Dell Media Direct won’t Boot Windows – Maybe Bitlocker – Solution
I’m not sure why Dell can’t actually tell people this. However, if you find yourself stuck booting Dell MediaDirect, and don’t know how to fix it. Try this:
- Turn off your computer
- Hit the button shaped like a home (the Dell MediaDirect button).
Seriously. When the power is off, the Dell MediaDirect button acts a toggle button to boot the other partition. Try to find that on Dell’s site, and well, I couldn’t find it with several good searches.Thanks to GigaMegaBlog.
Related posts:
- Fix – Macbook won’t wake up, hear boot sound I’ve installed Windows 7 64-bit on my MacBook, which required ripping my factory Win 7 DVD (yes, I’m hosting a launch party) and recreating it without versioning numbers...
- Fix Dell SoundMax to Record Streaming Audio (ie what you hear) in Vista I was trying to record an internet radio show (that my friend appeared on) today and discovered that Dell had nicely “removed” the feature to record what was going through...
- Fix – File Is Not Accessible : Access Denied – Windows XP Vista and 7 THE FIX: Connect the drive to a friend’s laptop (or a sympathetic lab administrator) and ask them to access the files. The person must have Administrative Rights on...
- Fix – Program not Compatible with Windows 7 My parents had a program – Arts and Letters – that would not work on windows 7. Luckily, Windows 7 professional and ultimate (not home editions) come with...
- Program to Sync Droid to Your Music, Videos and Media – like iTunes for Droid The iPhone has iTunes, so what does Droid have? If you dig deep enough, it looks like Droid has Motorola Media Link. I haven’t tried it, but I’m...


about 10 months ago
wow… All I have to say is thanks man. I let my laptop be a brick for 2 weeks until I decided to work on it today and google what the hell dell media direct was and why it kept loading, failing, and when forcing safe mode only got blue screen of death upon start up.
about 10 months ago
Omg….thanx soooooooooool much….I was having a panic attack because I thought my parents were ganna kill me. ( I thought I broke the computer ) ……it was gud they didn’t find out though…lolz
about 10 months ago
Same here. Thank you so much for posting this. I thought I had a virus or something! You are awesome!!!!
about 8 months ago
just WOW !!
about 7 months ago
U DA BOMB, MAN!
about 7 months ago
Who Knew? Brilliant. You saved another one.
about 7 months ago
you are my hero! I was about to lose it with this d…. DellMediaDirect starting every time I boot. People like you make the internet what it is! I am sending loads of good karma in your direction and appreciate this post more than you can ever imagine
about 7 months ago
I remember my boss feeling exactly the same way about his dell when he brought it in. FYI – Your karma must of worked. I just beat out maybe 20 people for a nice house in California.
about 7 months ago
Thanks soooooooooo much – this saved my computer’s life!!!
about 6 months ago
Thank you so much. Yep 5 year old hit the ‘House’ button on my work laptop… thought I was going to have to dispose of both the child and laptop
Thanks to the wonders of technology I was able to google your solution from my phone, thanks for unruining my day
about 6 months ago
That’s pretty awesome. I was just wondering what I did before I had my phone when I went to help out a friend with a dead computer. I think I must have brought my own. Now we just bring the phone with internet.
–Ben
about 6 months ago
THANK YOU!!!!!!
about 5 months ago
You are the bomb indeed.
about 5 months ago
Thanks a ton…. really appreciate it
about 4 months ago
You are my hero!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!
about 3 months ago
Wow. Glad it helped. I like being a hero for a second or two!
about 4 months ago
This was just the ticket for me to cipher out a Dell that gave me a no OS load condition. Thank you for your information!!!
about 3 months ago
Good to hear. I’m glad its been useful to as many people as it has. I felt so dumb when I found out how to fix it. Its nice to have smart company!
about 3 months ago
Cheer!
Its unbelievable. A very easy solution to a harsh problem.
Loads of thanks.
about 3 months ago
You’re welcome. We’re in good company with the number of people that have and still visit this post.
about 3 months ago
That simple! Thank you very much!!
about 2 months ago
Thank you very much. My wife is happy and I did not have to pay for a repair..Thanks again.
about 2 months ago
Thank you very much. It was so easy, my wife is happy and I did not have to pay for a repair.
Dan
about 2 months ago
I know if my wife’s not happy, nobody’s happy. Glad you’re both happy.
–Ben
about 2 months ago
hi
thanks a lot for the solution. My power button doesnt work and i started using DMR now.do i need to change the power button?or can i continue to use the media direct button? your suggestion would be very much appreciated,
thanks
john
about 2 months ago
Not sure I got the question. But if your power button is toast, and you’ve got soldering skills, you can probably swap the DMD button for the Power button.
–Ben
about 2 months ago
Thank you so much for your help! I’ve just get stuck for hours today, trying to solve this problem. Really appreciated! Best regards!
about 2 months ago
You’re in good company. Look at the number of comments on this post. Glad to help!
–Ben
about 2 months ago
I tried your solution but now it says “loading PBR for descriptor 2….done” and it won’t do anything else! Any suggestions?
about 2 months ago
I haven’t encountered that one, yet. Sorry. Still sounds like its trying to boot Media Direct. You might try using a Linux Live CD to see if you windows partition is still there. Good Luck!
–Ben
about 2 months ago
Without a doubt you were my savior this morning. I was tracking down my reinstall cd, ready to murder those folks at Dell when I had this happen at 6am. I popped in another OS on a flash drive to grab files when I googled this problem one more time and found you.
Thank you so much for sharing this. Yours was the ONLY site that shared this super easy information. I can’t believe all that I was ready to do when all I needed to do was press that button. Crazy!
Again major thanks!
about 2 months ago
thank you! glad my computer works again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
about 2 months ago
When I pressed the Power button, the computer run with http://www.DELL.com showed and the screen was blue. A few second later, message was shown following (in red):
Welcome to
Dell MediaDirect
Building your Dell MediaDirect Files
The first time you initiate your Dell MediaDirect, it takes time to set up your Dell MediaDirect Files. After the initial use, Dell MediaDirect starts up much more quickly.
Another a fewer seconds later, The screen showed the following message:
Dell MediaDirect
Dell MediaDirect Express cannot access your hard drive. This may be because you had enabled Microsoft Bitlocker (Drive Encryption). Dell MediaDirect Express is not accessible because Microsoft Bitlocker is enabled.
And there is an Exit was shown at the right-bottom of the screen. I clicked on the Exit, then the laptop was shut down. Nevertheless, I restarted the computer , same problems were shown again so what I did was shut the computer and just pressed this little button shaped like a home/house LOVE IT! brought everything back to normal! thanks soooooo much!