Proud new 1530 owner

First off I'd like to say what a great site this is, I've learned so much about my 1530 from reading threads here its amazing. I received mine back in August and am quite happy with it. I got a sweet deal (I think) from Dell and my work and got it for about $2300 (specs in sig).


On to the topic at hand, I am going to install Vista Ult 64 and have read all the threads here about how to do it etc. I've got everything I need, I just have one question about what exactly happens when I use the Media Direct to prep the HDD for the install. I've dual-booted with XP Pro for school and am wondering if I will have to install XP Pro and Vista Ult64, or will the XP install be left intact?

 

First off, congratulations on your M1530.

Secondly, using Media Direct to prep the HDD will totally wipe clean the HDD, so it's like reinstalling from scratch. Just backup any data you might have before attempting to do a clean install with dual booting.

 

Thanks for the quick response, losing the XP install isn't to bad I have it synced with my desktop so everything's backed-up. Looks like tonight will be the night for getting this done shouldn't be too bad I've already made me a custom XP install disk with nLite so it should be a breeze.

 

Good luck with setting up the dual boot. Just remember to complete the Media Direct install after installing both XP and Vista. Easy to forget since you're already installing 2 OS.

 

Hey! Congrat's on the arrival of your new 1530~!

You shall really, really like it!



Cin

 

I was told by Dell reps that Media Direct is not compatible on x64. I recently upgraded from 32 to 64 and did not prep for Media Direct for this reason. You may want to double check.

 

Thanks for the heads up, one would think something as simple as media direct 3.5 system requirements would be a simple google search. Guess I'll email Dell and see what they say.

 

Hehe yeah I love it already, my first notebook and altho I didn't find NBR till after I got it I have no regrets. I bought my 1st desktop from Dell over 8 years ago and it's still going strong. Other than having to get the monitor replaced it has been rock solid. Maybe I should add it to my sig....

* Wonders off to compile specs *

 

Aaah yes..I understand! My 1530 was my first lappy ever and I searched for almost 5 months, before deciding on the 1530. Though, I had found NBR during that time ~ and it very much helped me with my search!

I had my desktop for several years before deciding to switch to a laptop!~ :yes:

Yes, you should add it to your siggy!

Got those spec's compiled yet? (kidding).

Cin

 

Congratulations! Hope you enjoy your new laptop!

 

Had to wait till I got home to get everything together the things been through so many part swaps its not even funny. Currently it's a:

Dimension 8200
P4 ?? 1.8Ghz
1.25GB RDRAM
ATI 9550 256
80GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive
24x/10x/40x CD-RW
Avance Logic 4000 Sound Card

Not pretty but its a good spare desktop still. My main desktop is a

HP Pavilion
P4E Prescott 3.0Ghz
2GB DDR2 SDRAM
200GB Seagate HDD
80GB ?? HDD
ATI X1600 Pro
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card
Altec Lansing THX Certified ADA995 Surround Sound 5.1 Speaker System

The sound card and 5.1 system originally came with the 8200. 8200's still running its original HDD and CD-RW drive.

Got a response from Dell about Media Direct 3.5 being compatible with Vista 64:

"Basing it from ht tp: // tinyurl. com/6xk3ev, you will see that the patch for Media direct is fully compatible for Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit. You will be able to install the Media Direct 3.5 on a Vista 64-bit machine."

 

I was thinking I would install Vista -> finish Media Direct install -> install XP Pro. Should I wait to finish the Media Direct install till after I install XP Pro?

 

I think it's perfectly fine to finish MD install after installing Vista. Though not quite sure if it's possible to finish it after XP Pro. I tried it before, but couldn't get MD to work in XP, but perfectly fine in Vista.

 

I've prep'd with the MD disk and installed Vista, now when I boot from the MD disk it gives me the same 3 options to prep the HDD for a new install (1 for all space to C:, 2 to set space, Q to quit).

Should it auto-detect that there's an install to finish?

 

Answered my own question by re-reading Vista 64 thread.

 

yeah, i too was a desktop guy, with an old P4 1.4 Ghz, 250 megs of Ram 20 gigs HDD, a geforce 2 (i think it had a special name like UberultraFX ) and to think i ran Unreal Tournament 2004 on that thing.... but then i upgraded the hardware to an AMD 2.0GHz, 1 gig of RAM, 100Gigs HDD, and a GeForce 7800GS... good times... GOOD Times....

 

Yeah I still play Eve-Online with it, tho I don't PvP and have all the settings turned down. I've logged many hours behind it, used it to play Earth & Beyond and SW:G from launch to NGE.

I've got Vista 64 up and running but get an error message when I try to run the fingerprint software:

0xe7210005 (rpnpipe: rpnpipe: no-svr(00000001fusserver))

I can't enroll new fingers or anything, going to try uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers to see if that clears it up.


Edit: solved problem, noob mistake I forgot to reboot after installing the software.