Dell E1505 Crashed! Help!!!

One fine evening I finished working and switched the E1505 off. I had a good night sleep till next morning but I think the Media Centre edition 2005 didn't!

I powered it on the next morning and I found some WinLogOn.exe, lsass.exe etc. giving me errors that say that they have some bad image and the problem is with the SHELL32.DLL file!

Now, I did have some important data on the C: partition. I ran the DELL recovery Norton Ghost through Ctrl + F11 at the bootup, and through the Norton File Explorer in the recovery partition, copied all my data from C: to D: (backup)

Now, my question is - if I use the restore option by DELL which will make the whole thing roll back to factory setting, will the data on D: (backup) go away?

If yes, then is reinstalling Windows ( formatting only C: ) on C: only way out?

Will it damage the Dell Media Direct as well?

I have the Windows reinstallation CD shipped to me by DELL, so can I use the R repair option in that CD taking a boot from it?

Please guide me. Basically I need to know if the easy way of restoring the whole thing back through DELL RESTORE cause my data stored on D: (backup) vanish?

 

AFAIK, it shouldn't. The restore utility should just reformat your XP partition, and leave your spare partition alone.

Eventhough it probably isn't your only way out, i would do a clean install anyways. The BSOD/errors are more likely to occur if you do a restore and then remove all of the junkware. If you do a clean install, you data on D will still be safe as long as you don't mess with that partition.

In 9 out 10 cases, it will not damage Media Direct. Media Direct is pretty picky about some things, but if you leave the partitions alone and just reformat/restore your XP Partition, you should be able to repair MediaDirect.

This will help with registry issues, but it might not fix all of your problems. With an HDD that has programs that were removed, you still have all of the folders/registry keys/bunch of junk on there. If you do a repair of XP, you'll still have all of that there. The only way to get rid of them 100% is do a clean install.

You should be able to do a restore with out loosing your data. As I stated before, the restore does not format your documents partition, so everything should be safe.

SG

 

If this works out smoothly...I owe you a lot of ice cream.

 

Just a quick question -

I am downloading all the DELL drivers on my jump drive from DELL support website to prepare for the clean XP reinstall. (I am not touching anything except C: )

I just noticed that they have included the video adapter drivers for ATI Radeon Mobility X1300 at the bottom of the driver download list.

Now, this leaves me with one question. What are the display device drivers listed here 6th from top? ( I think it is the driver for the LCD panel, is it? ) If yes, then which one should I choose from a long list?

I have DELL Inspiron E1505 with ATI X1300 128MB and LCD screen with TRULIFE.

 

The display drivers are for external monitors (don't ask why dell has decided to include that on every system's driver page - but its kind of annoying). All you need for your laptop's screen is your video card driver. It acts as the driver for your video card and LCD.

 

Cool. I think I am all set now. I just have to grab the Windows MCE2005 CD and pop it in to boot from it to proceed.

I have read your post about repairing the media direct after I finish reinstalling the OS and when done with the drivers.

I will let you know how it goes. Your quick response is awesome!!

Also, the Ctrl + F11 Nortal file copy utility (through the explore files on this laptop) is exceptional. It actually helps you to get the data from C: to D: (of course you need the originally configured D: bye DELL for it)

Thanks again!

 

You could also attempt to boot into Safe Mode (F8 at startup) and then proceed to get your data off before repairing or reformating.

 

I obviously tried everything. I can't boot till Windows desktop. The msgina.dll registry entry for user gui is corrupted. A typical problem (rare). Nothing can work in safe mode, debugging mode, step by step mode (which does not exist here) and last known good configuration mode (as system restore in windows is turned off by me)

Thanks for the advice though! and anyways, the devices such as optical disc burners, USB jump drives etc. won't probably work in safe mode to get your data off the notebook as the drivers are not loaded for them in the safe mode.

Clean install is the only good way out and with 100% success chance.

 

Hello Southerngirl

Everything went smooth and I am typing from my notebook. But, I did not clean installed the OS as I was too anxious and could not wait till the XP reinstallation CD arrived from DELL.

So I took a chance and yes, the system restore did not touch my D: partition. The notebook is now just nice as it was at the out of the box time!

Thanks a lot!! I will freshly install XP when the CD arrives.

So folks we have a new bit of information here. Had the XP fall on you, you still can copy the data from C: to D: and then restore it to day 1 configuration through Ctrl + F11 DELL SYSTEM RESTORE.

Nothing will be lost except C:

 

Is your Media Direct working okay?

Glad to hear that you got it fixed.

 

Hello Southerngirl,

As I did not format the XP partition and just went ahead with the DELL out of the box day restoration through CTRL + F11, Direct media should be working.

I did not check it though. But logically it should work as it was working out of the box

But otherwise, everything is smooth (except for the bloatware by DELL )

When I go back home - XP professional clean install is the language of the nature.

 

LOL, well i was just was curious since MD is pretty picky about everything. If you want a quick fix to the bloatware, you might try Dell Decrapifier. I don't have the site with me, but it has been discussed on the forums alot. At least you wouldn't have to remove everything manually.