Dell Media Direct 2.0 ... Running on 9300/XPS M170 - Page 15

You can create your own Media Direct though - just do a minimal Windows install and then load Dell Media Experience. The end result is the same.

Update first page

Can pugsly update the first page to make it clear that you have to press enter to start the install please. Call me an idiot but I spent ages clicking away thinkin "What the hell, why just a blue screen?!" and tried all the manual methods. To then just figure it out and be like "Ohhhh, press enter, it was that simple..." Sounds obvious but its not. Lol update would be useful, Thanks.

Since this is just a stripped down XP install in effect (after quickly running through the posts), I've got a few questions:

- what are the boot times like ?
- has anyone noticed any difference in battery life?
- does MD change regions each time? (I tend to be playing DVDs from various regions using VLC...)

Also could anyone post pics?

I have a dual boot setup right now. I have Windows Media Center and Ubuntu on my laptop (9300). Here is what my hard drive looks like:

Partition 1: fat16 62MB Dell Utility
Partition 2: ntfs 32.6 GB - Windows XP
Partition 3: fat32 22 GB - My shared partition I can use in windows and linux
Partition 4: extended partition 20 GB
Inside it has two more partitions one at 19 GB for my ext3 linux partition and the other is my swap partition for linux.

Any suggestions on how I can get this working on my laptop??

I don't think you can...you have to have a spare primary partition slot. Also, I think that Media Direct 2 prevents the Dell diagnostic partition from working. At least, mine stopped working after loading Media Direct 2.

Yes, something's got to give. In the list I'd go after the Dell Utility partition. You're in for alot of moving things around to get the needed unallocated space after the three remaining partitions.

Mark

Are you saying that it needs to be on a primary partition to boot correctly or to work at all? The plans I had was is there a way I could extract all the programs and put them on a partition and using Grub I can boot that partition. I am not looking for it to turn on if I hit the play button all I want is to be able to boot it using grub.

BTW I downloaded the iso last night and burned it but my laptop wouldn't boot it, I also can not get it to boot on other machines? Do I run it within windows or boot the cd? I would like to just extract the files from the exes if I could and put it on the partition myself, but I don't know if anyone has tried this.

Blake

As you say you're willing to boot into the partition vice using the buttons, then I think you're pointing to the right solution.

I'll send you a PM on an approach that should work....

Mark

Just so everyone knows I was able to extract the files on my Fat32 partition in the 3rd slot and I changed the boot.ini settings so the correct partition was there. When I try to boot it using grub it says the partition is not bootable. I think it might have to do with the boot files are not marked as system? In order to extract them on my D: drive I mapped a network drive as X and ran the extracting programs and I noticed that I could see the ntrld or whatever it is called but basically all the bootloader files and when I go to C all of those files are markefd as system and they won't show up. Do I need to change the permissions? I'm afraid if I mark that partition active for booting purposes my grub won't work. But I'll welcome any suggestions or help.

Thanks
Blake

I marked the system files as hidden, system and readonly like my c drive and tried to reboot but nothing it says "This is not a bootable disk, please insert one in the floppy drive and press any key to continue..." In the boot.ini on the media direct partition it has the following:


My media direct partition is the 3rd one.

On my xp partition I have this is the boot.ini

my windows partition is inthe second slot because I kept the dell diagnostic partition before it.

I can sort of get in the media dierct now. If I boot into windows xp and choose the Media Direct OS it starts up the black and white screen and then it changes my screen size to the 1900x1200 and says it is setting up the files.... After a minute there is a little white square on the lower left corner which lets me shutdown or restart and if you can imagine the welcome screen for Windows xp how the users appear on the right hand side of the screen in the media direct screen after the little white square appears below on the right hand side appears administrator and the background is a brick pattern. I click it and nothing happens. I think it is because I am starting the Media Direct partition from the C Drive and it might not be reading the right windows directory?

Any suggestions on how I could get it to boot normally without having to load the windows xp bootloader and then choose dell media direct would be good.

My idea when I get home from work is to copy over all my stuff from the E drive which is my fat32 partition. Then reformat it with the copy system files over checked and then copy all the stuff back over and see if it boots. But I am not sure if it sounds like a good idea.

Just so everyone knows I was able to get MediaDirect working finally. And MediaDirect does not have to be on the last partition. I have it so when I hit the play button on my 9300 it pulls up my grub menu and I can pick MediaDirect in the list of os's. It works really well and the thing that fixed the no boot problem was using the Windows XP cd and running the fixboot program on the partition. Does anyone have actual number of how much more time you can get out of watching dvds and music compared to using windows xp?? I think this monday I might run some tests to see what they are

I wonder if this version of MediaDirect at http://aibal.fileburst.com/MediaDirect20.zip can be installed and work in my Inspiron 630m.

[quote=Pugsly0014]

Hi all,

Steps to make it work.

1. Install your OS normaly on the first part of the hard drive and load all your drivers. Also make sure that you have Dell QuickSet installed.
2. Take the Media Direct 2.0 CD you made from the ISO above and put it in your drive. This will install Media Direct 2.0 on do the free 1.5GB of space at the end of the drive. (Press Enter to start the install)


Step 2 didn't work for me initially. This is a Dell m170 and I'm working from a fresh install of WIndows XP Pro SP2 as follows:

1st partition is Dell diagnostics (47 MB)
2nd partition is Primary boot 6 GB (NTFS)
3rd partition is an extended partition, with 3.3 GB page (FAT32) and 85.5 GB (NTFS) data logical drives within that extended partition.

