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DELL(TM) DIAGNOSTIC DISTRIBUTION PACKAGE FOR MICROSOFT(R) WINDOWS(R) 

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This readme file contains information about the Diagnostic Distribution 
Package (DDDP) for Dell systems running Microsoft Windows operating 
systems.  

The Diagnostic Distribution Package offers new levels of ease and 
flexibility for creating bootable media for running diagnostics outside of 
the customer operating system.

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CONTENTS
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* CRITICALITY

* MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

* USAGE

* KNOWN ISSUES

* ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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CRITICALITY
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Optional

Dell recommends that you review specifics about the update to 
determine if it applies to your system. The update contains changes that 
impact only certain configurations, or provides new features that may/may 
not apply to your environment. 

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MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
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These DDDPs support Dell systems running the following Windows operating
systems:

* Windows 2000 Server (includes Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000
  Advanced Server) SP1 or later, and Windows Small Business Server 
  [SBS] 2000, SP1 or later.

* Windows Server(R) 2003 (includes Web, Standard, and Enterprise Editions) 
  and Windows SBS 2003.

* Windows Server 2003 for 64-bit Extended Systems (Standard and 
  Enterprise).

* Windows XP (Home Edition, Professional Edition, and Professional x64
  Edition), SP1 or later.

* Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit versions (Ultimate, Home Premium, 
  Home Basic, Business, Enterprise).
  

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USAGE
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After executing the diagnostic package which was downloaded from the Dell
support website, the DDDP application will start automatically after all 
files are extracted to the location you specify. You can restart the 
distribution package by running "DDDP.exe" from the folder location you 
specified when the download package originally ran.
 
When the application starts, a dialog box is displayed where you can 
choose the media type to be created. Supported media types include: USB 
flash drives, diskettes (Server versions only), CDs, and a bootable 
hard-drive or diskette image that can be used as a Preboot Execution 
Environment (PXE) boot image or for remote booting via a Dell Remote 
Access (DRAC) card for servers. In addition, the diagnostic partition on 
the system (if it exists) may be updated from DDDP. Details for each media 
type are presented in the sections that follow. Note that in order to boot 
the media you create, you may need to change the boot sequence for your 
computer so that the media type you create is first in the boot sequence. 
See the User Guide for your system for more information on changing the 
boot sequence.


Install to a USB Flash Drive

Selecting this option will bring up a dialog box where you can select a 
USB flash drive to install the diagnostics from a drop-down list box. 
Flash drives can be hot plugged and will automatically be detected and 
added to the list without the need to restart the DDDP application. The
drop-down list includes the drive letter (if assigned) in parentheses 
followed by the volume name in brackets "[]" followed by the size and 
description of the flash drive. 

Selecting the "Cancel" button will return to the main window and nothing
will be written to the flash drive. Selecting "OK" will cause the flash 
drive to be reformatted to make it bootable, and the diagnostic files will 
be copied to it. All data that is already on the flash drive WILL BE 
ERASED.

Local administrator rights are necessary to create a bootable flash 
drive from DDDP. Only flash drives up to 2 GB are supported. Note that 
flash drive boot functionality is not available on all systems. See the 
User Guide for your system to see if this is supported and if so how to 
change the boot order to boot from them. Also note that not all flash 
drives will be bootable even if DDDP can successfully write the 
diagnostics image to them.


Create a Bootable Diskette Set (Server versions only)

Only 1.44 MB diskettes are supported by this option. Drives supporting 
1.44 MB diskettes may be selected by a drop-down list box. USB diskette 
drives can be hot plugged and will automatically be detected and added 
to the list without the need to restart the DDDP application.

If you click "Cancel", nothing will be written to the diskette drive
and the application will return to the main window. If you click "OK", 
then the "Diskette x of y" dialog will be displayed.

This dialog will be updated for each diskette in the set to indicate the 
current diskette number and the total number of diskettes in the set. You 
may click the "Cancel" button to return to the main DDDP window if you 
want to abort the operation. After "OK" is clicked, the diskette will be 
formatted and the diagnostic files will be copied to it. All existing data 
on the diskettes used WILL BE ERASED.


Create a Bootable CD

NOTE: Some commercial packages have been found to not be able to create a 
bootable CD from the ISO image file created by DDDP. This is not an issue 
with DDDP but is rather a limitation of the commercial software package. 
We suggest if you cannot boot a CD created with a commercial package that 
you either directly burn the CD within DDDP or you try a different package 
to burn the ISO image.

By default, this option will write an ISO image file to a user-selectable 
location. The full path to the file can be entered directly in the edit 
box at the bottom of the dialog, or you can select the "..." button to 
bring up a dialog box to select the location and the filename to use. Once 
created, the ISO image can be used along with commercial CD creation 
software to burn a CD or it may be used with Dell Remote Access Cards 
(DRAC 4/DRAC 5) for remote booting of servers through a DRAC card.

You also have the option of burning a CD-R or CD-RW media directly from 
the DDDP application by clicking the "Burn Image..." check box. The 
checkbox will be grayed out if the system does not have a drive capable of 
burning CD-R or CD-RW media. Other media types are not supported by the 
application.

