Missing Operating System after A07 update

Hi guys,

I already have nearly 3 months with my Alienware M17xR2, 2 disk of 500GB SATA, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 1Gb ATI Radeon Mobility HD 5870 Crossfire X; and the performance of this beauty is ok, but not outstanding.

After reading yours last 30 post, I took a chance to see my BIOS version and I had A05 (but there is an A07 version) so I enter dell support, look for A07 and download it, install it and the machine turn off when finish.

Now i turn my lovely laptop on and it says "Missing Operating System"... After i cried, i run to find a solution, so i enter the BIOS setup and switch the order of the Hard Drives in the BOOT menu (it had S1 first, then S6... I switch them), the same error this time after trying to stable a link "Operating System Nor Found"...

So without any hope (cuz the chat online with Dell is off ATM), i enter the Windows CD and boot from it, after choosing the language it ask where i want to install it and i just see one disk of 500GB (not 2)... I quit the instalation and try to look for help. Is there any solution? i don't want to loose my information (don't know how Dell Data Safe works)...

BTW in the BIOS Setup Menu, i have A07 BIOS, 2 SATA disk of 500 gb, Diagnostics from f12 didn't get any errors, running resources dvd now, no errors for now...

Did my HDD fried up ???

PS: Sorry for bad writing, english isn't my native language.

 

Hi there,

Sounds like your 2 hdds might be in a RAID setup. Your Hdds should be fine.

If so you can try going back into the BIOS and change the hard drive setting to RAID. Then go and enable all the RAID array settings for each hard drive. After you have enabled all the RAID hard drive settings save and reboot.

You should have your Operating System back in normal working order. Cheers.

 

You DID save my life .

I put SATA in the BIOS menu, then enabled Raid 0 AND Raid 1 (Don't know if this is ok, when i just enable Raid 1 it said INCOMPATIBLE and did't find the operating system), but now i'm in Windows normally. Thanks you very very much!!!

 

No worries,

Happy to hear that your OS is back and in working order. Your Hdds are setup in a RAID 0 array then. Don't worry about RAID 1 that is another RAID setup. All is well. Just remember to enable your hdds in RAID 0 through the bios next time if you ever change or update the BIOS again. Cheers.

 

This will always happen when updating the BIOS. For RAID users, you will have to go back into the BIOS settings and set the system to use RAID.

 

Would be nice of Dell to include a note to state this when they release a new bios update - this one bit me on the bum too.....i thought it was a starightforward download and run the .exe....little did i know that i hhad to go back into bios and enable raid configs etc.

Maybe they should include a note in the release info?

 

you also have to remember that this is considered and enthusiast/gaming/HIGH end machine and would expect/assume, that most people interested in buying the m17x are technically inclined, and would know the subtleties of changing the bios. obviously this is a generalization of purchasers, but a fairly accurate one IMO.

 

I agree to a degree.....but you do get people buying ferrari's who cant drive them!.....

 

Yes that would be great . This happened to me also on my R1

 

Simple things make for an easier life for all of us dont ya think!