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    Fresh install from Raid 0 to SSD

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by MogRules, Jun 16, 2012.

  1. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Good evening all...I am expecting my new Alienware M17X to be arriving this week and I have already got the SSD for it ready and waiting to be installed. The laptop is coming with 2 500GB 7200 HDD's in Raid 0 and i am curious....can I just simply pop out the hard drives and do a fresh install on the SSD then put one of the HDD's back in and format it under windows or will the raid container prevent that?

    I looked up Dell's raid container removal instruction but if I am taking the 2 HDD's out do I need to bother with that step? I should still have to go into the bios and disable raid but that should be about it correct?
     
    MogRules, Jun 16, 2012
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  2. livid

    livid Notebook Consultant

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    You'll have to remove the hard drives from the RAID first before switching to AHCI mode from the SSD. Even though the RAID BIOS will be disabled, the SATA controller and any Intel controller supporting RST will see those hard drives as being part of a RAID. Disk management will report a hard drive being 1TB instead of the proper 500GB.
     
    livid, Jun 16, 2012
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  3. The Revelator

    The Revelator Notebook Prophet

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    NVM.

    /10char
     
    The Revelator, Jun 16, 2012
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  4. MogRules

    MogRules Notebook Deity

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    Ok sounds good, thank you :) I will book it up and blow away the raid container before i install the SSD then. Thank you for the advice :)
     
    MogRules, Jun 16, 2012
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  5. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    Great answer! +1 Rep. Just adding to that, here is a link on how to reinstall Windows on the Alienware systems and also the drivers links for each platform.
     
    Alienware-L_Porras, Jun 18, 2012
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