, it was partitioned: 86mb dell utility - c drive 60gb - d backup 30gb - invisible 1.5 gb HPA mediadirect partition.

    I have formatted and reinstalled windows xp pro (SP2), leaving the dell utility and invisible HPA 1.5gb mediadirect part alone. I have partitioned like this:

    86 mb dell utility - 20g audio work - 40gb samples - 3gb audio software - 15gb xp pro - rest unallocated

    1. Is there any way I can repair mediadirect without reinstalling it, by using the downloadable repair utlility or as I've read in some places, will this kill my xp?

    2. If I have to reinstall, can I delete the 1.5gb HPA partition (using HPA.exe) and then reinstall following dell's instructions (except with a 1.5gb rather than 1308 size unallocated spare) with my partition scheme?
    - I'm guessing not as I've read that mediadirect doesnt like logical partitions when it's installed... but i need my xp on a logical partition - i've not found any solution to this in my search...

    Can anyone help?

    Thanks

    Sache
     
    sach_160, Aug 17, 2006
    #1
  2. sach_160

    sach_160 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    ...anyone?
     
    sach_160, Aug 18, 2006
    #2
  3. schmoken

    schmoken Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    schmoken, Aug 18, 2006
    #3
  4. sach_160

    sach_160 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    hi, thanks for the link - but i know that one, and that's the thread where it all started going wrong. I think that thread is very bad advice - firstlywhat works varies by what dell system you have but there is no mention of this - the dell repair utlity does not work with 9400 i have read elsewhere, and as other have tried and shown.

    I was hoping someone with a lot of knowledge on the issue of reinstalling mediadirect can see a solution for the kind of partition I need on my audio pc...
     
    sach_160, Aug 19, 2006
    #4
  5. schmoken

    schmoken Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    3
    Messages:
    73
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    16
    Ah, I was under the impression that the 9400 and e1705 were the same beast.
     
    schmoken, Aug 19, 2006
    #5
  6. sach_160

    sach_160 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    45
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    they are - but the linked thread - i don't think it refers to either... i think that fix only works on some other dell models...
     
    sach_160, Aug 19, 2006
    #6