DELL Laptop : how to reformat and not lose the media direct

Hmm_Messiah

I want to clean up a dell for resale but don't want to make a mess of the partition dell use for dell media direct , so new owner can decide on keeping it or not

how do I do that / would appreciate any help, clear easy instruction would be great so I don't mess it up

AlmightyCushion

The media direct has it's own partition on the hard drive as long as you don't delete this you'll be fine. Just delete the c: partition as this is the one that contains windows.

Ghost Train

not sure if its that simple, i've read through these a year ago but can't remember the exact details, i think they explain how to deal with it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=88032

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/

AlmightyCushion

eolhc wrote: »

not sure if its that simple, i've read through these a year ago but can't remember the exact details, i think they explain how to deal with it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=88032

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/

Could you point out to me the part that says formatting the c partition can screw up media direct? I can't seem to see anything to suggest it does.

Ghost Train

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Could you point out to me the part that says formatting the c partition can screw up media direct? I can't seem to see anything to suggest it does.

post 7 in the first link

If you format or edit/delete any of the partitions, you will have to repair MediaDirect. You only need to reinstall MediaDirect if you have replaced your HDD. You can request the reinstallation disc from Dell

like i say i can't remember the exact details and it might depend on the version of media direct (edit: version 2 might need repair, maybe version 3 doesn't), or what xp does when it installs (does it rewrite the mbr and rub out the dell boot loader or something?)

AlmightyCushion

eolhc wrote: »

post 7 in the first link


like i say i can't remember the exact details and it might depend on the version of media direct (edit: version 2 might need repair, maybe version 3 doesn't), or what xp does when it installs (does it rewrite the mbr and rub out the dell boot loader or something?)

Repairing the media direct partition seems like a lot of hassle. You think dell would make it easier for people to format the c partition and keep media direct. I regularly format my hard drive and even though I got rid of the media direct partition I was tempted to put it back on.

Ghost Train

agree that md is not much good, at least the version i had

but might be worth keeping the restore partition functioning for the next user (or for yourself if you want a quick reinstall after the format without looking for drivers etc), i think the software to fix the partitions is pretty straight forward and quick to use if you do it right

don't just do a quick format on the partition, because the files will be recoverable, full formats needed, if youre paranoid run dban on the partition

Hmm_Messiah

sorry i'm basically lost here

If I burn my stuff to dvd

select c drive and format it will permanently delete everything , but not affect the MD partition

there is feck all on the lappie , more used to access a network, but i want to give over to new owner as I'd like to receive it

Ghost Train

if you format c: ,it will get rid of all the files and the windows installation

it will probably stop the md partition from working

if you just want to return the computer to the condition that dell shipped it, you could follow the system restore guide linked below. (this assumes that there is still a system restrore partition on the laptop). It will delete all your files and restore the laptop to how it left the dell factory and wont effect MD partition

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&dl=false&l=en&s=dhs&docid=3BC546F237205EE7E040A68F5B280175&doclang=en#1

MjM

If you haven't ever touched the partitions on the system, its recovery partition should be intact. This will make the system think its the first power on again.

Although this also means it will come with all dells extra software like corel trials etc.

You hold ctrl and f11 on boot up I think from what I read. I have done before but it was a couple of months ago.

But basically the system will be like new!

Edit: Yeah Eolhc has the goods in his link. I could swear that wasn't there when I started typing though.

grimm2005

this is actually very easy to do. i recently formatted my M1710 lappy, even deleting the 3gb restore partition. The MD partition is hidden and does not even show up in partition managers (there are ways around this but we don't need to get into it). All i had to do to repair the MD partition so it'd boot when pressing MD button was to download a repair utility ISO from dell's support site (don't remember the link but its not hard to find), burn it onto a cd, boot from the cd and type a command and that was it.

GavinZac

just download and burn the gparted cd (its free/open source), and select to format the partition with the c:\ label. the other partition wont be affected.