***Format & Reinstall of XP Questions (PLEASE POST ALL FORMAT QUESTIONS HERE)***

[Amber]

Actually the 47mb partition is your Dell Diagnostics Partition. Of course the Second is your XP partition, and the 3rd is either your Restore Partition or Backup. It is hard to tell without knowing the size of HDD that you ordered. Most likely it is your back up since Dell just recently started install backup partitions, and your restore partition does not show up under disk manager.

[Amber]

thanks for the info. what about the drivers though? si there a certain order to install those?

Normally the suggested order goes as follows:
BIOS
CHIPSET
NOTEBOOK SYSTEM SOFTWARE
VIDEO CARD
& then any remaining drivers

I know in my guide, I suggested to install your Network driver first, but this is so you can get access to the internet to install the remaining drivers. It is not going to do any damage if you go out of order when installing drivers.

[NOSintake]

so basically, i should delete the biggest ones i see?

[Amber]

so basically, i should delete the biggest ones i see?

I'm assuming that you are talking about your partitions - and yes. You'll see the size next to each one. Just leave partition 1 alone, and delete the remaining partitions.

Dell 99% of the time always has the partitions in the same order, so if you delete partition 2 and 3, you'll be able to repair Media Direct easy.

[NOSintake]

I'm assuming that you are talking about your partitions - and yes. You'll see the size next to each one. Just leave partition 1 alone, and delete the remaining partitions.

Dell 99% of the time always has the partitions in the same order, so if you delete partition 2 and 3, you'll be able to repair Media Direct easy.

ok cool. thanks for the help. i think im set and ready to go to reformat when my laptop comes in. i dont know if i can wait any longer

[Coko]

Agh, I'm scared.. I tried to reformat my inspiron e1505 duo core to get rid of all the junk it came with. First I inserted the xp media center reinstallation CD I bought from dell, and clicked on install a new XP. After installing some temporary files, it rebooted my comp and led me to XP setup.
Since this is my first Dell, I saw 3 or 4 partitions and wanted to delete them all, so I can start fresh. I was allowed to delete all the partitions, except for partition 2, the largest one. It said that temporary setup files were located on that partition, and I could not delete it.
With nothing else to do, I created and formated a new partition and tried to install a new XP, but it's not letting me, saying there are files that cant be found on the CD. I cant even reboot into the original XP that came installed! I wish I never did anything, and if there is any way to restore or recover partition 1, please let me know, cause I just found out that partition 1 seemed helpful, and I want to keep it if i can.

BTW, when i start my computer, I'm given two choices, to start XP Media Center, or to start XP Professional setup, but I dont even have windows professional. The only setup CD I have is the Media Center reinstallation CD that I bought with my dell.

Edit : Now I directly booted from my CD by pushing F12 on the loading screen. I deleted the second partition, and now I only have one, formatted in NTFS with the maximum MB minus 48 in case i can recover the original first partition.

[Cici]

Just got my new Inspiron e1505 this week and noticed that I only had 51GB HD with about 47GB avalible when I had configured it to have an 80GB HD. I realize they're going to install some unneeded stuff but 25+GB worth??

Went through the motions and reinstalled Win XP. Didn't mess with the partitions so I'm STILL left with only 47GB avalible. I couldn't figure out which partitions I needed or not. I had about 4 of them. Anyone care to point me in the right direction?

Here's my stats:
Intel Core Duoprocessor T2400
15.4' UltraSharp TrueLife Widescreen WSXGA
1GB, DDR2, 533MHz 2 Dimm
256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 HyperMemory
80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Cardand Modem
24X Combo CD-RW/DVD for Inspiron 6400/E1505
Integrated High Definition Audio, for XPS M1710
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)

Went through the Dell website to get all my drivers cause they sent me a Drivers CD for e1705. Do I need to download all those Displays?

My screen isn't as clear as it used to be. And I can't get the Hibernate or Standby option I used to.

Worst comes to worst, anyone know a way I can just restore it to how Dell had it before?

[Amber]

Agh, I'm scared.. I tried to reformat my inspiron e1505 duo core to get rid of all the junk it came with. First I inserted the xp media center reinstallation CD I bought from dell, and clicked on install a new XP. After installing some temporary files, it rebooted my comp and led me to XP setup.
Since this is my first Dell, I saw 3 or 4 partitions and wanted to delete them all, so I can start fresh. I was allowed to delete all the partitions, except for partition 2, the largest one. It said that temporary setup files were located on that partition, and I could not delete it.
With nothing else to do, I created and formated a new partition and tried to install a new XP, but it's not letting me, saying there are files that cant be found on the CD. I cant even reboot into the original XP that came installed! I wish I never did anything, and if there is any way to restore or recover partition 1, please let me know, cause I just found out that partition 1 seemed helpful, and I want to keep it if i can.

