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Media direct???? PLEASE HELP?????
I dont know if im posting in the right area but i sure hope someone can help.
I have had to reformat my drive on my inspiron 9400/1705 laptop. I deleated all the parsions (found out later its not a good idea) and formated and i do relize i need to re do it all again. But ive tryed all the ideas from dell web site and here in forums to put a partion back in at the begining of the drive for media direct. Then ive reinstailed windows xp then the media direct repair utilitys. Media direct works but then there is no windows start up like it over rides the c drive and takes the space.
Can anyone please help, any ideas what im doing wrong. I need to reinstail the media direct but dont have that softwere just media direct repair utility. Is there a difference? I hope someone can give me a step by step on how to do this, As i said ive tryed all the ideas and am very confused. It would be very appreciated
Sincerly, ED
Mr._Pseudonym
315 Posts
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February 16th, 2009 21:00
:^/ I'm not the best expert on this, but I'll share what I've gleaned over months of lurking here and researching the subject for my own use. You see, my own XPS M1210 is in the same boat; it came with Media Direct, but because I've upgraded to a larger hard drive, it doesn't work correctly.)
;^) The was it's supposed to work is that one can press the Media Direct button at startup, instead of the power button. Next, the computer boots from the Media Direct partition instead of the usual one. So, only an abbreviated version of Windows is loaded, with just the appropriate drivers to run the Media Direct software.
The idea is that it boots much more quickly that way. You don't even have to log in first, even that part is cut out of the boot sequence.
The the trade off/down side is that you cannot do anything else, such as surfing the web, because the appropriate drivers for that have been left out.
:^/ In practice, however, it boots exactly the same as usually, except that the Media Direct button is lit instead of the usual Power button. It's no faster, I still need to log in, and I can still do everything else.
This is because the system isn't able to boot from the Media Direct partition because I cannot prepare the drive hardware before installing Windows, because I don't have the Media Direct restore/install software. Soooo, it tries, then falls back on booting normally when it cannot boot from the extra partition.
I've also learned that said software needs to be run before installing Windows, etc.
:^/ If you have the Media Direct Repair Utility CD, you might try booting from it and running it, then re-installing Windows, etc. Mind you, back all of your important files ahead of time, etc.
Orrrr, if Media Direct works when you press the Media Direct button, but the rest of Windows doesn't, isn't that how it's supposed to be? You'll have to quit Media Direct when you're done with it, then start again from the regular power button....
esizemore02
11 Posts
0
February 16th, 2009 22:00
It only will load one or the other after i instail windows it works from the power button. But after i load the media direct all windows files are gone when pressing power button. but when i *** media direct it loads md. if i reload windows md is gone again