M17 x R2 (cant configure Raid )

Hi
My M17 x R2 came originally with 2 Hard drives and Raid 0

I had problem in the motherboard, so had to change it

The problem now is when i try to install new Windows I cant find the drive at all and i dont have any drivers

Can anyone help me here pleaseeeee
thanks

 

1st I've got to ask the basics: Do you have the bios configured for Raid (or ?). Are you doing a clean install for a particular reason (because just changing the MOBO & keeping you original drives should work fine - assuming that the Bios is configured for what ever way the disks were configured for in the 1st place).

 

yes i configured the bios to RAID
i cant tell how it was
when i try to install a fresh windows i cant see any drive on my drives list!!!
what to do

 

Can you see the drives listed in the Bios (advanced tab)? IF yes - good. If not then it's a bad Mobo (or poor connection somewhere). As I mentioned before, if you just replaced the Mobo, then it should work with everything else the same. So my next question is - have you tried to simply boot up without trying to do a fresh install? Have you changed anything else?

Where I'm going with this - is the need to verify that your new Mobo (with its new disk controller, etc.) is any good. So perhaps before introducing anything else new - you should simply boot from what you had - if you can't then you've got a fundamental HW problem (bad Mobo, poor connection etc.)

 

Yes I can see it in the BIOS
When I change the configuration of the BIOS to AHCI i see one drive only in the Installation list of Win7
when I make it Raid 0 I see none

I installed a fresh windows 7 as AHCI and saw both disks they both visible from windows, when I try to Install fresh windows again i dont see Disk 0 ( incase of AHCI) and I can NOT see both Disk 0 and Disk 1 (incase of RAID 0)

pleaseee helppppp

 

If I've understood your answer correctly - you successfully installed Win 7 in AHCI. And could See both drives in Windows.
Here are my questions & thoughts:

​

Could you see both disks from "Computer" icon or from within the "Disk Management" app?

​

Could you read & write to the HDD that didn't have the OS?
The reason for both of these questions is: Assuming you were on a Raid 0 config before you did the rebuild. When you switched to AHCI & installed Win 7 - you would have reformatted the drive that the OS installed on. The other drive would not be usable (because its format was that of half of your Raid config) UNTIL you format it.

I'm not sure why your trying to install Win 7 yet again, unless you're trying to get back to Raid. If that's the case - Did you for sure set up ALL the Raid settings in the Bios. Remember that there's the initial selection (RAID vs AHCI etc. And then there'individualivdual drive setup. Did you do that 2nd part. (I've attached a couple of Bios screen shots just to be sure we're sharing the same understandings).

 

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanks
you awsome

i have formated the drives by Smart FDisk utility from Hirens CD

and now i can see them as RAID

thanks heaps

the only problem now is that i cant restore my old Windows 7 Image,
I get Windows did not find any disk which it can use for recreating volumes present in the backup.could it be due to losing the Recovery Partition from DISK 0?
if so how to resolve this..
your help is much appreciated

 

Hi ASMGX, I'm glad I could help. If your Win 7 restore image was on any of the drives you formatted, then yes you lost it. I hope that your user files were backed up externally (i.e. USB or eSata drive).

If you've now got a Win 7 clean install. And you're at the point where you can get your system back to the look & feel of an M17x R2. The are a couple of threads on this forum that talk to the order of the drivers to be installed & such. Here's one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/519477-help-reinstalling-os-win7-drivers.html

My #1 recommendation is to ensure you download the latest drivers from Dell. Because other than the Chipset, I think just about every other one that's one you resource disk is down level from what's available today. Good Luck!

 

i do have the image files on external hard disk
but the problem i cant restore it

I start getting this error : The disk that is set as active in BIOS is too small to recover the original system disk

i tried the hard disk formated, and then partitioned it, then did every possible scenarios i can think about, yet i still get the same active in BIOS error
any help?

 

I don't know if this is applicable to your case or not. But it sounds like you were in Raid 0 - Let's say you have two 500 GB HDD's - in a Raid config that means Windows treats it like a single 1 TB HDD.

Here's the big IF: if you've rebuilt now with non Raid (AHCI - single drive), then Windows sees that you've got a 500 GB drive & a 1TB (1000 GB) image file. This is true even if you're only using a small portion of that 1 TB for your files, I believe Windows keys off of total size of drive, not amount of space used. That's the only thing that comes to mind right now & if that's the case - it's very difficult (I never have gotten it to work) to use a Win restore image to a smaller HDD than the one it used initially.

If the above is true (that you're now on an AHCI & not Raid system), and you're determined to restore the image - then you've got to rebuild yet again on a Raid. Summarizing the assumptions above (which might not be true - as I'm not sure what you've got set up at this point) If there is critical data on your image, perhaps you can simply explore & extract the data you need. Otherwise you may be better off re-installing all your Apps, drivers etc such that you have truly accomplished a clean Win 7 build (which is a good thing).