invalid partition table

Question

I've got a Inspiron 1520 I reformatted my C drive to get rid of Vista and reloaded my old XP Pro onto it Everything has been working great (found all the drivers etc..) I left intact, the D drive (recovery) and the F drive (Media Direct)   I'm not sure if i hit the Media Direct button to start my troubles but now when i boot up it goes to ' invalid partition table' and that's that   So i used the XP disk to boot into recovery mode and i tried using the FIXBOOT & FIXMBR commands but they didn't work Then i noticed that the main volume was now called drive F and the Media Direct volume is now called drive C ???   This explains why i can't boot the thing, but i don't know how they got switched and short of scrubbing everything and starting over, i don't know how to rename the drives to what they should be C = operating system & F = Media Direct   Any help would be appreciated Thanks Gidds

jcn77056 · Answer

At this point, you're best bet is to start over.  I don't think the Media Direct partition will work anyway.  It probably will mess things up.   You could also try BartPE and see if there's something in there which might help.  Tools like Aronis Disk Director Suite may be able to fix the partition table but if it was caused by pressing the button, fixing it once won't stop it from happening again.

gidds · Answer

I deleted the Mediadirect partition Reformatted the main partition Reinstalled XP pro   Then I pushed the dreaded button again to see if it would mess anything up (before i went too far) and sure enough, Invalid Partition Table :smileysad:   Is there is no easy way to fix this?   I'm going to try to mess around with that BartPE thing see if it gets me anywhere

jcn77056 · Answer

There were some other discussions on how to restore the Media Direct partition.  You may have to setup the machine correctly so the button actually works.  Short of that, can you disable the button in the BIOS?

gidds · Answer

no, i cant disable it in the bios, that would be too easy :smileymad:

...I've seen mention of a new download to update the MediaDirect from Dell, but i haven't been able to find it in the download section

Message Edited by gidds on 10-31-2007 08:42 PM

jcn77056 · Answer

You might have to re-install the Media Direct partition along with your installation of Windows.  If you have a partition utility and a single Windows partition on the drive, shrink the Windows partition as directed here and install Media Direct from the original CDs.   Media Direct appears to do some really nasty things to the partition structure in order to work.  I used to think this would be cool to have but now, it sounds like a royal pain.

bsj8377 · Answer

Same kind of thing happened to my BRAND NEW M1330...had to completely wipe the HDD and start over...Once everything was said and done, MediaDirect worked...but the graphics quality IS HORRIBLE. Period. It's so bad that I wouldn't use it anyway...it's a cool idea, but not very practical unless you're using it to just listen to music or something like that.

sean000 · Answer

I just had this problem with an XPS M1330 this morning. It's used by one of the staff I support, and since our office isn't on Vista yet the laptop has XP Pro installed. His troubles started when he hit the dreaded 'Direct Media' button. After that it was 'Invalid Boot Partition.'   I booted off a USB drive and used a command line utility from Symantec called PTEDIT (it's free) to edit the partition table. Both the Windows partition and the Direct Media partition were flagged ACTIVE. I set the Direct Media partition to INACTIVE and then was able to boot into Windows.   If you use PTEDIT, the active flag (which I think PTEDIT just calls TYPE) is 0 for not active and hex 80 for active.   So that got the laptop bootable again, but now we have to hope the user doesn't touch the Media Direct button again until we can get some answers from Dell. That button has just got to go! Dell support said they are aware of issues with this button that will be addressed in a future firmware update, but the tech didn't know when or how. Maybe our Dell account manager can connect us with an engineer who can tell us exactly what that button does when you press it.   Sean

gidds · Answer

I booted off a USB drive and used a command line utility from Symantec called PTEDIT (it's free) to edit the partition table. Both the Windows partition and the Direct Media partition were flagged ACTIVE. I set the Direct Media partition to INACTIVE and then was able to boot into Windows.   If you use PTEDIT, the active flag (which I think PTEDIT just calls TYPE) is 0 for not active and hex 80 for active.     Now that is good info there, I'll keep that just in case i touch that button again by mistake. I was actually thinking of opening the laptop up and pulling the plug on that button I wish Dell would just give me an option in the BIOS It would be so simple   Thank for the info Sean

sean000 · Answer

Glad I could help! I suspect that the button flags the Direct Media partition as the one to boot from, but where this boot information is stored is the question. Is it a hidden BIOS setting? If so, how does one reverse it?   I hope we will have some answers from Dell soon. The user of the laptop is one of our VIP staff, so we won't be letting this incident slip by without some answers.   I'll post a follow-up as soon as I know something.   Sean

sean000 · Answer

FYI... here is the summary from Dell Technical support. Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there is a way to re-map or disable the DirectMedia button since it is embedded into the same circuit board as the power button. For now the only solution is to repair the DirectMedia partition.

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Thank you for contacting Dell Small and Medium Business XPS Premier Hardware Online Support

I have reviewed your e-mail, and I understand that you want to disable the media direct button on your client's 1330 system.

In short there isn't a way yet to disable it. Now there is a repair cd for the medi direct. There used to be a way on the older version of media direct. It was located in Quickset on the right click menu. I have searched to and fro for this answer. Even looked at the button where it hits which is a long circuit board that controls the on/off button also, so that's out of the question too. I know on some portables you can actually order the portable without the mediadirect button. That is the solution I have until they make a new version of quickset or a patch for this issue.

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GreyMack · Answer

A thin film of plastic between the button pad and the contacts on the circuit board might be a feasable work-around. GM

gidds · Answer

I actually popped off my hinge cover in hopes of cutting a wire or otherwise disabling it but its not that simple, the power button and media button are on the same plate, and i couldn't just get under it easy

PB1986 · Answer

Hi, gidds I just had the same problem this morning (with the XPS m1330) and i tried following your instruction to use PTEDIT but when i when i tried to boot from the USB it also say "invalid disk system", I tried many other USB drives that i have but they all have the same outcome. I even tried putting PTEDIT on a cd and booting it but it gave me "invalid partition table". Can you tell me the step by step instruction on how you did it, i will be very grateful. Please help, its driving me crazy, and reinstalling windows is no option because all of my final year project stuff is on this laptop and i am running out of time. Thanks

Message Edited by PB1986 on 12-15-2007 04:43 PM

gidds · Answer

i didn't try his 'fix', i just made note of it encase someone pushes that button on mine   i know you can buy a thing (not sure what its called) that you can pull your hard drive out of the laptop and put it into this thing that allows a desktop to access the info on the drive   they are cheap i just forget what they are called   the good news is your data should all be there you just have to get to it

sean000 · Answer

gidds wrote:   >i know you can buy a thing (not sure what its called) that you can pull your hard drive out of the >laptop and put it into this thing that allows a desktop to access the info on the drive   I have one of these. It's a USB Universal Drive Adapter. Mine is made by Newertech, and it works wonderfully: http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adapt.php   They only cost around $25, and as an IT support techie this is one of my most-used tools. I can take the hard drive out of a laptop or desktop computer and just plug it in like it was an external USB 2.0 drive. That would have been my next step with this laptop if I wasn't able to boot off my USB flash drive and run PTEDIT.   Sean

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