Re: CAUTION: Fresh install on E1505 is worth it

On 9 May 2006 05:48:43 -0700, "dave_bonnell@xxxxxxxxxxx"
<dave_bonnell@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I 'lost' a few items in the process, such as:
1) Dell MediaDirect functionality

I was wondering about that. I don't use MediaDirect. I didn't see it
on their download site but I saw a repair utility for it so I wondered
where a download MediaDirect download is, but I didn't go further
because I never use it and that's one less thing I would have on my
system that I don't need.

If I ever need it I will call Dell or Google and find out how to
install it.

2) Dell Restore functionality

Oh, does ctrl + F11 not work even if the Dell partition is still
there? I was assuming it would which is why I didn't get rid of that
partition.

3) Dell Diagnostics

What do you use these for? In my fresh install I thought I saw Dell
Diagnostics as a download option. I decided not to download and
install it until / if I need it.

Each Dell desktop/notebook generally comes configured with partition(s)
dedicated for these features. The first thing I did was create a
separate partition for backup purposes (using PartitionMagic, I resized
the existing C drive and used the reclaimed space to create a D drive).
So far so good.

I left the partitions there -- so, I think I can still easily restore
to factory settings as if the computer is new (for when I sell it on
ebay in a few years although with Vista coming up I may end up
donating these laptops because I don't think I will get much for them
off ebay the way technology is progressing now).

It turns out
that the provided Dell driver CD doesn't have the required drivers for
my system (such as the network card)....I can't access the Internet to
download the correct drivers!

I didn't know that the driver CD didn't have a working version,
because I decided right from the start to not use anything on that CD
-- all my drivers would come from downloads. A lot of people download
_all_ the drivers first, which is one approach. I downloaded just the
wirless network driver which enabled me to connect with the laptop I
was doing the clean install to to download the other drivers.

So I restore the Dell-installed OS via
my backup image,

What product do yo use to do your backup imaging. Just wondering
because I am going to do that soon. I think I am going to investigate
True Image and Symantec's product...

However, I'm missing something...the Dell MediaDirect functionality is
broken! This allows you to play DVD's/video/audio without fully
booting the system. I'm not 100% sure of the advantages, but it seems
like a 'neat' feature, and I wanted it back so I could evaluate it.

If you find out how to install it let me know. I will to. Best way
would be to create a separate thread which I will do if I find out
how.

It turns out that Dell has a 'Repair' utility for MediaDirect, so I
download it and try it out. It also turns out that that was a mistake.

I didn't run the repair utility because I knew that MediaDirect wasn't
installed and I didn't think the "repair" utility would install it.

After running the utility, Dell MediaDirect doesn't work. And now the
system won't boot up! Using a separate diagnostic disk to boot via the
CD drive, I find that the hard drive no longer has any recognized
partitions!

Whoa... well that's not good. I think I may just stay away from
MediaDirect altogether. If I want to watch videos etc. I'll just do
that from Windows, or better yet, go to my Apartment living room and
watch it on a real TV :-)

ARggh. Stupid me, I didn't back up the images on the D drive to DVD.
So I've effectively lost all of the original Dell images as well as my
fresh XP install. GRRRRRR.

Ouch. If anyone is doing a fresh install, I would recommend to leave
those partitions alone. I decided to do that, for me the extra disk
space is totally negligible as I probably won't use half of what I
have.

Forced to wipe out the drive and start all over, I manage to grab the
Dell drivers by downloading via another PC. After getting the laptop
back to normal working order, I call Dell and ask them to send me a
MediaDirect install CD. The next day, the CD arrives (extremely quick
shipping given my location) and I go through the process to get it in
working order. I tried several approaches, but could not get
MediaDirect to work with multiple (C/D) hard drive partitions....it
would only co-operate when I had a single C partition. I decided to
scrap the idea of using MediaDirect for now....

Oh, you mean if I have a C partition for the OS and a D partiton for
my data, MediaDirect won't install? I'm glad to know Dell has a CD
for it.

As for the Dell restore partition, I don't care about it because it was
just taking up room on my hard disk. As was the MediaDirect
'partition' (1.5 GB). Maybe one of these days I'll try to get
MediaDirect working again...but only when someone offers a compelling
reason to actually use it. My laptop boots so quickly now that I just
don't see the benefit.

Cheers,
Dave

Your experiences may help others. I hate it when problems like you've
had happen, but now when they do, in addition to swearing up a storm
(lol, I live alone so noone can hear it), I do enjoy learning how to
get things to work again.

I can enjoy it mainly because I back up my data frequently (right now
just the data, I don't know how to do imaging yet, but data-only
backup is certainly a valid approach, it's just nice to have a fresh
install point to not have to go through all of the Windows and driver
installs again).

Also I can enjoy it because I have 3 PCs, one desktop and one laptop,
and they are pretty much interchangeable.

I keep all of my personal data on a very high speed SD card (Sandisk
1G Ultra III). If I want to use it on any of my PCs, the software on
those PC's is set up to use the drive letter that the particular CD
uses for the SD card.

One thing I am not doing that I should (anyone reading this know?) is
use some kind of protection scheme so that when I initially use it on
a PC it has to enter a password.

In any case, anything sensitive is encrypted by various programs --
one of my favorites is Info Select, and I have a password protection
program on my Desktop / Palm that uses encryption too.

Journey
.

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