[Banger-762]

Hi I'm not bad with computers but im not tech either. I am quick to fix things if I know what I'm doing but I don't understand why my computer won't boot off of raid from bios setting.
Back story... I recently tried upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 there was no issues, but I shut my laptop lid at 47%, it was in settings and configuration upgrade portion, it went into sleep mode or hibernation, so I opened it back up and turned it back on but it wouldn't go back to the upgrade after a few minutes of waiting so I restarted it, it went to the Windows recovery but wouldn't recognize any drives, the reason I closed the lid was because I had it set not to turn off when the lid was closed, I had it connected to my TV through hdmi so I knew it wouldn't turn off, but since it was upgrading I guess it changed those settings and I was unaware.
Current issues... Computer won't boot from raid, when I checked other forums I tried tinkering with disk part and I selected to activate partition 3 of disk 1 which was labeled as my OS, idk if that makes any difference at all, that was the only thing that I actually changed and am not familiar with, I had to change my bios to ahci so it would show the drives to even do the previous mentioned.
I have an Alienware m17xr4 with a 750gb hdd, and a 30 gb msata ssd, I reinstalled windows and deleted the old. Windows folder after getting files I wanted.
My questions are: 1 what do I need to do to get my raid working again, and 2 is there any clean up I need to do before I start installing drivers and going about my way of making it back to how I had it before the accident. 3 if there are any links to these questions, those would be much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this

 

[JimE]

If you only have two drives (ie: a 750gb hdd, and a 30 gb msata ssd), you aren't using RAID.

RAID would be multiple HDD's, preferably of the same type and size, configured for speed or data redundancy.

 

[Banger-762]

I could add another drive to the system, but I think it was set up for raid and the sad was to be used as a cache drive, I'm not the most knowledgeable about how raid works in general, than you for the quick reply

 

[JimE]

No reason to add another drive. Just pointing out that you aren't currently running RAID, so any problems that you may be having, it isn't a "RAID" issue.

 

[Banger-762]

I may be mistaken and have posted this in ignorance to be honest, I wasn't sure where this post should be, I will reference shortly the program I was using to manage my drives, I just remember raid being the option my system was using prior to the accident

 

[bassfisher6522]

Your HDD's work in 3 ways by a controller....they are; IDE, SATA/AHCI and RAID.

IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics - IDE is basically the "old" version of AHCI without hot-plugging and NCQ. (This is usually used during the Parallel ATA (PATA) era hard disks)

AHCI - Advanced Host Controller Interface - this is a hardware mechanism that allows the software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices. It offers features such as hot-plugging and native command queuing (NCQ).

NOTE: Now. AHCI mode and IDE mode -- what is it? IDE mode is to give you the greatest compatibility with older operating systems. While AHCI is as I mentioned above, modern version of the IDE -- use AHCI mode if you are running recent operating systems (Windows Vista+ and Linux kernel from 2.6.19+). IDE mode will allow you to connect older operating systems to SATA drives.

As I mentioned above, SATA is Serial ATA, and is the replacement for Parallel ATA (PATA) hard drives.

RAID - This is a storage technology where you combine multiple disks into a "single" unit, depending on the mode, there can be RAID-0 through RAID-6, and each with different configurations of the hard drive. I'll just explain the simple examples: RAID-0 which is striping but no parity or mirroring, this means there is no redundancy for data, If there is a failure on one disk, it will cause the data loss of the entire RAID array. Ex: You have 0110 as data to be written, 01 will go on Disk 1, and 10 will go on Disk 2, allowing for faster read/write access to the data.


reference link: What does AHCI Mode, IDE Mode, RAID Mode, & SATA Mean in the BIOS - Microsoft Community

 

[Banger-762]

I was using the "Intel rapid storage technology driver" raid, that's what the driver support page has listed for my system.
The system boots differently showing no "raid" information when it boots from ahci setting in bios but does under raid setting, which is how my system started for the last 2 years with not one issue.
Do you know if there is another reason for raid to have been selected with my drives set up the way they were when I got it?

 

[bassfisher6522]

You can only use RAID if you have 2 or more HDDs of the same size as mentioned by JimE. Furthermore, you have have to configure the HDDs in the BIOS to set up the RAID. All modern mobo's and OS support RAID....just because you select it doesn't mean you are using it.

On top of all this you have a laptop and it's almost impossible to run RAID on a laptop.

That Intel rapid storage technology is "NOT" RAID......it's just software for checking the status of your HDD's.

