AW M17 with RAID0 and W7 x64 Fails

Hey guys,

I'm not sure whether this's the right thread to post so feel free to redirect me for future posts.
My question is....I've been trying to install Windows 7 x64 Ultimate on my Alienware M17 with RAID0 (which was orginally shipped with 32bit Vista Ultimate.

I bought 2 WD 750GB hdds and installed them and configured RAID0(striping) in the BIOS and also chose some other option (128K or something...).
After exiting from the BIOS and with the W7 DVD in the slot, I get this:

Boot AHCI CD-ROM:

Then the Windows drivers start loading up and the installation continues until the very end (Completing setup or Installation) and I get the message:

"Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware."

I've Googled for this error and many people have got this but none of their solutions seem correct for me....such as modifying the HDDs from SATA to ATA or something similar as in my BIOS there isn't much room for modifying anything.

I've successfully used this DVD to setup Windows 7 on an individual harddisk and had no issues, but this RAID setup is causing issues.

I'm stuck with this and I was really looking forward to use my 2 750GB WD hdds and RAID for performance.

The rest of the spec is pretty much the default..

4GB RAM, 512 MB ATI Mob Radeon HD 3870.


Please help!!


Thanks

 

It could well be simply that the dvd doesnt have a raid driver. There is a way to load a custom driver i believe - you may want to google this.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did read about the drviers for the RAID controller which I believe is the JMicron JMB36X. I took the drivers out of the AW support CD on put it on an USB device and when I was asked to choose the drive to install W7 I clicked 'Load Drivers' and choose the JMicron inf file and the drivers were loaded.
But agian its the same error at the end of installation.

The strange this is, I tried to install the OEM Vista 32bit on this RAID drive and it got installed without any issues! However I had the problem where the Windows Updates were failing to be found with error 2048A000.
I'm not sure what other drivers I'd need for Windows 7 x64bit.

Thanks

 

Go back to Vista and see if you can get the M17 raid utility running.

http://redirectingat.com/?id=525X83...6562-official-alienware-m17-drivers-page.html

 

From what I remember with Vista+RAID0, I've installed the Intel Matrix Storage utility and was able to successfully run this tool and I could see the 2 drives and other bits and pieces of info.

Is this utility similar to the Intel one as I've to go back and do the whole lot again with Vista 32bit.?

One other thing probably to mention is, sometimes when the W7 dvd is put in and I'm about to install W7 on the RAID, I see Windows Setup (EMS enabled).
But the last time I tried installing W7 on the RAID, I didn't see this and I thought maybe it would install successfully but I was wrong..it failed at the last step.

 

It honestly may be better for you to get Vista reinstalled and try to install 7 as an OS upgrade while you already have RAID setup.

 

yeah I did think of it but the problem is, my Vista is 32bit and W7 is 64bit, so there's no option to upgrade, only a clean install.
i don't know whether to go to Dell/AW support or MS. I think Dell wouldn't support it as my system wasn't shipped with W7 x64 and that too no RAID.

Any thoughts on who to approach?

Cheers

 

first things first is you windows 7 disk clean

also cheq that both of the new drives you are using are fine

i'm using a windows 7 upgrade disk the first ones that came out straight from microsoft when the upgrade program started and the way it work the raid is completely invisible to windows until you install the raid driver


if the driver is really causing issue on you system it's availible on intel's web site as rapid storage

 

Yes the windows 7 disk is clean as I've used the disk to install the OS on a couple of other hdds.

The new HDDs that I bought are also fine because I've installed Vista 32bit successfully on RAID0 using these HDDs (however I had Vista update issues as mentioned above).

So the DVD is fine and the new HDDs are also fine.

I believe Windows 7 does see the RAID since when the installation starts, I was given the option to choose the disk drive to install the OS on which was the combined diskspace of the 2 HDDs and where there's the option of either creating a new partition or load drivers.

BTW, I've also tried to create a new partition and install W7 on it but that failed too with the same.

I'll burn another copy of W7 professional x64 that I have and will try and install..but I have a bad feeling that it'll end up with the same.....

 

It may come down to undoing the RAID setup so that you just have 2 HDD's drives and then trying to do a clean install of 7 to be followed by the RAID setup

 

yeah but i just want to understand the concept of what's required for setting up W7 x64 on RAID because Vista 32bit had no issues on the RAID.

What would I achieve by installing W7 on the new HDDs w/o RAID? just to see if the hdds allow W7 installation?

Anyway, I'll try and do that just to rule out but this's really bugging me...

I've read on some posts of changing SATA from AHCI to RAID or something similar...I don't remember seeing this option in my BIOS (v14)..

Ok going to remove the current HDDs and continue with W7 install on individual disks and try out with the new W7 pro x64 disk.....will update later.

 

I have previously installed W7 64bit and 2 HDD's in RAID0 without additional drivers on my M17. It worked out of the box.

I would suggest destroying your RAID0 setup and recreating it and then trying it again.

Make sure to format your HDD's (full) in Windows setup.

Worth a try..

 

bharathm17, I just did this around the time of your first post, if you haven't got the answers your looking for let me know and I'll tell you how I did it. I also upgraded to 8GB (4GBx4GB) of RAM.

 

have you configured the raid array correctly? for me it seem like the most plosible option

 

Hi,

im from Germany and i have the same problem, that i can´t reinstall the system withe a normal Windows7 DVD.

But the Ailienware support Germany knows the reason:

On the DVD from Windows is one Driver Missing:

Intel® RST-Driver (Version 10.1)

you must download it to a Stick from Dell-homepage: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=19601

Wen you start installation from DVD you must klick on "Install more Driver from CD" ( i gess it in the Menu, where you can choose the Partition)

After you install the system whith this small driver, the system will run ' )

 

did it fix the issue for you ? normally even the first windows 7 CDs have a version of the diver cause mine had one and i recieved it the day windows 7 came out

 

I had no problem installing windows 7 professional from the "upgrade" dvd, im on raid-0 and x64