Laptops Dell media direct reinstallation and restore

[KingKrool]

Hi guys, I just bought a dell inspiron 6400 which has the mediadirect funtion in it. Now I want to go about installing Linux and upgrading windows to XP SP2 (I have a legal edition available to me, so why not).
Now I don't want to break media direct functionality. I am told that it has its own MBR which can be easily restored using the nice utility dell has made available. But if I lose the media direct partition then I am screwed.

The current partition structure is:

1. 47 MB - dell diagnostic tools

2. 80 GB - C:

3 - 27 GB - D:

4 - 4.03 GB - PC Restore and Media direct
Now, is there any easy way to go about what I want to do? I plan to go about my work this way:

1. Backup the dell media direct parition using Acronis.

2. Install WinXP professional SP2 and completely repartition everything including the media direct partition

3. Copy the acronis image back to a more convenient location - does it have to be a primary partition? That is what it currently is, and I don't really like that state of affairs, but I can always move it to the beginning of the harddrive so it is the first partition.

4. Use the mediadirect repair to get the mediadirect MBR back

5. Install Linux, and make sure that its boot loader is installed on C: and not the MBR.
For now you guys can ignore step 5... Linux can come a bit later. The question is, will the rest of the stuff be OK?

As things currently stand the 4.03 GB drive is the last drive, so I guess I can even leave it there, but I want to know if it can be moved... just in case I ever screw something up and need to restore it, it may not be restored to the exact same location on disk, or is there some way Acronis can do even that. I don't want to take an image of the entire HDD, just that one critical partition.

Also, are the diagnostic tools required? Should I maintain that partition?

 

[superczar]

D-uh...ditch mediadirect...it's not worth it...

Anyway, if you really want to keep it, the steps above won't work

What you need to do is :

2- Start installing XP, but make sure the 1st partiotion you create (the 1st on the drive spindle) is exactly the same size as the original Mediadirct partition...next , install XP/Linux on the 2nd/3rd paritition

3- Download the media direct restore utility (iso) from Dell Support, if it's not there, look arnd on the net or I'll upload it for you

4- Now you need to boot up from this iso and install mediadirect on the 1st parition

But frankly, mediadirect serves no purpose..i restored media direct on my machine after hazaar fight (post the mandatory clean format-install routine), but haven't used it once since

a) it can't run divX/xVid

b) Ifyou want to use it on the premise of lowered battery consumption while watching movies on the go, a far better option is to get the movie on the HDD, and then watch it from within windows (THEREBY saving on the potical drive power consumption)

 

[Amol]

Use Norton Ghost 8.0 which works in DOS mode to make a compressed copy of your windows partition. The compressed file is highly efficient in terms of size...around 1/4th of the original partition size with the OS installed in it.

NG detects NTFS partitions in DOS, so you can compress C:\ into a single file and keep the file in whatever partition has some free space.

I tried using Acronis and a few other disk restore utilites, but found that Ghost is the most effcient of them all.

 

[QUINSHEL]

Hey
Can Some One Upload Media Direct Cd ..so We Can Use It For Repair...

Thanks You

 

[sunnysibal]

Could you tell me the detailed steps to install MEDIA DIRECT.
I am not able to Boot from MY MEDIA DIRECT CD.

D-uh...ditch mediadirect...it's not worth it...

Anyway, if you really want to keep it, the steps above won't work
What you need to do is :

2- Start installing XP, but make sure the 1st partiotion you create (the 1st on the drive spindle) is exactly the same size as the original Mediadirct partition...next , install XP/Linux on the 2nd/3rd paritition
3- Download the media direct restore utility (iso) from Dell Support, if it's not there, look arnd on the net or I'll upload it for you
4- Now you need to boot up from this iso and install mediadirect on the 1st parition

But frankly, mediadirect serves no purpose..i restored media direct on my machine after hazaar fight (post the mandatory clean format-install routine), but haven't used it once since
a) it can't run divX/xVid
b) Ifyou want to use it on the premise of lowered battery consumption while watching movies on the go, a far better option is to get the movie on the HDD, and then watch it from within windows (THEREBY saving on the potical drive power consumption)