Question involving Norton Ghost, Media Direct, and the whole Partition mess

Okay, so i'm thinking about uninstalling norton ghost. Now my question is, is the version preloaded on my E1505 just a trial, cause if so i think its gonna go (don't know if this makes a difference but I have not yet enabled it). Now if I uninstall it, is the space reserved for it automatically returned to my C: drive (as in I don't need to reformat or anything)? Also if I remove it, do I lose my media direct functionality? I realize that these may have been answered before, but I've sifted through the stickies and just couldnt find the straightforward answer I am looking for.

 

Oh and another question, if I remove norton ghost recovery do I still have dell's recovery to restore it to its original settings, if so, how do i get to it?

 

If you remove Norton Ghost, it will give you the option to keep the partition there or merge it with your XP Partition (according to other users). No, the ghost function does not have anything to do with the Dell Restore Utility. Dell restore will format your laptop back to the orginial factory condition while Ghost just returns it back to the previous time that you "ghost" your drive.

As for whether it affects MediaDirect - that depends on what you do with it. If you merge the spare partition with your XP partition, then you'll need to repair Media Direct (fairly easy for most users). If you don't do anything to that partition, you should be fine and shouldn't have to repair Media Direct.

 

Okay, so I can remove it and it will be immediately accessible? And where would I find the methods for repairing media direct. Also do I still press Fn+F11 at boot up to access the dell restore to factory settings, and if I do use dell's system restore would it repair MediaDirect if something messed up? Sorry to seem incompetent, i'm really not, but I've had this thing for only a week and dont want to start off with screwing things up. Oh and in your opinion do i even need norton cause I back up all my files to cd's so i have a copy away from my pc and there aren't really any programs that i couldn't easily put back onto the comp, and i'm more than willing to go straight back to factory settings should something go wrong.

okay, thats the end of this long winded post.

 

Yes

http://support.dell.com / Select your laptop & go to "Downloads & Drivers." Under "applications" select DellMediaDirect Repair Utility & follow the instructions provided.

Yes, you'd still access the Restore Utility the same way, but you would probably have to manually repair MediaDirect with the method mentioned above.

It's okay But if you really aren't incompetent, you may want to consider reformatting altogether (outlined in sticky @ the top of this board).

If you're already backing up everything yourself, then no.

 

Okay, thanks you two, i'm gonna get to work on getting back my 20gigs of unused HDD. I've considered reformatting, but i've gone through and uninstalled the things I don't want so i'm just gonna see how this works for me and reformat later if i think i need to.

 

One thing to mention - the restore partition might not work if you delete the spare partition (Norton). The restore partition will not work if you reformat or edit the partitions in any way. At the same time, nobody has mentioned anything about the restore partition working or not working if you delete the Norton partition.

For the Media Direct repairs, I have step by step directions in the format guide (link in sig).

 

I remember being able to run the restore partition even after uninstalling ghost & consolidating the backup partition to my C drive; however, I've since reformatted and deleted just about all the original partitions so I would not be able to try it again to verify.

All it did was restore the original image on the C drive. It did not create another backup partition.

 

okay, so i uninstalled ghost, and did the Media Direct repair and went through everything and it said "Done". But (i guess you saw that coming) when i push the button with the power off it still loads media direct, but no matter how many times I tell it to update its library, it cant find any of my music.

 

okay, for one, it is suppose to load media direct - so it is working at least.

The looking for the library it is a different issue. I don't have MD on my system, but I believe there is a some kind of setting in Media Direct that allows you to update and find the missing files.

 

To make Media Direct recognize your file you will need to do the following:

1. Press the Media Direct Button while your laptop is 0FF
2. Press F8 before Media Direct loads
3. Select the option "Delete Restoration Data"

That's it! Media Direct now will load like the first time you open it (with black background) and will update you library.

 

okay, so i tried the F8 thing, it doesnt do anything for me, it just continues to load MediaDirect.

 

bump bump bump

 

hey guys
im facing the same problem . I repartitioned my HDD ,media direct continued to run but it still saw the old backup partition that i reclaimed while uninstalling ghost .
Ran repair ,said done .. but still shows old partitions ..

 

alright guys, the F8 deal worked like a charm, all my music is accessible without booting windows now. Dont know why i need it, but i figure since there is a button for it, it might as well work.