MediaDirect killing laptop?

[burrito]

Honestly posting here as a last resort because I can't/don't want to call Dell for the "low" price of 49$ for something that's really their fault.

I bought an XPS laptop a year ago. Warranty expired a few weeks ago. Never gave me any troubles, loved it, blahblah. Until today, when I accidentally hit the MediaDirect button that's oh-so-conveniently next to the power button.

Honestly I don't know much about MD, so in annoyance (was trying to purchases a few case fans off NewEgg for the gaming PC) I mashed down on the power button to restart the PC. Problem is, after that it refused to boot into Windows, and kept auto-loading MD after that.

So, in sheer irritation and much failed googling later, I dug out my OS disc (Vista, meh) for that Laptop and tried to reformat. It went about fine, until I started getting an error: "Windows could not update the computer's boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed."

... ook, so after going back through the Vista's disc menu and trying the repair option (and a check disk and all sorts of nonsense I've already forgotten) later, I get back to the install Vista screen... to try again only to now get: "The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error. Windows installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click "OK" to restart the computer, then restart the installation."

Basically now I'm at a loop. When I can see my paritions on the Vista installation screen, it reads the main one as empty, the recovery drive is still there (I think?), as well as the "(ill)Logical" MediaDirect drive.

I'm unsure if something simple as just replacing the HDD and trying a fresh install would work, or if my laptop is absolutely borked and I'll be paying out the ass for Dell to fix it. I'm practically near tears in frustration that something I worked my ass off for was essentially destroyed by one ridiculous button. If anyone has any idea on this, or advice, please :/

[Dench]

I had this issue maybe a year or so ago with my XPS notebook as well.. I went through a whole bunch of stuff and quite frankly can't remember how I got this to work.

I may be misunderstanding but your computer is still booting from the MD partition, right?

Have you tried hitting the MediaDirect button to start the computer, as opposed to the power button itself? I remember that in order to get it to begin booting to the main partition, as opposed to the MD partition, you had to either start the computer with the MD button or start the computer, and turn it off with the MD button. That may sound like a simple solution, but if you haven't tried it, it might work.

[Solefald]

do a custom install and delete all the partitions on the drive. (if the previous poster's solution doesn't work)

normally the startup repair that you tried would have fixed it, but dell does some weird shit with their partitions that makes it not work.

[burrito]

It's no longer starting from the MD parition as far as I can tell. Rebooting it without the Vista setup disc brings up the "The computer restarted unexpectedly..." warning message. Rebooting it with the setup disc brings up the same error.

Taking a whirl then and rebooting/hitting F8 (like how you'd bring about a quick reformat with the factory image) brings up only the option to run from the disc, brings up the same "restarted unexpectedly" error again. Same with hitting F10. Hitting F12 brings up the one-time boot menu, which I can then select the disc over the internal HDD, but from there (like the last several times), I can't figure out how to get it out of the loop of "could not update computer's boot config" to the endless-eight like "restarted unexpectedly" error above.

Going through the repair options on the disc, it tells me there's a problem with my startup, and prompts a startup repair. Going through that now (now that I've had some sleep and can think a little bit clearer), to see if that'll help any. With the trend I've had, doubtful.

How would I go about doing the custom install and deleting the paritions? Honestly most computer know-how I have is trial and error from destroying things.

[Solefald]

start up from the windows disc, select "install windows" then "custom (advanced) installation"

one of the steps, i'm not sure if its 1st/2nd/3rd or whatever, will ask you which partition to install on. click "advanced" and delete everything until all that's left is unformatted space.

[burrito]

Thank you muchly; Now to reinstall everything and hope nothing else happens :/