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology offers greater levels of performance, responsiveness, and expandability than ever before. Whether you are using one or multiple serial ATA (SATA) or PCIe drives, you can take advantage of enhanced performance and lower power consumption from the latest storage technologies. Additionally, you can rest easy knowing you have added protection against data loss in the event of a hard drive failure.

reference link: Intel® Rapid Storage Technology

 

[Banger-762]

Thank you for your description bass fisher, I'm not sure if I'm even asking the right questions, I am just frustrated that idk what to do about cleaning up any issues I may have cause from shutting down while upgrading and reinstalling win7. as far as I know everything is history and I can start anew and install things through an Alienware osri process, I just didn't want to get farther ahead and have issues later or damage any hard ware from not assessing and dealing with the prior problems I caused

 

[bassfisher6522]

You can check what mode you're using in the device manager. Open device manager, select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (or something similar to that), use the drop down arrow and it will tell you your chipset and whether you're using IDE/SATA/AHCI

As you can see I'm running my HDD in AHCI mode and I have just a standard 3.5" HDD.

 

[bassfisher6522]

Thank you for your description bass fisher, I'm not sure if I'm even asking the right questions, I am just frustrated that idk what to do about cleaning up any issues I may have cause from shutting down while upgrading and reinstalling win7. as far as I know everything is history and I can start anew and install things through an Alienware osri process, I just didn't want to get farther ahead and have issues later or damage any hard ware from not assessing and dealing with the prior problems I caused

When you're going through an install or upgrade....never ever shut down or turn off or close the lid of a PC as it can do irrevocable damage. Then messing with diskpart without full knowledge of how to....can really dork things up. I think you're right in starting anew with Alienware osri process....that's what I would do.

 

[Banger-762]

I haven't installed anything except windows 7, it says IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, channels 0-4 and then standard ahci 1.0 serial at a controller.
Should I post any pictures? If they will help I can show whatever is needed

 

[Banger-762]

Unfortunately I didn't know that It would do anything by closing the lid, because I had changed the settings for how closing it worked, definitely won't happen again, and I have read forums about using disk part but nothing that implied it would damage anything by doing so. I really appreciate the assistance once again

 

[Banger-762]

I haven't thought to search for why my Alienware system was set to raid in the first place so I will check that and post back what I find.

 

[bassfisher6522]

This is what I would do: Go into the BIOS and set your HDD for AHCI, save and exit. Then I would start completely over using your Alienware's software to reset to factory condition. Then make sure windows 7 is fully updated from MS. Then if you wanted to, go ahead with the windows 10 upgrade. Once the upgrade is complete, go to Alienware's website and install all necessary windows 10 drivers for your make/model laptop.

NOTE: Make sure and check to see if your model laptop requires the BIOS to be updated before you move to windows 10.

 

[spunk.funk]

How old is your system? In the early days of SATA HDD's, Dell (Alienware) and other brands, would show SATA mode in the Bios for SATA HDD's as opposed to IDE, or Legacy drives, as RAID, what is now called AHCI. The choice in the Bios was IDE or RAID. Windows XP did not have native support for IDE drives, but later versions of Windows, starting with Vista did. So, you had to Enable RAID in the Bios to get the most out of your SATA HDD if you were running Vista or later (eg) 7, 8, 8.1 or 10. I hope that clears it up for you?

 

[Banger-762]

My system is a 2012 Alienware m17xr4, I haven't found any reason yet for the system being in raid mode, still looking

 

[spunk.funk]

At Bootup Press F2 to enter Setup (Bios) here look for SATA or Hard Drive Mode or some such. For Native SATA support the HDD mode must bre set to AHCI, or RAID, IDE or Legacy mode are used for earlier version of Windows, like XP.

 

[Banger-762]

Hey guys thanks alot for everything, I figured out what the problem was. The reason its set to raid mode is for the IRST to see the hdd as a accelerated drive, because my ssd drive is set to strip at 128kb. Which apparently can only be done in raid mode?
Idk exactly how it all works to be completely honest. But I just decided to install Windows 7 on ahci, then I switched to raid, and the windows recovery then allowed me to install on my OS drive/partition (which I couldn't before) so I went ahead and tried to install and it worked, then I started to install the drivers going off the process dell recommended, and I ran into an issue once in my installation, after I installed the Intel graphics (with my graphics card not switching to discrete graphics) , I had to install the latest OSD for my model Alienware and then use the key combo fn+f7 which wasn't available before the OSD installation (I had used switchable graphics prior to the accident of course) . Now after having switched and installed my discrete graphics I haven't had any issues and all my drivers just finished installing besides alien command center because I haven't gone online yet.
I have been using my phone to make this post and replies. After my system is updated by Windows update I will be using a registry cleaner just to make sure I got any possible leftovers from the accident, everything seems fine so far. I will post back if there are any further issues, again I appreciate your time helping me to solve this.
Also I didn't know so many people have had issues with this computer model until I messed up, I have seen an abundance of issues on several forums while searching for my answer and I have had a few of the problems during this installation. I don't know how to sound more grateful because I really am, and I wish I had the ability to put my thoughts here more orderly, I hope someone reads this and it's helpful to them. I'm just excited it's working again like it should!

 

[JimE]

Registry cleaners are NOT recommended, ever. As it's a fresh install, everything should be fine, leave it be.