Need assistance from an Inspiron E1505 Media Ed user.

Question

Hi,   My disk is going out on my Dell Inspiron E1505 (running Windows XP Media Center 2005).  I got a new 250Gig disk (I use it for 3D Animation so I need the space) and as a quick fix only I cloned the data to my new disk which I learned messes up Dell’s special partition for Media Center.  Now I must attempt to do it right.   Two questions….   1. I looked for the CDs that came with the notebook but did not find a CD for  Windows XP Media Center 2005 but rather a CD for XP Home Ed.  I have 3 Dell Notebooks and 4 Dell desktops so I do not know for sure if I these are the CDs that came with the system.   Can anyone check to see what the name of the OS CD is that came with this system and also what other CDs came with it?   2. I assume that reloading the OS and programs is the only way to properly upgrade the disk drive… is this true?   I greatly appreciate any help you can offer.   Cheers, Rusty

rrw4rusty · Answer

Thank you for your quick reply and the link to a lot of valuiful info!  My support contract is up no my laptop.  When you say 'call for a Media Direct Installation CD' ...  call who exactly.  Last time I tried to call Dell support they wanted to sell me a new support contract before they'd help me!   Also, do you know that I did not get this CD with the system???   You see, if you know I did not, then you will save me hours of searching through storage.  :-)

ejn63 · Answer

1. You need to call for the Media Direct installation CD. 2. Not necessarily. You CAN clone the drive, subject to limitations. http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm

ejn63 · Answer

I don't think Dell ever shipped Media Direct CD/DVDs with systems.

You can try emailing Dell support or calling customer service rather than technical support to obtain the CD/DVD. Also, for at least some systems, the CD is available for download as an ISO file you can then write to a CD/DVD.

Storage, Drives & Media

Was this post helpful?