BTW, when i start my computer, I'm given two choices, to start XP Media Center, or to start XP Professional setup, but I dont even have windows professional. The only setup CD I have is the Media Center reinstallation CD that I bought with my dell.

Edit : Now I directly booted from my CD by pushing F12 on the loading screen. I deleted the second partition, and now I only have one, formatted in NTFS with the maximum MB minus 48 in case i can recover the original first partition.

Hi Coko,
Welcome to the forums...

There is no way to recover that first partition that you deleted. The program that was on that smaller partition (the dell diagnostics utility) can be found on your Drivers & Applications Disc as well as on the web. You can run this from a disc, so you didn't loose anything. The only problem is that you will have to do a bit of readjusting your partitions in order for Media Direct to work.

You'll most likely have to reformat, but I believe you can use a partition utility like Partition Magic to edit your partitions if you choose too. The important thing is that you need to create a smaller partition of 1308 and this partition must be before your XP Partition - which is why I suggest just reformatting all together.

Here is the problem: in order for Media Direct to boot up with out XP, it must have its own partition to boot from. This doesn't have to be a large partition, but it needs to be at least 1308mb and has to be the first partition on your HDD (aka Partition 1).

Most users have basically reformatted to fix this problem. When they get to the partition area, they delete all of their partitions into the unpartition space, and then create an XP partition from the unpartition - leaving the unpartition space with exactly 1308mb or some have made it a bit bigger. Then they select their XP partition and format as normal.

I know that probably sounds confusing and scary considering the problems that you had earlier. If you want (and have a second computer) we can set up a time and I can walk you through all of this on messenger.

SG

[Amber]

Welcome to the forums Cici,
Unfortunately there isn't an easy way to restore your laptop back to factory condition. Once you edit the partitions or reformat, your restore partition becomes invalid. You can try to back up and burn a copy of your restore partition to a disc, and then try to restore it from there. I'm not exactly sure of the whole process but there is a link to a website in the paritions section of the Reformat & Reinstall guide (link in my sig).

Just got my new Inspiron e1505 this week and noticed that I only had 51GB HD with about 47GB avalible when I had configured it to have an 80GB HD. I realize they're going to install some unneeded stuff but 25+GB worth??

Went through the motions and reinstalled Win XP. Didn't mess with the partitions so I'm STILL left with only 47GB avalible. I couldn't figure out which partitions I needed or not. I had about 4 of them. Anyone care to point me in the right direction?

Dell just recently started putting a backup partition on the laptops. You can see this partition in My Computer (probably labeled as Documents or something similar). It should be label as D: . In theory, you should be able to put documents, music, movies, etc on there, and if you need to reformat, then you wouldn't have to back up anything. You would be able to select just your XP partition as you previously did, and all of the information would stil be located on your laptop. Some users have reported that this backup partition is directly tied into Norton Ghost and if you delete Norton Ghost, the backup partition is deleted and added to your XP Partition.

The 4 partitions are as follows:
Partition 1 - Dell Diagnostics Partition (47mb)
Partition 2 - XP Partition
Partition 3 - Backup Partition
Partition 4 - Restore Partition (5-10gb)

Most users who have the XP Disc and are comfortable with formatting, usually delete partition 2,3,4. Then they create the XP partition to the size they want, and if they want, they'll create a backup/spare partition.

Went through the Dell website to get all my drivers cause they sent me a Drivers CD for e1705. Do I need to download all those Displays?

Nope. If you have an external monitor from dell, then you would need to download the display driver that corresponds to that external monitor. If you aren't sure what drivers are mandatory or optional, I have listed all of the categories in my Reformat Guide and given a description as to which are mandatory and optional.

My screen isn't as clear as it used to be. And I can't get the Hibernate or Standby option I used to.

Two possible solutions for your screen: 1) you need to install your video card driver or 2) need to adjust your display properties. You can adjust your display properties by right clicking on your desktop-->properties-->display settings tab. Most likely, you'll need to adjust your screen resolution and set it to its natural resolution. Also you might try adjust your DPI. It is in the same tab as your screen resolution, but you'll have to click on advance to get access to it.

Hope this helps,
SG

[Coko]

Thank you soooo much SouthernGirl!! I'll do what I can, and hopefully it'll work out. Thanks!!

One more question to make sure I'm doing this correctly. I just reformatted again, and this time I created two partitions. Partition 1 is 1320 MB, partition 2 is 73555MB. I clicked to install XP on partition 2, and it formats both partitions (hopefully that is correct). I formatted both using NTFS. After I install XP on the second partition, MediaDirect should work then? Thanks again