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MediaDirect Crashed XP
Dell Inspiron 1520, WinXP Pro SP2 plus all Windows Updates, delivered in July: Dell Techs, please help... Yesterday, with machine shut down, I pressed the MediaDirect button for the first time. Machine booted into MediaDirect screen and said it was installing it. Error message then came up about MediaDirect not being able to access hard drive and that maybe XP Bitblocker (or something like that) was preventing MediaDirect from working, so I hit the Exit button and machine shut down. Now the machine will only start in MediaDirect mode with same error screen and result every time, even when I hit the normal power button. I have tried F8 to start Windows in Safe Mode and in Last Known Good Configuration, plus attempted recovery from the WinXP install disk, but can no longer boot into regular Windows XP. In other words, the machine is non-functional because I can't boot into the operating system. In recovery mode it asks me if I want to recover "Windows XP Embedded" as my only option. I can get to a DOS screen but can't see my expected folders and files to see if they are still there. When I do logon from the DOS screen, I asks for my admin password, but it won't take the one I set for my admin account in XP. Any clues? I am trying to avoid an XP clean reinstall because I don't want to lose two months worth of important data files (that in retrospect I should have backed up). I am willing to give up all MediaDirect functionality to simplify and ensure proper XP functionality of the machine, because MediaDirect seems unnecessary to me anyway (I don't do much with multimedia), but I need my data back. Svenfran
- Thanks, PsionMage- Wanted to acknowledge your reply and thank you. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get back on the machine yet to confirm this simple solution, but I am pretty sure I tried that and more. The owner of the machine is afraid to let me have at it again right now after I messed it up. Will report back as soon as I can. Svenfran
- TO PsionMage: Thanks! Finally got around to following your instruction to toggle the MediaDirect button again. Machine tried to start in XP, then needed an XP reinstall, which I completed. After setup, all my original XP user settings and files and programs were back, so mission accomplished. Thanks again for your simple solution to what looked like a real mess. For the record, I now plan to back up all data files and at some point do a clean reinstall of XP, deleting all partitions, including the MediaDirect partition. I want to eliminate all MediaDirect functionality and its possible corruption of my system. Is this a bad idea? Will my front panel media buttons still work if I do that? Svenfran
- Yes, I think it's a bad idea... sadly.
I have a Vostro 1500, it uses mediadirect 3.3 which is embedded in the BIOS (somehow). It's not possible to get rid of it. When I first got mine I had Vista, I reformatted and purged all the partitions and put 2 partitions, one for windows and one for games and storage. (I planned on dual-booting with vista later) Well... I did all that and had it all up and configured... then in the middle of the night I was fishing for the power button and accidentally hit the mediadirect button. It showed the splash screen and an error (understandable because I removed the mediadirect partition), but when I tried to get back into windows it wouldn't.
I checked my partitions w/ a boot up USB drive and found that it had recreated the mediadirect partition, not only that but since there wasn't any free space for it to do so, it had just written over the top of my windows partition. My whole install was essentially hosed.
Right now I've put on mediadirect and just don't use it because it's junk and doesn't work (I could put forth a bunch of effort to figure out how to make it work, but it's not worth it to me).
In short, I'm shackled into wasting 2 partitions and about 3Gb because otherwise I end up with an auto-destruct button with no confirmation quite conveniently placed next to the power button.
I'm very tempted to open the box and put nail polish over the contact - I am getting ready to do a clean reinstall of XP on my Inspiron 1520. I still haven't fixed my MediaDirect, and I am having various other issues with my original XP install. The machine came with 3.3, but I don't know if the 3.3 reinstall CD is compatible with XP since my machine came with Vista. One thing I saw on Dell's site under How to Install MediaDirect 2.0 (don't have it, can't find it) was that you need to leave at least 2048MB of unpartitioned space when installing XP for subsequent install of the MediaDirect. Not sure if this is relevant, but I thought I'd tell you. I, too, want to disable the whole feature somehow. I'm hoping it's not buried in BIOS where it will continue to cause trouble if I accidentally hit the MediaDirect button, though.
PsionMage
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Posted September 4th, 2007 15:00