Question:
Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
I have the system as below :
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Area-51® m5700
CPU - m5700 - Intel® Pentium® M 770 2.13GHz 2MB L2 Cache 533MHz FSB
OS SYS - MCE - Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Centre Edition 2005
Case - 5700 - Alienware® m5700 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD - Xeno Grey
Motherboard - 5500/5700 - Alienware® Intel® 915GM + ICH6 Chipset
Wireless - m5700 - Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 b/g Wireless Card
RAM - m5700 - 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 4200 SO-DIMM @ 533MHz 2 x 1024
HDD - Mobile - 5700 - Single Drive Configuration 80GB 5400 RPM SATA x 2 (no raid)
Video - 5700 - 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 6800
Sound Card - m5700 - Intel Integrated High-Definition Audio
Optical - 5700 - 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW / 24X CD-RW Combo w/Software
Ethernet Nic - 7700 - Integrated 10/1000Mb Gigabit Ethernet NIC
Modem - Mobile - 56K Modem with V.90 Technology - onboard
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when I go to reinstall windows it boots the XP-MCE disk and gets to the point of starting the install and then cannot detect the hard drives.
I suspected and alienware support confirmed that this is because the HDD's are SATA and winXP is not natively picking these up on install.
Alienware support(australia) provided a solution which was creating a new XP install CD using the program 'nlite' which allows you to customise a windows installation including adding new drivers to startup. Alienware provided an inf file with ata/raid drivers and I made the nlite XP version as recomended. However the same problem... still not detecting HDD's.
Alienware provided an older version of nlite, so I tried the latest version from the nlite website baut again the same issue.
I never though a windows reinstall would be such a painfull process...
anyone have any ideas???
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
Look in the BIOS for an option to turn off native SATA on the computer. That might fix your problem.
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
already looked for that...
Unfortunately the Alienware BIOS is very limited and for a company that markets itself to enthusiasts has very little in the way of advanced (or even intermediate) BIOS features.
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
I think it is the second screen of the installation you will see at the bottom
"Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver...".
Did you use this option?
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
i cant use that option because it requires a floppy drive.... which i do not have.
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
what is the SCSI or RAID driver? it says that to me too but i skiped it.
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
did u check out that site i gave u?? i might help u.
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
I cant skip it...
The file i was provided by alienware and tried to integrate into the install with nlite is called VIAMRAID.INF
the contents of this file are as follows, I am no coder, but maybe someone here might have an idea...
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; VIAMRAID.INF for winxp
; All rights reserved by VIA Technologies, Inc. 2003
[Version]
CatalogFile=viamraid.cat
signature="$CHICAGO$"
Class=SCSIAdapter
ClassGUID={4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
Provider=%VIA%
DriverVer=04/08/2005, 5.1.2600.430
[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 12 ; DIRID_DRIVERS
CopyRAID.NT = 12;
[ControlFlags]
[Manufacturer]
%VIA%=VIA
[VIA]
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3249.DeviceDesc% = viamraid , PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3249
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3149.DeviceDesc% = viamraid , PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3149
%PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164.DeviceDesc% = viamraid , PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164
[VIAMRAID.NT]
CopyFiles=CopyRAID.NT
Reboot
[VIAMRAID.NT.Services]
AddService = viamraid, 2, viamraid_Service_Inst, Miniport_EventLog_Inst
[VIAMRAID_Service_Inst]
ServiceType = 1 ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType = 0 ; SERVICE_BOOT_START
ErrorControl = 1 ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
ServiceBinary = %12%\viamraid.sys
LoadOrderGroup = SCSI Miniport
AddReg = pnp_pci_addreg
[pnp_pci_addreg]
HKR, "Parameters\PnpInterface", "5", 0x00010001, 0x00000001
[Miniport_EventLog_Inst]
AddReg = Miniport_EventLog_AddReg
[Miniport_EventLog_AddReg]
HKR,,EventMessageFile,%REG_EXPAND_SZ%,%11%%IOLOGMSGDLL%
HKR,,TypesSupported,%REG_DWORD%,7
[CopyRAID.NT]
viamraid.sys
[SourceDisksFiles]
viamraid.inf = 1
viamraid.sys = 1
[SourceDisksNames]
1 = %DISKNAME1%,,,,
2 = %DISKNAME2%,,,,
[strings]
VIA="VIA Technologies, Inc."
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3249.DeviceDesc="VIA VT6421 RAID Controller"
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3149.DeviceDesc="VIA SATA RAID Controller"
PCI\VEN_1106&DEV_3164.DeviceDesc="VIA VT6410 RAID Controller"
REG_EXPAND_SZ=0x00020000
REG_DWORD=0x00010001
IOLOGMSGDLL="\IoLogMsg.dll"
DISKNAME1="VIA RAID Driver Diskette"
DISKNAME2="Windows system"
***************************************
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
did u check out that site i gave u?? i might help u.
I did, thanks for the link, will check it out tongiht from home (work now)
I would prefer however to use my legit version of MCE2005
Answer:
Re: Area-51 m5700 - reinstalling windows - hdd not found
Try putting the drivers on a CD and just swop the CDs over when needed