yes,

you are absolutely right. the first time i deleted vista and reinstalled xp i had the choice (within the xp-installation) to delete the 2 extra-partitions.
later, when i started win xp, i pressed this "house"-button on the notebook and direct media actually tried to find the software on a partition which is not available because i kicked it away and then ... loop ... nothin'
hmm. first i thought, that it could be possible to deactivate this little button from within the BIOS. but i was wrong. there is no option. while looking for a solution in google i found some interessting threads.
here are some infos i found:
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Now what if we want to change this button to say WMP or Media Center? Dell have set things up so there is no obvious way.

So here is what i have done (For media center):

NOTE: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK. AFTER DOING THE FOLLOWING DELL MEDIA DIRECT WILL NO LONGER WORK.

1. Download autoit v3 and install.
2. Open notepad insert this text:

3. Save the file as 4. Right click on the saved file and click complie. You will now have a new file called M Direct.exe
5. Go to C:\Program Files\ Dell\ Media Direct and move the program located in there called MDdirct.exe to a new folder say "M Direct in here!"
6. In its place paste your new file M Direct.exe so that it occupies the same directory as the old.

Now as long as you have the program Dell Quick Set running (It is a startup program as default) When you press the Media Direct button Windows Media Center will open.

This will work for any program WMP iTunes ect. just replace the directory in step 2 with the appropriote directory for your program.
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or
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My Dell 1720 don`t have the option to turn off the screen, and now, i assigned the "house" button to turn off the screen when i press it.

I was investigating, and I did not have the need to use any other software to do it than a very small program (36kb) to turn off the screen (monitoroff.exe), and put it into a new folder: (C:\program files\Apagar monitor\monitoroff.exe, for example.)
Only, i have used REGEDIT to edit the registry, and this small program.

If you want to do it, you must edit 3 entries named: "HotStartButton --> 0 --> ApplicationPath", and put the path to the program "monitoroff.exe" within each entry .

Next, you must delete the "PathName" and the "ProgramName" entries in: "HKLM\SOFWARE\DELL\MediaDirect", leaving them empty.

It´s that all folks!!! It rune fine in my Inspiron 1720 with vista premium. When i press the "house button", my screen turn off, and when press the keyboard or i move the mouse, the screen turn on.

I hope that this trick is useful for many people.
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NOTE: this 2 possibilities are just checked out within windows VISTA, not XP. therefore i don't know if these methods are going to work for XP-systems to.

maybe anybody will check this out

I would like to do the same but I have heard that Dell also uses a hidden partition  (HPA) and when you press that button it will invoke this and basically you end up in a loop where you cannot get back to windows before you install media direct. I have also heard that you can remove the hidden partition with Linux tools or with tools downloadable from the HD manufacturer. However I have also heard that the MBR will flag the partition (even if it doesn't exist anymore) as hidden thus when you press the MD button it will hang again. So not only do you need to recover the hidden partition you also need to somehow change the Dell MBR. To me Media Direct is a nuisance but when I installed XP on my M1330 I installed Media Direct because I found it too cumbersome to remove it.

OK, I did some research, it seems you can replace the Dell MBR using using the repair console in winxp and fixmbr, and recover the HPA using some disktools either for Linux or from hard drive manufacturers

http://www.sleuthkit.org/informer/sleuthkit-informer-20.html#img_sreset


http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#FeatureTool

Of course a new 200 Gb 7200 RPm Hitachi HD is around $200 from Newegg that way you don't need to worry about Media Direct, just a dead button

May I ask why MediaDirect is so "cumbersome"? I mean it allows you to play DVDs/music (emphasis on DVDs) in a state that draws less power, so that you can play the files longer before recharging the battery. MediaDirect has nothing to do with Vista, and works perfectly fine with XP.

Also, why is it so hard to not press the MediaDirect button when you've cleared every other remnant of it from your system? Seems like a huge amount of effort for such a small thing to worry about.

To me it is cumbersome because it is hard to remove, that Dell saw it fit to create hidden partitions to make it idiot proof I guess. I like choice and frankly it takes up hd drive space whether I want it or not.  I don't like that Dell creates a restore partition as well where they put bloatware etc. These are not 500 dollars computers, why assume everyone is an idiot, besides the restore software should obviously not be on the HD but on a CD/DVD. It buggers me that if I buy a fixed state HD which is $675 for 64Gb then over a 1/4 will be OS, Media Direct and the restore part, I mean it costs over 10 dollars per Gb aqnd Dell installes bloatware on it!
I just would like there to be an easier way to remove MD and restore and even better if you could have a choice when you configure it before you purchase it. I would even pay extra for having some extra choices.

MD is not cumbersome if you prefer to use your Dell as is and plan no alterations to your system. 

If, however, you wish to set-up multiple boot partitions, MD is an effing nightmare. 

In that later case, the MD button becomes a self-destruct button, as it rewrites your partition table.  And the problem is that a standard reformat of the drive won't even get rid of the partition killing behavior of the MD button.  The only way to prevent it is to perform a low level format (I used the linux "dd" command from a rescue disk), and reinstall everything from scratch.  Even then the idiotic MD button loads the MD splash screen (before going safely to your bootloader), but at least it no longer destroys your partition table.

Of course, I had to discover all this all my own.   Dell provides no information as to this destructive behavior of MD.  (And why would a machine purchased through Dell's small and medium biz unit have specialized home consumer media sw on it anyway?  I certainly did not order it.)

The simple solution would be for Dell to provide a way to deactivate the self-destruct button from within BIOS, and it is amazing that they have been having complaints about this for more than one yr, and have not yet bothered to offer this simple fix.


Quite frankly this has caused me so many problems and wasted time that I will never buy another Dell again. 

HI DEARS!

 

WELL AT LAST I FOUND THE PEOPLE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM AS I HAVE.

 

my problem is a bit more complicated, i.e i've 2 OS (win2003, vista32 bit).

 now my both OS were working perfectly but i intentionaly pressed media direct button just know atleast how does it work.

 

here i face that dead blue screen. now whenever i startup the machine, the media direct screen appears and then suddently show up that blue screen.

 

now could anybody help and guid me how to fi that stupid problem.

 

thanks in advance.

 

regards,

sohail.