I used Partition Magic 8.01 to shrink the 85.5 GB partition down by about 1.6 GB, then converted that space to a primary partition (only way I could think of to shrink the extended partition), then used Windows Disk Management tools to delete that partition. Wound up with about 1.6 GB of unallocated space.

The Dell re-install CD seemed to install just fine. What you didn't mention is that you have a VERY short time window to work with that partition while the files are being copied - as soon as the copy process is finished, that drive letter (X) vanishes. I did manage to get taskmgr.exe copied to X:\windows\system32 but it was a close race to the finsh <grin>.

However, I can't boot that partition.

I'm starting from a full shutdown. Press the "Play" button - I get the Dell MediaDirect screen for a few seconds, follwed with:

"WIndows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<Windows root> \system32\hal.dll.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

Pressing [Enter] causes the system to boot to Windows XP as normal.

So: it appears as if I have a problem with the Dell MediaDirect install. I'm just not sure how to fix it.

Couple of questions:

1) What kind of utility is the Dell MediaDirect reinstall CD using to make that last partition show up as a drive letter? That is some kind of funky stuff that I've not seen previously and looks as if it would be extremely useful in its own right.

2) I've previously fixed those kinds of missing or corrupt file errors by booting into XP's recovery console and using "bootcfg /rebuild". However, I have no idea how to apply something like that to the MediaDirect installation.

Thanks for any suggestions.

dwayne

The Dell boot code is looking in the 'wrong' place for the MediaDirect partition. I suspect it is finding your extended/primary ~85GB partition. You may need to edit your Partition Table and 'swap' the values for the MediaDirect partition and you 'other' partition [hard to tell what it is now based on your post... ]. Why it 'miscounted' is odd...

Anyway... a screen shot of the Partition Table would be nice.... [PTEdit32.exe would work for that]

tentonine may have some other ideas using rmbr.exe utility.... But I haven't figured that one out yet as to whether it changes the boot code or the partition table...

Anyway, I think somewhere in there is a solution...

Mark

I had previously gone to the Dell reinstallation CD (e:\dellkit) and run rmbr as: rmbr DELL 2 4

PTedit32 shows me the following info (1st 2 columns shown):

DE 00 (s/b Dell Diagnostics)
07 80 (s/b boot partition)
0F 00 (s/b extended partition)
D7 00 ( assume this is the MediaDirect partition)

So: was I correct in specifying partitions 2 & 4 when running rmbr?

I'm about to try: rmbr DELL 2 3 and see what happens

Thanks everyone for all the help!

dwayne

Not sure how rmbr does its 'counting'.... The Dell Diagnostic partition type might throw it off, but like I said, I don't pretend to understand how rmbr works.... 2/3 may be appropriate as well if it 'skips' over any extended partitions in partition table.

And yes.... D7 is the MediaDirect partition.

fwiw the Dell boot code changes the partition table from D7 to 07 when it is invoked by the BIOS and then does an 'undo' during any subsequent reboot to put everything back.

Mark

I tried using rmbr DELL 2 3 but with odd results:

Starting from a full power-off state, pressing the media PLAY button brings up the Dell MediaDirect splash screen - and there it hangs. Nothing happened 'til I rebooted.

SO - I've been playing.

First - I ran the Dell MediaDirect rmbr util: rmbr DELL 2 4 to take me back to the closest working configuration.

1) I used ptedit32 to change the MediaDirect partition (#4) from descriptor D7 to 07, then rebooted into the recovery console, logged onto that installation [F:]. Used "bootcfg /rebuild".

Result: I am now prompted to select which windows installation I wish to boot from each time the laptop is rebooted. Worse, the Embedded Windows XP is the default option.

Selecting the Embedded Windows boot option takes me to a screen with a large black and white Dell MediaDirect logo, lots of hard drive activity, then a pale blue screen with a mouse cursor and nothing else. Not at all like the normal BSOD.

The only way out of this is a hard power-off.

Powering back on and selecting WIndows XP Professional leads to a normal XP boot.

Shutting Windows XP Pro down completely, then pressing the media PLAY button takes me back to where I was before: Dell MediaDirect splash screen, followed by the same missing HAL.DLL result I had previously.

I'm about to wipe my C partition and the Dell MediaDirect partition and try again. Thank goodness for Acronis True Image - I should be back to a normal XP boot sequence in just a few minutes. (Acronis restore images stored on "D" drive).

Then I'll try installing MediaDirect again.

And play some more.

Thanks again!

dwayne

Say dwayne.... vice the rmbr route next time you may want to try manually moving things around in the Partition Table. For a start after the MediaDirect reinstall, I'd try swapping the values between slots 3 and 4, being careful with your typing of course!!!!

Mark

I'm willing to try your suggestion but I need some guidance.

I'm back to where I started: Dell Diagnostics partition at the front of the drive, follwed by XP Pro in the boot partition (C), then an extended partition, then Dell MediaDirect installed in the last partition.

I've got PM 8.01 installed.

You suggest swapping the entries in the partition table for slots 3 & 4? Do you mean: swap all the entries for those 2 rows? Take all the numbers that are in the 3rd row and swap them with all the numbers that are in the 4th row?

I'm willing to try that but I want to make sure that is what you intend.

What values to use when running rmbr?

Thanks!

dwayne