NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Notebook Forums › Dell Business (Vostro, Latitude, Precision) › Dell E1505/6400 dual boot windows/linux with mediadirect
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Dell E1505/6400 dual boot windows/linux with mediadirect

post #1 of 4
6/20/06 at 10:15am
Thread Starter 
Hello

I just got mine E1505/6400. I find the mediadirect feature awsome although I would like to reinstall windows and to install linux whilst keeping mediadirect. I've been doing some reading up as this topic has been up before. However, before I go ahead I wish to consult your expertise

Step 0. Backup the entire harddrive with norton ghost.
Step 1. Remove the main partition from which Windows XP is running.
Step 2. Install Windows XP and assign it half the space of the main partition.
Step 3. Install Linux on the other half of the main partition.
Step 4. Run mediadirect restore-cd.

Will this give me a working dual-boot system with working mediadirect,windows,linux an dell analyse tools?

/Roland
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 4
6/20/06 at 11:33am
it should as long as u just remove the main partition which contains xp. its been found that mediadirect does not reside on the xp partition rather another smaller, hidden one. so if you are just removing the main partition your dual boot should be successful.

just for my own curiosity, what distro are you going to be using?
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 4
6/20/06 at 2:12pm
Thread Starter 

dual boot

thanks for your reply!

I feel that the linux community should be more united and so I'll mainly use ubuntu which i feel is growing quite big for home-pc's. Also it's simple and completely free. What I don't like about ubuntu though is that it's darn slow to startup. But maybe that can be tweaked somehow?
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 4
6/20/06 at 2:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by onaka
Step 4. Run mediadirect restore-cd.
As long as you mean the MediaDirect repair disk, you should be good.

My concern is that if you just resize the XP partition you might be low on available partitions. A hard drive can only have four primary partitions, and Dell shipped my E1505 with three already in use. I haven't installed linux in years, but I recall it needed at least two partitions: swap and /. You might need to delete the Dell PC Restore partition (you said you have ghost anyway) to free up enough primary partitions.

You probably want to hang on to the tiny Dell Utility partition, it seems necessary to get MediaDirect working.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Dell Notebook Forums › Dell Business (Vostro, Latitude, Precision) › Dell E1505/6400 dual boot windows/linux with mediadirect