Dell Media Direct Step by Step Installation

Question

Hi I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 which is less than a week old. When I got my laptop there was way too many software and I saw that I bought a 100GB HD and my available HD Space is less than 80GB. So basically I reinstalled the whole OS n formatted the whole HD n deleted the FAT partitioning. Now I read couple of post in the forum and now I know that other partition was for the Dell media direct software. I called dell n they said there is no way you can get that settings back, which I know it not tru. I asked for the re-installation CD but many of u said that they don’t sent the right CD most of the time. So I think I managed to download both the software and the repair file for media direct off the net. “R95248” that’s the zip installation file and “R121517” that is the repair file.

Now I know I’m missing the software in my system and the partitioning. But I got all the Files for installing them again. So can someone please give me the step by step instruction or a link where I find the instruction to install this software?
Thanks
Amit

Kneedeepinglitc · Answer

I too am having a similar problem.

I have a Dell E1505 and because of the 90 day trial for norton ghost I had to reinstall XP pro, delete the backup partition and the c partition but i accidentally deleted the media direct partition. I did leave the one FAT partition which i understand is the Dell Diagnostics. The problem is that every time i try to call Tech support the want me to pay for a software service plan or for a one time fix deal when they sent me the wrong CD to begin with. I do not have the software for the Media direct nor do i have the Points on the C drive to access the diagnostics. The downloads for dell media direct reinstallation will not install saying that they will not work on this machine.

dg1261 · Answer

Deleting a factory-installed MediaDirect partition is actually quite difficult to do, so I think it's quite possible it's still there but you just can't see it. It should be hidden in a Host-Protected Area (HPA) of the hard disk, which all the usual tools (Ghost, Acronis, Partition Magic, XP's diskpart, etc.) cannot see. The only clue a hidden HPA exists is the reported disk size will be about 1.5-2 GB short of 100GB (after taking into acct the base-10/base-2 counting issue).

In order to launch the MediaDirect partition, you need a Dell MBR, but the catch is the Dell MBR requires you to have the DellUtility partition as the first partition on the disk or MD won't launch. (Technically, the requirement is that the active XP partition not be first, but the point is that if you had left DellUtility alone then XP would not be first.)

To fix, you should be able to wipe all partitions, recreate a small (47MB is typical) FAT partition at the front of the disk, then create a NTFS partition for XP behind it. After XP is installed, partition-2 should be the active partition, and then you can run the MediaDirect repair tool to reinstall the Dell MBR.

Normally, the MediaDirect reinstallation CD should only be needed when you are swapping hard disks, since the new hard disk won't have a MD partition on it already.

Kneedeepinglitc · Answer

Trust Me, It's not that hard. All you have to do is stick in the XP pro CD and when you get to the partitions accidentally delete all of them instead of just the C drive and Backup D drive that Norton Ghost had put on there with a free trial that is the reason that I had to do this in the first place. Anyway, I was able to call up Dell and get a re-installation CD that fixed the problem completely.

dg1261 · Answer

'Trust Me, It's not that hard.' Well, you obviously don't know anything about HPAs.  The HPA is not a partition.

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Dell Media Direct Step by Step Installation

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