The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Windows 8, M17x R4, and RAID mode

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by shinji257, Jan 13, 2013.

  1. shinji257

    shinji257 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    243
    Messages:
    1,041
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    For some reason I noticed that when the OS is installed in RAID mode (using the load drivers method) that post install the recovery doesn't see the drive at all. I found this out when the ATI driver crashed the system.

    I did determine a workaround though. Since this is essentially Windows PE I was able to use that to figure it out.

    Note: These instructions assume that the drivers are in the root of your flash drive

    1) Open a command prompt in recovery
    2) Insert a flash drive that is formatted as FAT32 and contains the RAID controller drivers.
    3) CD C:
    (This is correct since it doesn't see the OS... the flash drive will get C: if there is nothing else inserted in the usb ports for storage)
    4) drvload iaStorAC.inf

    Now it should indicate the driver has been loaded and you can type exit and press enter to close the box (or click the X).

    The recovery should now recognize the installation and you can proceed from there. Enjoy!

    In the meantime this may be an argument for AHCI mode when installing rather than RAID if you don't need the RAID mode at all.
     
    shinji257, Jan 13, 2013
    #1
  2. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

    Reputations:
    9,436
    Messages:
    58,194
    Likes Received:
    17,902
    Trophy Points:
    931
    I always recommend avoiding raid mode unless you need it, no pesky loader screens during bootup and it avoids issues like the above.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jan 13, 2013
    #2
  3. shinji257

    shinji257 Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    243
    Messages:
    1,041
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    That's true however I plan to eventually get another 750GB Western Digital Black drive and yank out the ODD to put it there. That will allow me to RAID them together for better performance so I have left it enabled. It does give a slight headache above though. I'll admit that. It was also a good lesson on dealing with missing drivers in recovery. Maybe I'll figure out how to integrate them...
     
    shinji257, Jan 13, 2013
    #3