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Dell Media Direct 2.0 ... Running on 9300/XPS M170 - Page 10

post #181 of 444
4/28/06 at 5:57pm
Quote:
So can this be rectified without reformatting? It is an extended partition, but it's also shown as primary (not logical). However, it contains a logical partition (D). I'm not sure why/how I set it up that way.

When I select it in partition magic, there's no option to change it from extended.<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
I have never had to do this. And I don't know if it will work or the ramifications....

Could use ptedit to change the partition type from 0F to 07

As you only have the one logical partition using the entire extended partition.... that should make this a 'safer' option, but then again.....

I suppose you could always change it back if it didn't work...

Mark

ps....
Quote:
...right-clicking it in Partition Magic and choosing convert. Then click the primary partition button on the right.
Now that sounds like a good idea....
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post #182 of 444
4/28/06 at 6:04pm
One other thing...be sure that you are right-clicking the logical partition in Partition magic and not the extended partition containing it. It is easy to click on the wrong one in the picture by mistake, as they appear to be the same unless you look carefully.
The easiest way to do this is to right-click on the partition marked as logical in the table rather than in the picture (maybe you would have clicked on the table instead of the picture anyway, but I thought I ought to make sure).
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post #183 of 444
4/28/06 at 6:16pm
In thinking about your boot.ini

Quote:
....default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS....
IF I understand the Microsoft 'counting' method as per Dan Goodell's info....

Quote:
the ARCpath "doesn't actually refer to the slot in the partition table, it
refers to the partition sequence as counted by XP. That sequence follows
the order of slots in the partition table, but skips empty slots and any
extended partition entry."
That would put MediaDirect at partition(2) If you get the extended partition thing squared away, you just might be 'working'

fwiw

Mark
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post #184 of 444
4/28/06 at 6:46pm
Evrythings here is great : I managed installing Media Direct 2.0 without too much effort : creating a partition and so on evrything went very well. Except the installation of the drivers : for video no problem but I am unable to install the SigmaTel C-Major Audio drivers. Is there a way to do it?
Well thank you Pugsly0014 for this great post and the CD and tentonine for geat explanations even if they weren't only for me...
So please does some know how to install these drivers?

Narcotic71428...
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post #185 of 444
4/28/06 at 7:30pm
All right, I was able to convert the D partition to a primary partition (it's no longer extended), and reclaimed the unformatted space back into it again, so now I have four primary partitions: C:, D:, the MediaDirect partition, and the 7.8MB unallocated space at the end of the disk (and they're in that order on the disk).
I have tried rmbr 1 3 and rmbr 1 2, and now both give me the missing/corrupt hal.dll error.

MarkMcK and tentonine, thanks so much for all your suggestions so far. I'm beginning to think there's no solution to this other than to try reinstalling again.

Wait, did I read your post right, Mark? I should change the boot.ini of the MediaDirect partition to read (2) instead of (3)? Would that jive with the hal.dll error? Maybe I'll give that a try...

EDIT: Here's my revised disk layout, if anyone finds it useful:

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post #186 of 444
4/28/06 at 8:24pm
MarkMcK, you're the man! Changed the boot.ini of the MediaDirect partition to (2) instead of (3) and voila! Booted right into it! I wonder if that was the problem the whole time...oh well. It's working now.

Thanks so much, tentonine and MarkMck!! Rep for you for all your help today; I appreciate your patience and helpfulness!!

Rep for you, too, Pugsly0014, for helping and for posting the idea in the first place!
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post #187 of 444
4/28/06 at 8:39pm
So I started the DMD2 install from the disk but it only got to 10%. Any reasons why?
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post #188 of 444
4/28/06 at 8:43pm
Is the space you are trying to install MD2 into unformatted? Not just unallocated NTFS partition space? I initially tried to install into an unallocated NTFS space, and it said "error copying files" or something. It actually has to be unformatted space.
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post #189 of 444
4/28/06 at 9:07pm
Quote:
So I started the DMD2 install from the disk but it only got to 10%. Any reasons why?
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
Two possible reasons that I have been able to document....

Your partition table is 'full' [i.e. four primary partitions already in use] or...

You do not have the needed unallocated space AT THE END of the hard drive [easiest way to view this is by using Windows Disk Management].

There may be more that I haven't yet pinned down...

hth

Mark
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post #190 of 444
4/28/06 at 9:12pm
Quote:
Changed the boot.ini of the MediaDirect partition to (2) instead of (3)
Say... would you do me a favor and post your Partition Table.

Now I'm confused!!!

Thanx

Mark
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post #191 of 444
4/28/06 at 9:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkMcK
Say... would you do me a favor and post your Partition Table.

Now I'm confused!!!

Thanx

Mark
Do you mean from ptedit?

