formatting problem, cant detect mSATA

Hi,

I have an m17x r4, im trying to format my laptop using wintobootic, when its installing windows it doesnt detect the 32gb Sata ssd. i have a hybrid, 32gb cache Sata, and 750gb hdd. The 32gb is for the OS. I tried to include the driver file, but im not sure if its a correct one, the dell site gives me an exe file :s

help XD

 

You said the mSATA is a cache and if it is a cache then it is not for the OS but is used to 'accelerate' the HDD. If the HDD is a hybrid then the cache is built-in to the drive and is not accessible by you.

What drives do you have installed?

 

Yeah, the drive IS being used but most software will not see it. It's the RAID firmware controlling this.

If you really wanted to slow down your HDD for a dedicated SSD you go into the bios and change the drive mode from RAID to AHCI. Remember though you are taking an important decision here. If in future you want to RAID drives or use the acceleration feature (as it's set right now) a full reinstall will be needed, in RAID mode.

Good luck

 

I guess u guys are correct. its on RAID, i dont want to change anything, i just want to format it, and im quite nooby with this unfortunately, any tips on how to do so?

 

Install to the HDD as normal. It will work as before. If you want a little extra speed (not a lot in my experience) then buy an SSD and pop it into the spare bay.

You don't get to format it, it's in a special format already. You can disable it without loosing future RAID. Use the hotkey sequence that pops up before the BIOS screen. You can turn off the acceleration there but leave the RAID drivers. Now it will appear.

Personally I'd just install without any changes and start saving the pennies

 

thanks!

but heres the problem, when im installing windows, it doesnt detect the driver for the hard disk, i dont know which driver to download, or how to place it on the usb, i tried a few but it still wasnt detected.
also, after installing it on the hard drive, does the sata work automatically?

 

Easy one. Download the version of IRST from dell and expand it onto a usb drive. Point the installer at it and you should then see RAID driver.

Edit: As long as you don't change and drive positions or bios settings it just works in the background .

 

awesome, thanks a lot for your help!
i downloaded the intel rapid driver (its an exe) is that the correct one?

 

Yes. Run it and the exe will expand the files. If the installer starts just cancel out of it and copy the files from wherever it expanded them (it will tell you). You need to run the exe in the installer files from inside windows to complete the installation later.

 

new error: "no new devices could be found. make sure the driver files are correct and located on the driver installation media"

 

hold on i think i found a fix

 

Strange. I just tried it, selected extract only and it was there in a sub folder. You used this one: Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver Driver Details | Dell US ?

This is inside the win 7 installer?

K, let me know

 

Yeah i used this, it appeared to run when installing the new windows, but after the bars finished running, it gave me that error :S

 

Refresh, this is unusual!

You get setup screen for the drive to install to in win 7 installer? Does it show any disk driver. You have to press a key (I think it is F8) to select a different driver. It then says Intel Raid SATA (of very similar).

 

Right, now I think I know what is happening, you are somehow running the exe inside the installer? You need to select the driver as above and point the search that comes up at the USB you copied the expanded IRST files to.

 

U r the man, I pressed f8 before navigating to the driver, then i did the same thing, and it found the hard disks. Even alienware support couldnt do anything (then again it was the out of warranty support).

last question, and forgive me for not searching enough on this part, but you seem to konw a lot (sugoi!)
what is the order of drivers that I should install?

 

nevermind, i found this:

1. Chipset
2. Intel Management Engine Interface
3. Intel Rapid Storage technology
4. LAN driver
5. Wireless Driver
6. INTEL/AMD/NVIDIA Display Driver

If you have an M14x or M17x with Nvidia graphics install the Intel HD graphics driver first.


If you can’t install the discrete graphics driver on the M18x you need to press Fn+F7, select yes and reboot. This will enable the discrete card and let you install the driver for it (If you’re having trouble with an AMD card you need to switch to the iGPU, install the intel driver then switch back to the AMD card and install the catalyst).


7. Audio driver
8. Bluetooth driver
9. Media Card Reader
The following drivers might require Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 support to work properly, you can download it here.
10. Touchpad driver
11. Alienware On-Screen Display driver
12. Alienware Command Center


looks correct to me, any tips?

 

Great news, I was running out of ideas . Only 'seem' ? haha, just messing

Yes, looks fine. I've never followed any specific order, I just let windows do it's thing then work through them in no particular order, apart from chipset first as above - but I don't have Intel graphics. Watch out for the 'Accelerometer' it shows an an unknown device until the driver is installed. It is listed somewhere under the model in dell support.

Let me know how it goes...

Edit post: figured out why it went wrong for you. It was setting the RAID in the config screen before the install. For some reason Win (7 for sure) does not have the intel RAID drivers on it. As long as the RAID bios is loaded win will use a compatibility mode to access the drives. Since you had a RAID array pre-configured it could not see any HD's - until you loaded the driver .

I usually only use the boot config when a problem has occurred - to remove a raid or caching.

 

so i managed to make it work, by luck, and it was fine, i meessed around with the display drivers (never doing that again) and it effed up my windows.

reinstalled windows, this time i wanted to try ahci
ahci is so much easier to install (no raid problems of not finding the disk)
the problem that happened now is, when i install the intel rapid driver, bsod, and i cant open windows ever

question, what do i do, do i ignore the intel rapid driver and just not install it?

 

You can't use it in AHCI. Ignore...

 

ok, ill skip that driver, thanks again for your help

 

ok! laptop is working perfectly now!

theres one thing ive always been curious about (alien support didnt give me a straight answer >_<)
i have switchable graphics, intel hd and amd, from what i understood, if I set the catalyst on high performance for a certain game, then it should automatically power up the amd when i turn on the game.

I tried that, the game (im trying divinity here) is running smoothly, and Im using ultra settings, but the video card that it shows with the setting is the intel.
is it still using amd but not mentioning it in the game?
I would like to avoid switching between the two because it sometimes causes windows to automatically redownload and install drivers which then causes a lot of bugs