Need SUPER help with laptop

well, its actually the alienware D900T problem
but ah well, thought id just post it here

in any case,
there are several problems
and i only want to format it and re-install windows xp

similar to the problem i have earlier on,
i cant seem to reformat it as during the windows selection screen,
it cant detect ANY hard drive at all!

so, i disable the RAID
but the thing is, it STILL cant detect any hard drive thus i cant install windows

problems include
1st - cant launch .exe file (if i launch an exe file, the install window will appear for 1 second before it closes)
2nd - for some strange reason, ONLY when i enable the RAID can the computer detect the Operating System (windows XP home). If i disable it, it will state that there's no operating system

 

Are the HDD's Sata? Might be the XP Sata problem.

 

Windows XP pre SP2 don't have the SATA driver so that's probably why you can't see your drives. They are controlled by an external SATA controller.

Make an installation with an SP2 CD;
Or during installation, watch the bottom messages. You can hit F6 (IIRC) to put a CD or disk containing the SATA drivers.

 

im thinking you have a RAID configuration setup with SATA drives, and you dont have a slipstreamed xp cd, so you cant see the hard drives? thats how it sounds...

you would only be able to see the OS with RAID enabled, if the OS is installed on a RAID array..most likely it is RAID 0, which needs to read from both drives at the same time, otherwise it cant read half of the information.

you can either slipstream your XP cd with the sata drivers, or try using a USB floppy drive if you have the floppy disk

 

hmmm
well what i did right now is actually
disassemble the 2 HDD on it
and then connect it as a portable HDD to another computer to have it formatted and also to delete its partition

however,
once i placed the 2 HDD back,
when i switch it own, the screen of the laptop just stays black!!!
whats going on? ahhhh~

 

are they SATA hard drives?

 

oh no.....

another Clevo D900T harddrive question that can be answered in the manual.

The Clevo D900T is one of the first notebooks to use dual SATA drives with RAID support.

The only downside is that this notebook required SATA drivers (in the drivers CD or website) when installing XP [even if its not using RAID]... which you had to use with the external USB floppy that came with the system.

- Make sure USB floppy is connected with the floppy disk (w/ SATA drivers in it)
- Boot up the notebook (w/ XP install CD inside optical drive)
- Press F6 as XP installation is starting up and tells you to "press F6 for SCSI or Third-Party..."
- then it will ask you to insert the floppy and choose the drivers for the SATA
- then XP will see the drive(s) for installation.

Done.

 

dang
i dont think i have the floppy disk with the SATA drivers in it though

 

you make the floppy with the drivers

just get a blank floppy, and copy the SATA drivers into it.

 

when windows says press f6 to load drivers...hit f6..it will then ask you which drivers to load from the floppy disk....then you select the drivers and it loads them for the hard drive.

it will see the hard drive after that, and you will be able to format/install windows.

 

actually, no
both the HDD is PATA

i took a picture of the HDD

Shows that its PATA and not SATA right?

back to the main problem
what happened is this now

right now i only have ONE HDD connected to the computer
i wanted to install windows XP but the thing is that they said that they cant detect any volume at all!

it just state 5 unknown drivers there
also, after i switch on the laptop, it states this!


so yeah~
can anyone help me with this problem?
I cant install windows at all

 

im just posting my progress

what happened is that right now i just press CTRL-F
and then what i did was just DELETE that array
and then reboot

windows still cant detect disk
it just state

Unknown Disk
(there is no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(there is no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(there is no disk in this drive)

Unknown Disk
(there is no disk in this drive)

 

I thought you were not using RAID???

go into BIOS (press F2 as the notebook is powering up)
- DISABLE the SATA RAID

the the Unknown Disks are the card reader slots (so you can disable that in the BIOS too if you want)

 

if you havent already, try using just one hard drive installed and see if windows detects it. (try each one, separately) if it does detect them separately (no RAID), then it might be your raid (whatever is allowing you to make the array, software or hardware) card.

what are the different modes available to you? is there any way to put the status of the array "online"?

edit: with the mode as 2+0, it seems to me you have the raid array creating wrong. raid 0 (striping) requires two hard drives of the same size/rpm...do you have this? also, do what Gophn suggested..it is solid advice. then figure out if you can install windows with one drive at a time...worry about RAID after you can install windows.

 

@Gophn
nope
im not using RAID

i disabled it already
and windows still cant detect
this is the settings i used
I went to ADVANCED and choose these settings
- Hyper Threading Technology [enabled]
- Power on Beep [disabled]
- card reader [enabled]
- RAID/ATA mode select [disable]
- display time on LED [enabled]

@pbcustom98
i already removed the other HDD
now it only has 1 HDD inside there
still cant detect

I dont know about this array
its all new to me~

is there a way to disable it?
Argh! Why cant this laptop just act NORMAL???

 

sigh~
what did i do wrong?

here are the settings i used

 

What BIOS revision is this??

in RAID/ATA Mode Select:
- choose ATA Mode

 

i have no idea
how do i check?
thats why i want to update my bios

ok i will try ata mode

 

nope still cant detect
ummmm,
i was thinking if i did the formatting of the HD wrong perhaps?

like, do i format FAT system or stuff?
can you guide me in this gophn?

 

you do not need to format anything.... if the BIOS does not see the HDD then Windows wont either.

You have to use the USB Floppy.... like I told you from before.

You need to get the SATA drivers onto a floppy...etc.

- Make sure USB floppy is connected with the floppy disk (w/ SATA drivers in it)
- Boot up the notebook (w/ XP install CD inside optical drive)
- Press F6 as XP installation is starting up and tells you to "press F6 for SCSI or Third-Party..."
- then it will ask you to insert the floppy and choose the drivers for the SATA
- then XP will see the drive(s) for installation.

Done.

 

this is bad
i have 2 problems
1st - i dont know where to get the SATA drivers from (cd's not included when i got this laptop)
2nd - i dont have a floppy drive
i mean, i HAVE the floppy USB, just not the disk

is there any better way to do it?
perhaps place the drivers onto a USB thumb drive or something?

 

wait
i think i found the CD

ummmm.....
are these the drivers?
which one must i copy?


now....
i dont have a floppy disk
i mean heck, who has it these days

any other way to do it but floppy?

 

copy the stuff in the ATA folder over to a blank floppy

not for this D900T... you will need the floppy disk and USB floppy drive (for XP install)

 

dang it~
looks like i need to get a floppy drive then

argh, why must it be floopy
and cant just be USB drive

 

Vista gave you that option... but XP is old and USB pen drives were not popular then

 

Vista gave you that option... but XP is old and USB pen drives were not popular then

Example: And heres the run down on this page.

(remember you are doing the ATA mode... so skip to step 11)

And then choose the ATA drivers (not the RAID Fastrak)

http://4help.alienware.com/cgi-bin/alienware.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3145&p_created=1102978778&p_sid=u*CathJi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPTAmcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9mbmwmcF9zY2ZfY19sYW5ndWFnZT0yMDUmcF9wYWdlPTEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD1tNzcwMCB4cA**&p_li=&p_topview=1[/URL0]

this is an example of how to do it if your were going to set up RAID

 

Radioshack still sells floppies. I think they're like $10 a pack.

(The day we stop selling floppies is the day I quit.)

 

Problem solved XD
ive already finished with the installation
now the problem is installing vista

please continue discussion in this thread
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=156260&page=3