Media Direct cannot access HD?

[hayessteph]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop and one morning I also got the message "Dell MediaDirect Express cannot access your hard drive" etc. I could not power up Windows XP, and if I pressed exit on the error message the computer just powered off. If your computer is switched off, you can start Dell MediaDirect by pressing the button with a picture of a house on it, on the Inspiron it is an inch to the left of the power on/off button. This takes you quickly to Dell MediaDirect, without having to load Windows. If you get the Dell MediaDirect error message, there is a simple remedy. Just power down your computer so all is switched off. Then don't press the power on/off button, just press the Dell MediaDirect button (with the picture of the house on it) - and lo and behold the computer will power up Windows XP rather than Dell MediaDirect! Problem solved! No partitioning or anything required. I expect the problem was originally caused by pressing the Dell MediaDirect button to start the computer instead of the power on/off button, they feel the same in half light in the morning on my Inspiron.

[bksnbriefs]

hayessteph ... you are a total life saver. It worked for me. I was in a repeating loop of non-os booting "Dell MediaDirect Express cannot access your hard drive" etc. I powered everything off and instead of turning on my computer with the power button, I pressed the Dell MediaDirect Crapress button again and viola - it booted into my OS.

The Dell Media Express button person needs to be fired.
Thanks!

[Fignuts]

I encountered the same problem while attempting to fix my friend's Dell Vostro 1400, which had this issue. We tried booting with the Media Direct button, we tried booting with the power button, we tried holding both, and also pressing the MD button repeatedly. Nothing we tried seemed to work, it always booted back into Media Direct, with the "bitlocker" error message. Keep in mind, this computer had Windows XP on it, using the standard Dell image and partitions, so it definitely wasn't bitlocker.

We were able to boot back into Windows my selecting F12 at POST (to enter the boot menu), then choosing the option to load Windows normally. For anyone having trouble getting back into Windows from Media Direct, I'd recommend also trying variations using the F12 boot options.