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14010
Clean Install of Media Center 2005
I am trying to perform a clean install of Media Center 2005 on my Dell XPS 600 using the Reinstallation DVD that came with the computer about 3-1/2 years ago. I have a CD drive and a DVD drive. The Reinstallation DVD can only be seen and read in my DVD player; however I can only boot to my CD drive not my DVD drive. I changed my boot sequence to boot to the CD; DVD was not an option. I tried using the DVD in my CD drive but the boot drive was not found.
I then loaded the DVD and tried to install XP from there. It says that it is going to install and needs to restart. When it restarts, I have an additional OS listed (I'm now up to 2 Windows Media Centers and 1 XP Professional - not sure how that happened). Now after a restart, I have to select an OS first or let it default to the XP Professional.
How can I get a clean install of Media Center when all I have is the Reinstallation DVD. Even if I could get a floppy version of the install, I have no floppy drive. I also checked to see if I had the Dell restore and I do not.
Thanks in advance!
ddd1ddd
126 Posts
1
March 8th, 2009 20:00
Jennybay
Alexandra is correct.
The BIOS will not see the DVD drive as a boot option because the DVD drive is not at the end of the ribbon cable, and is probably jumpered to slave. The DVD drive will need to be configured so that it shows in BIOS, and therefore can be selected as the first to boot.
The easiest way may be to remove the ribbon cable from both drives, jumper both optical drives to CS, and attach only one drive to the very end of the ribbon cable; the DVD drive. The CD drive would not be hooked up. Go into BIOS and set DVD to boot first. If DVD drive still doesn't show up, jumper it to master. Install XP, then make both drives jumpered to CS, and re-attach ribbon cable as it was new.
A more difficult, but permanent solution, would be to remove both drives and switch them (DVD on top), set as CS (or DVD master, CD slave if that does not work). Replace the ribbon cable with the very end on DVD drive, the other on CD drive.
Rangelf89
32 Posts
0
March 8th, 2009 17:00
Well from one you state above, you installed it in order to be able to multi-boot, which would require a whole new partition. But anyways, You can try downloading drivers from Dell, this is probably why your DVD drive won't read it. This is the same problem I was having about 2 weeks ago on my XPS as well. And if worse comes to worse, You can try booting it from a USB Flash Drive.
Alexandra_P
2.6K Posts
0
March 8th, 2009 19:00
The inability to boot to DVD may be a master/secondary problem: if the CD and DVD drive share an IDE cable; the drive at the end of the cable (usually in the top bay) is the master (bootable) drive, which is the one that shows up in the boot order.
The problem is, most versions of XP came on CD, so Dell may have made your CD drive the master. If the CD drive is in fact the top drive that's probably what's wrong.
Check the BIOS device settings under drives. Not sure how the 600 lists them all, but see if the CD is first and the DVD second. If that's the case, see what happens if you turn OFF the CD drive. If the drives were jumpered correctly (to cable select) it might then recognize the DVD as primary and boot from it.
If that doesn't work, you may have to physically switch the drives and the cables to make the DVD the master (primary) drive.
From there, you should be able to reformat. Not sure how you managed to get 3 parallel installations on there, but this guide from Dell is decent in doing it correctly:
How to install XP
DELL-Larry R
1.7K Posts
0
March 9th, 2009 13:00
I believe the WinXP Media Center reinstallation disk was a DVD. By default Dell installs the IDE drives with the jumpers set for Cable Select, so the position on the cable is going to determine whether it will work as the boot device or not. If you have a system with more than one drive, you may need to switch the cabling if they are not both DVD drives.
jennybay
2 Posts
0
March 9th, 2009 14:00
Thank you all for your responses. I would have replied earlier but I was too busy reloading software on my nice, clean version of XP. I switched the order of the cables and it booted to my DVD drive without any problems. I'd still be pulling my hair out if it weren't for your help.
DELL-Larry R
1.7K Posts
0
March 10th, 2009 08:00
I'm glad to hear you've got things working now.
Maxwarrior
1 Message
0
July 8th, 2011 18:00
I'm in the same boat and cannot get the DVD to change from "Slave". I have the CD Drive unplugged and have swaped the cables and jumpers. Still no help. The CD shows as "Master" even though it is unplugged and disabled. I need the DVD to boot as I have an error - HAL.DLL missing