m7700 d9t d900t installing xp

hey guys.
i have a 51 m7700 with a single drive ata, i cannot get xp to install it keeps saying "unknown drive" at the partition selection screen on xp setup screen. i asked the previous owner his configurations and he said it was raid setup with 2 hdds. i only have one so i cant do that. is it possible to install xp using ata on this machine or do i need to purchase a sata cable with sata hdd? thanks for help.

 

Welcome to nbr,

another member asked the same exact thing last night.
I posted there how to make the drive accessible by windows.

Here is the link:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309931

The driver is needed because the sata driver also has the same chipset driver for the ata storage system on the d900t laptop. You need the driver for the system to see the harddrive.

good luck, let me know if you need any other information.

K-TRON

 

You may use the following non-RAID drivers. Each 7700 (D900) comes with a USB floppy drive for such an occasion. These drivers are to be loaded on a floppy disk and when prompted at setup to press F6, do so and you will be given the instructions to load these drivers.

http://aliendl.alienware.com/mobile/7700/7700_NonRAID_1.00.0.29.zip

Thank you

 

ok i have tried these steps and i get the same message during "windows xp professional setup" it says "the following list shows the existing partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer" but below it says " unknown disk <there is no disk in this drive.>" 4 times. and if i press anything it takes me to blue screen indicating "stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xF77F09A8, 0xF739B75C, 0x00000000)

 

i just installed linux and it installed fine, but xp will not install.

 

i found another site that said the unknown disks are my card reader, so i disabled that and now im getting "setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer." how am i able to install linux but windows isnt finding my harddrive?

 

are you installing the correct drivers from your floppy disc.
In the link I attached, I posted a instruction sheet which you should look at.

You may also want to go into the Bios and set to boot from the harddrive.
If the bios does not recognize the internal harddrive their is a problem with the harddrive.
If the drive is picked up by the Bios, than you may need to reconfigure the drive with the Raid controller.
Press TAB after the bios loads and you can get into the RAID manager.

K-TRON

 

i did exactly as the link you posted. explain more about boot from harddrive. it keeps saying bios not installed, it goes to mobo bios. i have never worked on an alienware laptop before so i dont know what i am looking at or for or what to compare it to. how can i tell if my harddrive is being detected??? it installed linux shouldnt that say something???

 

when you press the power button, thee blue light around the button lights up.
Than an alienware screen should come up.
Press F2 and than you will get into the BIOS.
On the first page it will say what harddrives and optical drives are present.
Than on the last page of the Bios is a boot menu chart.
Select boot to optical drive as first device, bootable usb FDD as second and than harddrive as third.

Than hit save and exit and the system will restart.
Than you can either proceed to xp installation and the whole press F6 and loading chipset files from a floppy, or you can press tab after the bios boots to get into the raid manager.
In their you will want to select the disc and press the option called "delete array"
that will format the drive making the drive available to the system.
Than you can just save and exit and proceed to install XP.

K-TRON

 

my main bios screen shows only ide0:cdrom ide1:none.

 

ok i took out a working harddrive and put it in and it still shows the same thing in the bios and says the same thing during boot up.

 

So the bios and the raid manager are not finding the harddrive?
Are you sure that the ATA cable is thoroughly connected to the motherboard?
I do not see how Linux could install if the Bios cannot find the harddrive.
The only thing i could say is try updating the Bios to version 1.00.09 or in the Bios try setting the Bios back to defaults and see if it picks it up

K-TRON

 

sorry about the linux thing, my help said it was installed but it was running from cd, and when i did the actual linux install it couldnt find the hard drive. i switched hard drives and i switched cables, i used nlite to put drivers on the cd and nothing is working, is the controller busted on the mobo? do i need to buy a new one or can i fix this?

 

your actual harddrive cable may be the problem.

The cable has two ata harddrive connectors, and than the one connector which fits into the motherboard.
Their is a small plastic pull strand on it.
You should remove the cable and look at it closely to see if their are any rips on the cable.
Chances are that the cable is defective, if the drives are working in another computer.
You can also check each wire on the cable with the resistance settings on a voltmeter. It will beep if the wire is good.
If even one wire is split, the drive will not be recognized.

I just bought a box of assorted d900 parts from a guy on hardforum, and it has an ata harddrive cable included. If yours is dead I could sell you mine when I get it in the mail.

K-TRON

 

explain more about the volt meter so i can do the settings and all, i think i may know which to use but explain which to set it on please thanks. i got 2 cables and 2 hard drives, so i hope both are not busted

 

i figured it out, and on the same location on both of them the pins are sorta pushed in and the volt meter is not reading those pins, how much will you sellyours to me?