Edit--here it is:

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post #192 of 444
4/28/06 at 10:50pm
Quote:
Do you mean from ptedit?

Edit--here it is:
Great.... Explains what happened. The MediaDirect partition which is in 'slot 3' with the type code D7 is 'ranked' 2nd in the Microsoft boot.ini counting scheme. So that's why it worked when you switched it....

Couldn't figure out why it wasn't '3', but Partition Magic used what was at the time 'vacant' slot 4 to hold the 'D' primary partition then deleted the values in slot 2...

Anyway.... I think that make sense. Probably won't tomorrow morning though....

Cheers

Mark
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post #193 of 444
4/28/06 at 10:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by 911medic
MarkMcK, you're the man! Changed the boot.ini of the MediaDirect partition to (2) instead of (3) and voila! Booted right into it! I wonder if that was the problem the whole time...oh well. It's working now.

Thanks so much, tentonine and MarkMck!! Rep for you for all your help today; I appreciate your patience and helpfulness!!

Rep for you, too, Pugsly0014, for helping and for posting the idea in the first place!
Glad to be of service.
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post #194 of 444
4/29/06 at 11:27am
Narcotic71428, what have you tried so far to install audio drivers?

Another possible reason for installation failure is no free space after your OS partition. I don't know why this should matter (as nothing actually gets copied there if there is more free space at the end of the drive), but I had to free up 1.3Gb of space after my OS partition (as well as at the end of the drive) before Media Direct would install. I don't know why, but it would not work for me without it (although it has for some other people).
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post #195 of 444
4/29/06 at 11:53am
Thank you very much tentonine for answering my question but I found myself the solution to solve this "problem"... In fact there's a function that appears in the advanced options when setting the volume which was "AGC" or something like that. In fact what it does is truning off the speakers... well it's ok now. But I've got another question: I only have access to my C:\ drive (to be clear I have three primary partitions : the first one for DellUtility, the second one my Windows etc... and the last one MediaDirect 2.0) now... I don't know what I did (I think nothing). When I first get in MediaDirect I could see in it C: and D: for my two partitions but no DVD drive... furthermore I can't have access to My Documents which are on the OS partition : I can see every folders but My Documents (which is invisible). When use CTRL+ALT+Del and run the explorer everything is ok: C: is for the MediaDirect, D: for the OS and E: for the DVD drive. What's going on?
Thank you for everything...
Narcotic71428...
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post #196 of 444
4/29/06 at 11:59am
Have you tried shutting down Media Direct and starting it again via the task manager shut down menu instead of just going into hibernate? If you have done this already, try it once more.
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post #197 of 444
4/29/06 at 2:28pm

MD on Inspiron 9200

Unfortunately, I am not one among those who have been successful in installing Media Direct (MD). Since I am not doing a clean install, I presumed that the process can still be done without having to do a clean install. I followed the steps in providing space for the MD but still get the error message that stops MD installation at 10%. My Inspiron 9200 has a 100-gig hard drive wherein I have, aside from the C drive, an extended partition that has drives D and E.
Hope someone can help me resolve this issue with an incomplete MD install.
Thanks.
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post #198 of 444
4/29/06 at 2:42pm
perfect0, can you provide a screenshot from ptedit? Someone earlier reported that the 9200 can't be turned on using the play button. If this is correct, it means that you could only use Media Direct by having it as an option in the Windows XP boot.ini file. You might as well manually create a new partition, extract the contents of the .exe files on the CD to it (as per my earlier instructions), then add a new entry for Media Direct to your boot.ini file.
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post #199 of 444
4/29/06 at 7:20pm
FYI....

There are at least two versions of the Dell MediaDirect 2.0 Reinstallation CD 'floating around' ... DH371 and RJ262

I'll admit I didn't spend alot of time looking at the differences, but it looked like the supported Intel Chipsets was different, with the RJ262 being the 'newer' of the two... May explain why I couldn't get DH371 to work for me. Ended up using [successfully] the RJ262 version...

fwiw

Mark
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post #200 of 444
4/30/06 at 2:33am

Help!

I was able to manually install MD using Tentonine's steps but now am like in an endless loop with MD's testing page. Although I've already run the Express Test, when I turn it off, and restart, it automatically goes back to MD's testing page. And no matter if I restest using Express Test, I end up in the same testing page after I restart! Worse, I have no way of letting my laptop boot to Windows XP since powering on my laptop automatically brings me to MD's testing page. HELP!
Also, does the rmbr command always have to be "rmbr DELL 2 3"? Because I did "rmbr DELL 1 2" since I noticed that, in the recovery console, 1 was the Windows XP partition whereas 2 was the MD partition. I may have musunderstood this step. If so, how may I resolve this?
Hoping for an immediate response from anyone...thanks
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