Upgrading to Vista and MediaDirect?

Hi there,

I have a dell 640m with winxp. I want to upgrade it to Vista but worried about dell media direct working. Should I just buy a win vista upgrade package, and run that - and will that make media direct still work?

Or should i do a fresh install of vista, and just not delete the media direct partition. If I do that, will that work?

 

if you can, i'd always recommend against upgrading to vista from xp. i know people who've done that and reported their systems run a lot slower, with old drivers, files, etc. lying around.

ideally what you want to do is boot up the Vista install DVD, delete all the partitions you can find, and leave your hard-drive completely empty.

then you put in the MediaDirect cd (i'm assuming one came with your 640m??) - which will create partitions for both MediaDirect and the OS.

finally you put the Vista disk back in, and install it onto the partition MediaDirect created for you. don't format it - just click on it and press go.

that will give you a perfectly working system with MediaDirect and a fresh install of Vista

 

I have a dell media direct CD and instruction booklet

So I assume that media direct creates 2x partitions then? And one of those is dedicated for the OS - however, does that mean it will work in vista? Or do I need a newer version of media direct?

Do I need to install extra software or anything ontop of what the media direct cd does in regards to the functions of media direct in Vista?

Ps. Thanks for the help!!

 

1) MediaDirect creates two partitions by default. It allocates 3GB of space as an invisible partition for MediaDirect, and then uses the rest of the free space on your hard-drive to create the C: partition for the OS.

However, you can also specify how big you want C: to be, and it will then make whatever's left into D:. But it will only do that if you tell it to.



2) It doesn't matter which OS is installed on the C: partition it creates. MediaDirect supports XP and Vista - i'm not sure about anything before that.



3) You can update MediaDirect to the latest version once you have installed Windows and have an Internet Connection. You just start it up (within Windows*) then go to the "Check For Updates" icon.

*On some laptops you can start a special version called MediaDirect Express by pressing a dedicated button. This works even when Windows isn't running, allowing you to listen to music/view pictures without starting Windows.

You cannot update it from MediaDirect Express.



4) Yes; sorry I forgot to mention this - after you have installed Vista/XP, put the MediaDirect CD back in and follow the prompts. This just installs the program so you can run it from Windows.


Hope that helps!!

 

Thank you for your detailed response.

That leads me to the question then. Is there any reason you cannot leave the invisable partion thats already there, formatt c and then reinstall vista onto that partition?

 

Just to check, what version of MediaDirect do you have? I believe that MediaDirect 2 installs differently from MediaDirect 3.

Greg

 

Pleasure Paulie;
If you leave it alone and just format C:, MediaDirect will still work if you boot it up when Windows isn't running, but you won't be able to run the program from within Vista.

Basically if you put the CD in and try and install it when the partition's already there, it corrupts everything, and it doens't work at all. (but Vista would still boot fine).



also, if anyone's wondering how i've found out so much about this, it's because i literally spent about a month trying to get mine set up perfectly. the way mine works now is it boots MediaDirect if I'm not in Windows, but if I am it launches iTunes instead (personal preferance).



Greg;
I think my install disk is MediaDirect 3.3 or maybe 3.4..?? If you're looking for help on MD2, search on Dell's site - i'm sure i've stumbled across guides for it there.

 

Great thread! Just what I was going to post about myself.

I have installed Vista x64 this weekend - just onto the partition that Vista Home was installed on. This has left the Media Direct partition and it works perfectly when the laptop is turned off and I hit the media direct button.

I just put the Media Direct 3.5 CD in and installed the client software into Vista - working a treat.

So, as long as the Media Direct partition is not deleted and you install the O/S into the same partition as the machine arrives with things seem to be ok.

To other people who have used MD alot, is it essentially just a re-skinned Media Center? It seems to be using my music library settings from MC.

 

this never worked for me!! when i tried that it didn't work from both Vista or directly booting it. Mine came up "MBR ERROR" (mbr = master boot record).


and it's not based on Media Center unfortunately - that would be a good thing! No, instead it's actually just a heavily modified version of CyberLink PowerCinema.

 

That's weird. When you installed Vista, did you just install on the old partition or did you clear out the disk at all? I think MD uses a hidden partition (different from the full MD boot one) which handles the MD button (About 118mb or so).
Check in Computer Management to see if that partition is still there. Perhaps the MBR error is due to the bios not being able to find the hidden partition.

 

Hey guys, how do i find out what version of media direct I have? I assume it wont matter what version I got with the machine - my 640m is almost 2 years old and came with Xp obviously..

 

it wont matter what version you have. it will create 2 partitions, one for os, one for media direct. your media direct function will work and your operating system will work. im sure its on dells website hidden somewhere to if you want to know for sure what version.

 

Start it up, go to Settings, and go down to About Dell MediaDirect.

That definitely works in Windows, not sure about MD Express (direct booting)

 

Media Direct 3.5????? I was told that Media Direct 3.3 is the latest and greatest. Where did you get MD 3.5? Or was this tied to your computer in particular?