I need help from some of you M1730 experts, some things are missing thats causing me problems.

Basically i`m trying to do a fresh install of windows, ive had quite a few problems so far.

Ive followed the instructions from the internet as i found a good walk through video on youtube of how to do it which is here, ive jumped to part 2 which is relevant to my question here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgfOlRF8wSM&feature=related

In the advanced boot option screen on F8 the first item should be "Repair your computer", thats missing from my screen, any ideas why ? My first option is Safe Mode.... Repair your computer should be above that, its not on mine.

Also i can`t get in to the Raid set up on boot up, ive tried CTRL + i and ive also tried CTRL -i after the Dell logo, nothing happens.

This is a configuration of my hard drives, i`m no expert but does that look like its not set up in RAID as i want Raid 0.





This is a screen grab i took from the above youtube dell restore video from inside the advanced boot option screen, my M1730 doesn`t have the Repair Your computer option, it starts on safe mode.



If everything was as it should be i`m sure i would have had this done by now, any ideas whats going on as ive exhausted all routes here and i`m totally stuck.

Thanks

 

I would recommend watching this video by ifti:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6g2ZQwKMYI&feature=channel_page

Start around 04:30 since you already have the disks installed.

Also keep in mind that once to enable RAID and set it up, it is going to wipe your harddrive and you will need to install your OS from scratch.

 

Hey stig,

Nope doesnt look like a riad config to me, in the "owners lounge" thread there's a similar question about 10 pages back or so asking the same thing how to set up a raid etc. I'd take a look there first.

 

Thanks gadget, no wonder i didn`t come across that one on youtube as it was under replacing hard drives lol

Does anyone have a link for the Raid drivers i will need to do a fresh install, on that youtube clip it says to have your Raid drivers handy on a memory stick.

 

Stig:

Grab this from Intel...

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...OSs=150&OSFullName=Windows Vista 64*&lang=eng

Extract the file and then save the device drivers to a USB stick. This should take care of you.

 

This video was really useful, ive configured Raid to Raid0 stripe.... I`ll post in a bit what the problem was.

I have one thing that still needs sorting, i can`t connect to the internet via my wireless wi-fi to the router. Ive checked its enabled in the bios and its fine. Its weird that their were no wi-fi drivers on the dell driver disc that i could spot.

Ive installed the following Wireless driver but its still not working

http://support.euro.dell.com/suppor...-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=5&fileid=220548


Any ideas, i`m almost their, the excitement of having a working laptop is killing me, honest lol

 

Everything is hunky dorey now Ive set up my hard drives in Raid0 stripe, ive done a fresh install of windows which went perfect and i`m fully connected to the net.

The main problem i had was i couldn`t access the Raid control panel and my hard drives were showing up as 2 seperate drives, on boot it wasn`t showing the Raid drive info just after the dell logo either which is where you normally go to access the Raid control panel so it was a bit of a head scratcher for a while.

I followed the youtube video above on installing hard drives and Raid, the bit i was getting caught out by was it said on the video to disable the Flash Cahe Module, that was fine and no problem. It then said go to Sata Operation and enable Raid, my Raid was already enabled so i thought fine thats no problem.


Several re-boots later i still couldn`t access the Raid control panel, i thought Hmmm this is a weird one as ive followed the instructions. I then went back into the bios on F2 and while i was in the Sata Operation i thought i would just try out of curiosity to disable Raid, hey presto the Raid control panel came up.

It looks like you have to physically change a setting in Sata control for Raid to recognise that it has to bring up the Raid control panel even if it says enabled as per the instructions on the video.

Everything after that went like a charm, setting up Raid0 stripe was easy and so was re-installing windows after along with the Dell drivers.

In a way i`m glad ive come across these problems as i can now set up Raid which i couldn`t do before and i`m a lot more competent in this area, i guess sometimes you need to get stuck in at the deep end to learn anything

I now have my new M1730 set up in Raid with a fresh install.

Thanks to those who helped and gave me info and advice.

 

Glad you got it sorted