M17x R3 clean install , need some help urgent guys please

Hi guys
just installed my vertex 2 SSD and a 500GB HDD, installed wind 7 premium that came with pc , now at my first attemp got stuck on 2 things
first the wifi driver for dell wireless 1501 dowloaded extracted but then nothing happen it just opens the folder were it was decompresssed and there's no setup option just a bunch of files .sys and .dll.
now isssue to, the second HDD ( the 500GB ) does not show up under windows, i tough it would just a be a driver but soon as i installed the Intell Rapid Storage driver the pc just froze and balck screen came up.

so decided to start fresh again install windows 7 again , but bf4 i move on i hope someone can help, dont really want to spend hours on the phone to dell right now .

 

I have a thread with all the steps I used to install an SSD and RAM in my R3. Thread is here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/576373-guide-my-new-m17xr3.html

There is a guide on how to do a clean windows install. Follow those steps exactly as written. I used the Resource CD to load the drivers instead of downloading from Dell and everything worked flawlessly. I had to skip USB 3.0 driver installation until after LAN was installed because there is no driver on my resource CD.

I also had the issue with the second HDD. Problem was I deleted the partitions without reformatting the hard drive. I had to take the Hard Drive to a different laptop and recreate the partitions for windows to see it again.

 

On the wifi what you need to do is go to the device manager, right click on the wifi card, click update driver, use the "have disk..." method and locate the .inf in the driver folder to install. The hdd issue may be that you haven't reformatted the drive, you can either reformat it in the Windows install menu when you're installing or using the DISKPART portion of the CMD prompt. The Windows 7 install format utility is pretty straight forward, if you want to do the CMD prompt way let us know and someone can explain it.

 

cheers gonna have a go at the wifi driver now, i did format the ssd then deleted the partion, ill have a another go now

thanks

 

where will it be the wifi card ? and network adapters i only see bluetooth device ( personal area network) and bluetooth device ( RFCOMM protocol TDI )

 

Then something is wrong, it should show up under network adaptors. Do you see an unidentified device anywhere with a yellow question next to it?

 

ya 2 of them

 

It may be 1 of those 2 items, mine shows 1 which I still have no idea what it is. Try to do the update driver method on those, especially if either has a description. If that doesn't work then something else is wrong either with the Windows install(not likely) or the hardware itself.(mobo connection or wifi card).

 

Just install the rapid storage again and its freezing again
gonna put the stock HDD back on and the ssd on slot 2 and format it that way see it fixes this issues , im getting stress with this now grrrr

 

You can't install the Intel RST drivers on it with an OCZ drive, there's a thread on here that the OCZ drives and Intel drivers don't agree with each other. Honestly what I would recommend is this:

1-reinstall and format and create new volumes when in the Windows install

2-install drivers as I recommended

3-DO NOT install the Intel RST drivers but install everything else, also make sure you don't install from the disk, download the newest drivers from the Dell drivers page

4-your problems should be fixed at that point.

 

and shall i do it in raid or AHCI ? i done in AHCI but the second drive does not show up on My Computer, but if i got to device manager is there lol this is insane lol

 

I'd just leave it in RAID since that's the default if you ever need to reset your cmos/bios, it doesn't actually enable RAID 0/1 until you go into the Intel Raid controller menu with the RST drivers installed. If it shows up in device manager but not in my computer that means it's not formatted as an actual drive it's just blank unformatted space, it will also show up in DISKPART as well.

 

like dane said go into diskpart and assign a drive letter for it, then it will show up in windows.

 

both drives are now working had to format both while instaling the windows deleted all particions then formated and its all go , now lets go for the drivers cant wait to see the r3 booting on ssd .

one quick question i tried the powercfg but dont seem to work what is the acutal command i have to type??

 

All done guys, my R3 is working a dream, thank you very much for all your help, now just for to restore the Alienware feel ( avatar, theme , ect)

overall experience of a fresh clean on the are R3 - was a bit trickier than on my sxps1645 ie the wifi driver not having a setup file and having to do it over device manager.
2 unknow devices, worked out one was the free fall sensor and the other was the wifi card.
also not using the rapid storage with my ocz ssd just the freefall sensor with i turn off as adviced buy forum user jywang under the thread "M17xR3 clean install SSD instructions and recommendations " this post was very usefull, running my ocz ssd and my wdc hdd in ahic .

so once again thank you very much for all the help
hoping to help someone next with my experience