Media Direct 3 and Vista MBR repair tool

There is no way to repair MD3.  The only way to make it work again is to format the HDD with the MD disk and install Windows from scratch.  If you have a full Acronis backup of all of your visible partitions, you can restore each backup to their respective partition after formatting and setting up the MD hidden partition.

Tom

I've got an XPS M1330 with 320Gb HD, partitioned as follows:

125 Mb Eisa (Which I assume is Acronis Recovery)
10Gb Recovery D: NTFS Primary
250.45Gb OS C: NTFS System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary
2.5Gb Partition (Which I assume is where Acronis moved the Media direct partition)
35Gb Partition - Acronis Secure Zone

In the standard setup does the C drive house the MBR, boot sector etc.? I'm pretty sure that I'll need to boot into WRE and either run startup repair or bootrec via the command prompt, after restoring the C and D partitions in order to get Vista booting, and to add the repair option to the F8 menu in case I want to run Factory Image Restore in the future.

I hear that Dell are working on MD4 which has a more robust startup configuration that can cope with multiple boot options.

Tim

Should I also uninstall MediaDirect from Windows before imaging the C drive? I'd love to be able to run Acronis Startup manager plus mediadirect, but there's nothing in the knowledgebase that describes if it is possible. Roll on MD4!

I managed to get the F8 restore facility back by:

1. Boot into WinRE using Vista CD.
2. Use imagex to manually extract the factory.wim image. (running PCRestore didn't work)
3. The PC then started looping through the bios screen so I booted into WinRE again, said no to automatic repair, and then ran the startup repair function.

I'm assuming that by manual partitioning after using mediadirect I'll be able to have an Acronis secure zone, media direct and just put the Acronis recovery enviroment on a USB drive. I'll try a straight restore using Acronis, if that doesn't work I think I'll have to restore the factory image and then restore the acronis image.

I can see why they've changed it, it must be costing them a fortune in support calls.

Tim

I agree what's the point of being able to run the MD outside of windows. I've an inspiron 1525 with a built in blueray burner drive, it won't play BD discs in the partition mode only in windows. (well it will do when i reinstall the windows section, a faulty update patch has presently crippled it.)

The 2 work separately as the partition still boots to MD and plays despite the software being completely removed from windows. Though i notice that it can be updated (the partition install) if the windows install is updated.

I will probably delete the partition in the end as its a waste of time and only hinders the creation of seperate partitions that i require to seperate the OS from data/files and a partition to store a back up image using ghost or acronis.

Tim,

I am having a similar but different issue that you may be able to help me with. I have an XPS 730w/Vista 32bit  that I currently have running from a Vista DVD install  separate from the Dell Recovery method. The Dell Recovery method via the Dell System Restore feature byy pressing F11 or F8 is not available because the PC will not recognize the recovery partition. The recovery partition is hidden in the Windows Vista environment (windows explorer) but I can view the presence of the partition through the disk management console.

I am not able to make the partition active or assign a drive letter within the disk management console and I cannot view the contents of the partition unless I utilize Acronis Disk Director. I can view the contents by "right clicking" the partition as shown within Acronis Disk Director console.  In addition to being able to view the contents using Acronis DD, I am able to copy folders etc by copy and paste to a new physical drive.

My first question is this: By using the copy feature within Acronis, is the data that is copied the same as if it were in the original partition? or would the copy feature cause the data to be corrupt? I do not know for sure and have posted this question at the Acronis support site. No answer yet. 

The reason I am asking is because my first attempt at doing this allowed me to copy and paste the files with the recovery partition to a separate physical drive. From here I utilized ImageX to apply the factory.wim (image) to a separate bootable USB drive. This recovery method of using ImageX to the factory.wim file appeared to be successfull until I tried to boot from the USB drive.

I received a warning after trying to boot using the USB drive stating "No Operating System" ....So I wonder if I need to correct the MBR of the USB Boot drive in order for the factory image to be recognized as an OS? or is the data corrupt becasue I utilized the copy/paste command within Acronis DiskDirector?

I can try it again but this time I will use a separate physical drive that is not a USB device for speed consideration.

have you tried using paragon partition tool to make the drive active, also check the boot.ini file. When MD is run from off and the partition or sw isn't there not only will it alter the MBR but as u know change the active partition. I have since found on another forum a wealth of info on this and how it works and can be fixed wihout having to reinstall with the MD disc 1st. As far as i remember you can use the rmbr.exe file from the MD 3.5 disc with the correct set of commands to tell the system which drive to boot from.

Also it is possible to wipe the useless MD partition and expand its size then install another OS on it and have that boot instead when the MD button is pressed. Thus having dual boot. A modified bootloader is used and installed on a tiny FAT16 partition (say the utilities partition). This can thus be set up to run silently in the back ground so as the power button would boot vista say and the ND button XP or linux or some people i read even have it running as a mac!

Not tried it personally as its a tad complicated but it would be good to be able to dual boot vista/xp in a such a way.

Well the plan as I described earlier works. I have learned that it is quite important to have a clean drive to start with when recovering. I had to perform the procedure twice because of corrupt drive data. I was confident it was the right way to go about it. Just always remember that time is on your side and you must be patient and follow through with a function once it is started. Such as a wipe and reformat. It takes forever to wipe appropriately and format....Because I was impatient and stopped the procedure short, it caused more time to recover the errors inflicted because of my "need for speed"

The Acronis copy feature worked fine and did not corrupt the data as I copied/pasted to the new "recovery" partition. The question as to whether the MBR needs to be reconfigured after performing the ImageX  recovery to restore the factory.wim, is correct. Now my Recovery data is there and the F8 key function is restored as well.

My reason for asking the question of you earlier was because I believe I could have utilized the MD3 repair tool to do the same, but, it is not appropriate since I do not use MD3 on the XPS. I do have the M1710 w/MD3 and I have the MD3 disk available, but, I decided to go the other route for better security. FYI I do not use the MD3 to any extent, it is cumbersome in my opinion and unnecessary.

Also, FYI, I have Vista and Vista no longer uses boot.ini.....One of the best sites I have found that describes the Dell System Restore feature is put together by Dan Goodell. Here is the link: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/ You can learn alot just reading in detail the info he has there.  Thanks for your insight.