Dell MediaDirect 'Hypothesis'

I'll throw this out there to get a sense of other folks thinking on the subject....

For an E1505 [and similiar Dell laptops] I believe the MediaDirect function from a power OFF state is loaded from an area of the hard drive called the 'Host-Protected Area(HPA)' aka 'ATA Protected Area'.

This is an area at the 'end' of the hard drive that is not seen by partition programs or XP.

This gives you a bit of info on the topic.

This would explain the mystery [to me anyway] of how it 'hangs around' even after the Dell Utility and Dell Restore partitions are deleted and just "One Big Partition is created".

That "One Big Partition" will not impact the Protected Area. During the partitioning operation it thinks it has used all the available sectors, but it has been 'lied' to by the Hard Drive. The hard drive reports a total of "xxx' sectors as what's available to be partitioned, but in reality there are 'xxx+' sectors. [Note... in my case the 'normal' partition tools think the highest allowable sector value is 153,356,490 when in reality it is 156,296,385. The difference accounts for 1425.5MB of hard disk space 'reserved' for the HPA and in this case MediaDirect]

The only one that knows the Protected Area is there is MediaDirect. MediaDirect knows the 'real' maximum permissible values of the sectors and will 'tweak' the partition table in order to access the files/data. When MediaDirect is closed, the partition table is changed back to its 'original' state.

This kind of explains why Dell says that the 'Reinstall CD' is only needed "in order to replace your existing hard drive with a new drive". Unless you physically swap out the drive, the Protected Area will always be there and you just need to make 'tweaks' using the "Repair CD' to get things going again.

By using the Reinstall CD on the original hard drive you end up with two MediaDirect data areas.... the Protected Area and then one you create by leaving some unallocated space during your XP reinstall and then running the Reinstall CD.

I do have some 'evidence' for this 'theory' in that I was able to catch the partition table changes made by MediaDirect and was able to confirm that it was setting an active FAT32X partition above the 'supposed' maximum sector value.

Anyway... that's my story...

Mark

 

if this is true this is some good info

this all seems to make sence to me

 

That would mostly explain my problem(s). So how could I truely reforrmat my HD to delete these ghost sectors? Then when I reinstall MD 2.0 from the CD, it wouldn't "see" two versions of MD and give me the BSOD.

Good work,
Mark

 

There is one thing that's diminishing my 'moment' here....

You may have picked up on the fact that... yeah, I know where the files/data is located to include the sector values, but... I haven't been in there to look for myself and confirm.

Unfortunately, my diskedit software says I'm trying to access 'illegal' sector values [been lied to...] and even though I can modify the partition table to 'mimic' the MediaDirect temporary values and set the HPA as an active partition, I haven't been able to access that portion of the drive thru DOS.

Bummms

Somebody figure out how to do that and post back...

Mark

 

Mark,

Major Success!!!

Once again you're being too modest. This thread was the catalyst for my finally getting MD to work, well a little anyway.

So after reading Your 'Hypothesis', I decided that maybe, just maybe I should make another bootable CD. I open the MediaDirect folder on my HD, clicked the .exe, what!!! wrong version, had the 9300/6000 version on both HDs. So downloaded the correct MD repair file and made a bootable CD. Still didn't work, no F: and no MD2 folder.

So went and got a nice hot shower. Came back refreshed and starting opening the new and old CD's in Win Explorer. The new showed the Dell.iso file but no MD2 folder. An Old one I had showed all the correct folders and files [MD2 & Repair.bat] but it wouldn't boot. So I booted with the first and inserted the second. cd md2, Repair, Yes, Done!!!

Bottom line: the Hermit does NOT know how to make a correct bootable iso CD. Still doesn't.

So I press the MD button, it flashes on, gives me a lecture and I click OK and were off. The front panel buttons aren't yet working. But right now my lappie is installing yet another copy of XP on all of the HD space, well the HD space Dell let's me have. You'd thought with all this practice, it could install XP in 10 min, still takes an hour.

So when the XP install is done I'll use my two CD method to repair MediaDirect.

Hermit

 

To save you some 'extra' work....

If you have the Dell Resource CD take a look in there to see if you have the MD2 folder. If so....

Use the Resource CD to boot your system. You should be given the option to 'Q' quit which will take you to DOS. Find your MD2 folder and run Repair.bat

Save you the hassle of download/ISO/burn/boot switch disks, etc etc

fyi

Mark

 

Mark,

Actually made a single F: MD2 Repair.bat bootable CD. It must have been an accident.

New Problem . . . Sigh!!

Now I'm getting HD errors using MediaDirect, and I can't get into Windows. Get a !ATA error.

So for the umpteenth time, I'm long formatting the HD, installing Windows, etc. Will try the new repair CD after I load the drivers.

Hermit

 

Had these two error messages:

Windows could not start because of a computer
disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk
Check boot path and disk hardware.

After pressing the MD button to turn off the
Computer, it hangs with this message:

Loading PBR for descriptor 2...done.
[XLDR] !ATA

Dell is sending me a new HD, complete with bloat.

Hermit

 

hope this works for you