If you click the "Cancel" button, then the image file or CD will not be 
created, and the application will return to the main window. If you click 
"OK", then the image file will be saved to the filename and location 
selected. Or, if the "Burn Image..." check box has been checked, then the 
"Burn CD" dialog will be displayed. 

From the "Burn CD..." dialog, you can select a CD recorder to use to 
create the CD from a drop-down list box. After you select OK, the 
CD will be erased, if needed, and if the media type is CD-RW. After that, 
the diagnostic data will be copied to the CD. This option only supports 
CD-R and CD-RW media. You must have a drive capable of writing to one or 
both of these media types.

The capability of burning a CD directly from DDDP is not intended to 
support a wide variety of different CD burners and configurations. If the 
direct burn capability does not work in a particular hardware 
configuration, then it is best to create an ISO image and use commercial 
CD creation software to burn the image to a CD.

Local administrator rights are necessary to burn a CD directly from DDDP.


Update Existing Diagnostic Partition

Note that a Diagnostic Partition or Utility Partition must already exist 
for this option to work. If there is not an existing Diagnostic Partition 
on the system then an error message will be displayed to let you know that 
an update is not possible. A diagnostic partition may normally only be 
created on the hard drive before the operating system is installed. Local 
administrator rights are necessary to update the diagnostic partition from
DDDP.

Click the "Update" button to update the diagnostic files on the diagnostic 
partition with this version of the diagnostics. Click the "Cancel" button 
to return to the main menu without updating the diagnostic partition.


Create a Bootable Image

When this option is selected, a dialog box will appear so that the 
location and name of the image file can be selected. The full path to the 
image file can be entered directly in the edit box at the bottom of the 
dialog or you may select the "..." button to bring up a dialog box to 
select the location and the filename to use. Depending on your needs you 
may also select whether a hard drive or diskette image will be created.

Normally, the hard drive image type should be selected; however, in some 
cases the diskette format might be more appropriate. This will depend on 
where the image will be used and what capabilities are supported by that 
application. Note that if the image to create will not fit on a 2.88MB
diskette, then the diskette image option will be grayed out.

If you click the "Cancel" button, then the image file will not be written 
and the application will return to the main window. If you click "OK", 
then the image file will be saved in the filename and location selected.
An image created by this option can be used as a PXE boot image or for
remote booting via a Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC 5 only), you must use
the diskette option. The Hard Drive option will not create a bootable 
image that can be uploaded to the virtual flash drive. The files will be 
visible but the drive will not boot correctly. You can however run DDDP
on the server with the DRAC 5 and create a bootable virtual flash drive
using the "Install to USB Flash Drive" option. DRAC 4 does not support 
bootable images created with this option instead try the bootable CD or
ISO image type instead. See the DRAC documentation for additional 
information regarding the use of these features.

Use of the resulting image to PXE boot into the diagnostics requires 
additional software and network infrastructure including a TFTP server,
a DHCP server, and a boot loader capable of network booting. Specific
instructions about how to do so on your network are beyond the scope
of this readme file. 


Using an image file with a Dell Remote Access Card (DRAC) on servers

Image files created with DDDP can be used with DRAC 4 and DRAC 5 for 
remote booting. This includes the .ISO image file that can be created 
under the "Create a Bootable CD" option.

For the DRAC 4, only the .ISO image type will work. Even though the DRAC 4 
supports a floppy image file, it only supports 1.44MB images which are too 
small to hold the diagnostics. 

For the DRAC 5, the .ISO image type is supported as well as the floppy 
image file type. Select the Diskette image type when creating the image. 
Note that you cannot create a hard drive image type file and use it with 
the virtual flash feature of the DRAC 5. The files will be visible but the 
virtual flash drive will not be bootable.

For additional information see the appropriate DRAC user guide.


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KNOWN ISSUES/LIMITATIONS
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1. Local administrator access is required to create bootable USB flash 
   drives, update the diagnostic partition or to burn CD media from 
   within the DDDP application. You can still create an ISO image of a 
   bootable CD and burn that image from commercial CD creation software to 
   create a bootable CD.

2. Diskettes and diskette images take a long time to boot. Dell recommends
   that you use one of the other media types when running diagnostics.

3. Only flash drives up to 2 GB are supported.

4. Dell Diagnostics are only available in the English language.

5. Some commercial CD burning software will not create a bootable CD from
   the ISO image created with DDDP. This is not an issue with DDDP but is
   rather a limitation of the commercial software package. We suggest if
   you cannot boot a CD created with a commercial package that you either 
   directly burn the CD within DDDP or you try a different package to 
   burn the ISO image onto the CD media.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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See the Dell Support website at "support.dell.com" for the most
current information.

==========================================================================

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Copyright (C) 2005-2009 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of 
Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden.

Trademarks used in this text: "Dell" is a trademark of Dell Inc.; "Windows 
Server", "Microsoft", "Windows Vista", and "Windows" are registered 
trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. 

Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to 
either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell 
Inc. disclaims any proprietary interest in trademarks and trade names 
other than its own.

June 2009