Help with installing 2nd HDD M17X R3

I just got a Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 750 Gig to install in my 1 month old XR3. It came with the 500 Gig Hybrid. I mounted the drive in the empty bay (center). It is working electronically, but has to be set up. I am used to the old days of IDE, where it was pretty much plug & play. I want to set up as a completely separate drive for games, data, photos, etc Original drive to have OS ("C"), and new drive "D" or "E". I am confused about the Sata, AHCI, ATA, & RAID settings. If anyone can give me a walkthrough, I'd appreciate it. At some point in the future I will replace the original 500 Gig hybrid with an SSD, but for right now, I really need the additional space. Oh yeah, on the one screen that I got ( CTRL I) It only gave me a choice of RAID 0, which will not work with dissimilar drives. The F2 screen gave me the choices of RAID, ATA, AHCI. I have done nothing yet.

Thanks !!

Bill

 

I have added an SSD to my M17x r3. The configuration it was set to at the factory was raid, although it only came with one hdd. I did set the mode to AHCI instead (in the BIOS).
Windows 7 wouldn't boot up anymore though, and that's why I did a new clean install of Win7, and it's working fine since.

 

Yeah, I can't get a bootup now either. I really want to avoid an install. Thinking of taking the drive out, do a reboot & shutdown, re install drive and see if there's a way through system to recognize drive. I'm kinda stuck.

 

Don't do an reinstall. I can find you the guide on how to change it without a reinstall. Give me a few min if you haven't done it yet.

edit: All you have to do is edit a couple values in your registry. This guide is for going from RAID to ACHI.

Step 1. Open up regedit
Step 2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\
Step 3. Find the atapi folder
Step 4. Change the value of REG_DWORD Start from 3 to 0
Step 5. Do the same for the folder iaStorV and msahci
Step 6. Close regedit and restart your system
Step 7. During restart, go into the System BIOS and change your SATA Controller from RAID to ACHI
Step 8. Save and Exit

Your system should now reboot into Windows. Once Windows loads up, it will ask for a restart. After that you are done.

 

Not knowing any better, I went to the setup screen ( ctrl I) twice (before starting this thread). 1st time to name the RAID volume, 2nd time to delete RAID volume. It appeared as if I was only configuring the new drive. I now have NON RAID drives, but Windows wont boot. I can go to the other setup screen (F2) and change to AHCI there (have not made any changes yet). This is as far as I have taken it, as I really want to avoid any OS or Data loss on my "C" drive. The new drive is still a virgin. I hope that the solution from Sky works. Only thing I get on power up is a request for a boot disc. I will try command prompt reg.exe.

Footnote*
I can get to the F2 screen if I pop in a boot disc. Since this is a fairly new system, without too much installed in the "C" drive except about a dozen programs, BF3, and one photo folder. I only have a system repair disc & 4 system image discs made up on the day of delivery, before installing anything. I have a recently cleaned out an external 1 TB portable that I will use for monthly backups. I have another 1Tb external that I will be transferring other stuff to the new 2nd HDD.

Ok, I followed instructions above. All of the values in RegEdit were already at 0 (hex). Set AHCI in Bios, and I am still stuck with bootup screen saying "no bootable device, insert disc and press any key - yadda yadda yadda.

 

If you wanna change from the RAID controller to AHCI, provided that you are NOT using RAID0, this is the way (I did it, and it worked fine... same as above but easier and less to change):


Open up an elevated (run as admin) command prompt and type (copy and paste would be easier):

Hit enter a few times and restart to BIOS.

In BIOS change RAID to AHCI.

Restart a few times and then re-install the latest Intel RST: http://www.station-drivers.com/tele..._rst_11.1.0.1006(www.station-drivers.com).exe.

 

Right now, I cannot boot, as no OS is showing. Only thing I can use is recovery disc which gives me various options such as system restore, or use a system image. I had to use this to get into command prompt. I think there may be a driver issue with change to AHCI. Anyway, I'm still going in circles. Only way to get to any setup screen (BIOS, etc) is with using recovery disc.

 

Change back to RAID?

If that's a no go, it's time to re-install Windows.

 

Recovery disc allows options as mentioned. Recovery disc will NOT eject unless I close it, which prevents me from using system image discs. Windows will not boot from Win 7 install disc.. My Thoughts:
Change back to SATA.
Remove 2nd HDD
Use Ctrl I to reset primary HDD to RAID
Restore System ?
Reinstall 2nd HDD
Try to reboot
Try to activate drive thru System admin.

I was able to boot Win 7 disc after using boot options (F 12) and change to disc. If I have to re install Win 7, can I do it without having to loose data on "C" ? It would be a pain to have to re install all of that, especially considering the Alienware resident programs, new drivers, & some of the data & programs being very important. Is there a way to back up this without the current install of Win 7 being active. I have a portable HDD that can hold it all. Just afraid to get into the new install and wind up at a point of no return. Don't want to have a coulda, woulda, shoulda situation.

 

As a follow up, I got the 2nd drive up & running. Installed all of the divers (I think), and am on my way re-installing software. Factory settings on original drive were set to RAID. I had to change to AHCI, which meant a complete system rebuild. I should have it all back in by tomorrow. Thanks for your help Geo !!!!!

 

Sorry to hear about all your issues. I was having the same problems as you. Thankfully I had an AlienRespawn disk that sent me back to a clean factory install. I still wanted out of RAID settings and found the above guide. At least you will be up and running again soon.

 

I thought I was covered. I had a system restore disk, a system image disk, and a 4 disk system backup. WINDOWS WOULDN'T LET ME USE THEM!!!!!!. I just bought Acronis, and am doing images on one of the external portable drives. Only thing left to do is install, my GOG games, and my Storm Predator software.

 

To use the restore disks, your SATA settings need to be set to what they were originally. For me to use my AlienRespawn disk, I need to change from AHCI back to RAID for it to work.