Reflashed BIOS on m17x R3 - now my disks are not RAID compatible, what should I do?

Hi everyone,

I have bricked my BIOS by playing with graphics options and succesfully reflashed it following a guide here at the forums (USB into esata). However, now when the laptop starts it states that no disks are RAID compatible. Then it goes to the Alienware login screen (with the head) and than to a black screen that says:

An operating system wasnt found. Try disconnecting any drivers that dont contain an opperating system.
Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

What should I do? I can go into BIOS and change it back to AHCI, but I think I will have to reinstall the operating system. Wont I? I dont want to loose all my data on those two hard drives (SSD + regular drive).

If there is no other way but to change it back and reinstall - how would I go about saving my data from those two drives?

Thank you very much!

 

Ok,

Make a bootable usb drive with your current O/S(Assuming windows) on it.
Then go into boot options in bios and bootup from the usb with the operating system on it, like you are going to install fresh new copy of windows on new Hard drive.

Assuming it's windows 7 then let it work/do it's stuff and once in select repair windows operating system. From memory there are two options on that screen one fresh install and the other repair.
Select repair and let it do it's stuff and then it will ask for you to reboot and viola you should be back to normal, booting up your windows assuming you have this OS.

Good luck.

 

Thanks - so by doing this it will go back to AHCI? or will the system adjust itsef to RAID? And I wont loose any data?

 

If you select repair it won't delete the files in the HDD. Have you tried just changing it to AHCI manually? If the O.S was installed on AHCI and the BIOS flash switched it to RAID it won't boot.

 

I have tried switching to AHCI and I get this message:

"An operating system wasn't found. try disconnecting any drivers that dont contain an operating system."

Any pointers? In BIOS I see both the HDD and the SSD normally.

 

Hmmm
That does not sound good and possibly the hdd has been wiped.

Your best and final option would be to mount the ssd 1st in primary hard drive bay and remove the other drive.
See if it detects the O/S on that SSD.

If it does NOT then sadly a reformat of the drive will be required in ahci and re-install your o/s.
Unless you have access to another notebook and can put your ssd as a secondary drive to access any files on that drive there is little much else that can be done here. Seem the flashing has resorted to major FUBAR of the SSD drive. Hope your non SSD drive is safe and files intact.

Good luck.

 

The SSD was the main drive in the main bay - dont know if it makes any difference.

two last questions:
1) if I reformat it - I assume I can downgrade from win8 to win7? I got sick of that driver non-compatibility that drove me into this mess
2) Is there really no other way to pull the data from those two hard drvies?

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help!

 

For instance - could I try doing this: Extracting data from a dead laptop with a laptop hard drive adapter | TechRepublic, http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop10.htm or just simply buying an adapter for IDE/SATA to USB -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrevfOXV3Pk ?

 

Yes you could easily do that and see if anything can be extracted onto another computer with ide connecter.
Good luck