 

I have not received the part yet in the mail, but when I do I can figure out how much it will cost.
Send me a PM by clicking on my K-TRON username. We can discuss more their.

K-TRON

 

Hey im having the same problem. The hard drives wont recognize. Should i just buy a new hdd cable and see if that works??

 

I just sold my IDE cable to M1SCreation, and from what he said, the new cable is working perfectly for him.
Unfortunately I dont have any more IDE cables around for sale, so you are going to have to buy one off the internet and they usually go for $80.

Link to SATA drive cable: (I think I have one, so if you need a SATA one, send me a PM)
http://www.excelcomputerinc.com/html/details.asp?ref=621&category=caddys

Link to IDE drive cable:
http://www.excelcomputerinc.com/html/details.asp?ref=676&category=caddys

Are your drives being recognised by the Bios?
If they are, than you are most likely not installing the proper SATA drivers for when XP is installing.
If the drives are not recognized by the Bios, you need to get a new cable

K-TRON

 

The drives are not seen in the bios but I have ordered a new cable and it should be here tomorrow so I will see if that fixes the problem. Also I have tried to install windows XP to an external drive and after copying the files and the restart it blue screens. Is it even possible to install XP on and external drive on one of these laptops??

 

I have never tried to install XP on an external device, so I couldnt answer that.
If the Bios does not see the harddrives, their is one of three problems:
1) the cable is bad, and needs replacing (you will find out soon, when you get the new cable)
2) the harddrives are bad (pretty unlikely)
3) your motherboard is dying

Hopefully the new cable will work for you.

You can test each harddrive in a desktop, or a external enclosure to see if they work. That could solve the second question.

K-TRON

 

Ok when I get the cable how should I set up my hard drive in terms of jumpers and placement? I'm using 1 ide drive. Thanks for your help.

 

If you are using IDE drives, you dont need any jumpers
The system will automatically see the harddrive in cable select mode when no jumpers are set.
Only a few IDE drives have jumpers, so if you have the option, set the drive to master.

K-TRON

 

yeah I tryed it with jumpers and without. Every once in a while it will see the hard drive and I was able to get xp installed but then sometimes the drive will disapear and not show up. Looks like I néed to think about geting a new mobo.

 

The problem is still occuring with the new IDE cable?
If so, than yeah its definitely something motherboard related.
You may want to get a new motherboard, but its going to be expensive.
Z-TRONICS has the best D900K and D900T motherboard prices.
http://www.ztronics.com/motherboards/alienware-laptop.html

Just make sure to buy the same or newer motherboard revision.

K-TRON

 

I am having the same problem... I am testing my IDE cable right now, and I am getting some strange results (like on pin 19 there are more than 3 connections on the top cable), can anyone tell me which pins connect to what? (from drive connector (top) to motherboard connector)

Or point me in the direction of someplace I can find out.

thanks!

 

FYI
I found this out the hard way, I ran into a problem where my floppy drive would not load the raid drivers on the 2nd attempt [Brand New Drive]. 2nd attempt meaning after you pressed F6 to load the drivers it would load the drivers see the hard drives and once it was done formatting it would continue to the copying files stage, this is where mine would not see the floppy drive anymore even though the drivers were loaded previously. Here is what I found out to be the fix. A different Floppy Drive, ya I know I was surprised that my sony floppy drive would not work but a Generic Floppy drive from Micro Center did the trick.

 

Why not just get a new IDE cable from eBay, I have an IDE cable but I am in need of the SATA version. I have 2 D9T's [1 is Alienware the other is Imperial] So if anyone wants to trade an IDE for a SATA send me a PM! Also I was thinking of setting up an FTP for ISO's if anyone is interested in sharing some images!

 

Hey if your going to upgrade why go IDE when SATA is faster and you are not limited to IDE GB capacity. I was looking for some parts on eBay and found motherboard's ranging from 75-200.

 

External drivers do not work, I attempted to install on USB hard drive and it blue screen's at startup!

 

You can only install the floppy drives from a Mitsumi, Teac or SmartDisc floppy Drive. They are the only three brands which are certified by Microsoft.
These three brands are the only manufacturers of XP certified floppy drives. So if you need to install floppy drivers, you need one of these drives.
Other manufacturers will not work.

K-TRON

 

Ya I figured that out the hard way, I searched the forums and didnt find anything on it so that why I decided to add it in. I hope it helps someone else down the road. I still cant believe the Sony didnt work!

 

Me too, I couldn't figure it out, until I emailed a bunch of Clevo resellers. Clevo and Sager both told me that Teac, Mitsumi and SmartDisc are the only brands which work

Good luck,

K-TRON