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    Windows Reinstall and MediaDirect

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by MarkMcK, Apr 12, 2006.

  1. MarkMcK

    MarkMcK Notebook Evangelist

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    Hoping to gather some information and ideas....

    In reading the posts I'm seeing a couple of trends when it comes to Windows reinstallations and its subsequent effect on MediaDirect and the success/failure of 'Repairs'.

    Folks that 'go for the jugular' and delete all partitions followed by... 1) Install of windows 2) Repair of MediaDirect; end up with a 'broken' system and can't boot to Windows.

    Others that are a little more 'incremental'. Not messing with the Dell Utility partition and deleting just the Dell Restore partition followed by... 1) Install of windows 2) Repair of Media Direct; end up with everything working.

    Then there are those 'jugular' folks that start with their 'broken' system and thru creating various parititions, loading of Windows and running MediaDirect repair, get things back to where all is functioning properly.

    Could it be....

    MediaDirect repair will only work correctly if there is more than one partition on the system at the time the 'repair' is performed???

    It could be a combination of a 1) Windows partition and the Dell Utility partition or 2) Windows partition and some 'place-holder' partition. Just so long as there are two primary partitions in the Partition Table.

    For me.... I was incremental in that I first deleted the Restore partition, then ran the Repair utility. Once the 'repair' was done, I went on do just about anything I wanted wrt partitions... to include getting rid of the Utility partition. The MediaDirect function worked 'fine'.

    Just trying to sort out how/why some folks are ending up with 'broken' non-bootable systems when working with the Repair Utility....

    If there is some consitent set of actions or configurations, that would go a long ways to understanding what's happening.

    Cheers

    Mark
     
    MarkMcK, Apr 12, 2006
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  2. 21st Hermit

    21st Hermit Notebook Consultant

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    Mark,

    I think you correctly stated the confusion, just no definitive answer.

    One is left to wonder why Dell doesn't publish a White Paper on the subject and dispel the confusion. Sigh!!!

    Hermit
     
    21st Hermit, Apr 12, 2006
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