Alienware Aurora R4 BIOS questions

The Area 51 has already been sent back to Dell.  The reason it was replaced is that it was going Blue Screen a few seconds after booting into windows.  But you do present an interesting thought.  There is a computer repair store nearby and I should be able to take the two drives in there and copy them to a spare drive I have.  If I cannot get this BIOS to recognize RAID, that does seem like a viable option.

Thanks

Bob Firestone

Can you put the drives back in the Area-51, and copy just the data files somewhere safe? Or, Image Backup the raided drive, and browse the image backup on the R4 and select what you want to restore.

According to the manual, the R4 does support RAID. I think your problem is that the drives were created on:

Intel x58 chipset with an Intel ICH10R RAID controller.

The Aurora has something newer, so it doesn't work.

I don't use RAID (so I'm just guessing) ... but I think they are linked to that hardware (since you want to read them and not just re-format them and start over).

Thanks, but that is not the problem.  I have not even attempted to put the drives in the system yet.  The problem is that the tab and arrow keys do not move the selection to RAID so that I can put any RAID drives into the system to be recognized.  The Raid on the two drives was created using my lasten machine which was also an Alienwre machine (an Area 51), so I would be supprised if the BIOS (which was different - at least in the UI) wasn't similar enough to recognize RAID created on another machine.  I have been using RAID on my machines since 2006.  All Dell.  The first 7 were XPS machines and the last 2 have been Alienware.  The last one was an Alienware Area 51.  I am not a gamer, I use the machines for the speed.

Thanks

Bob Fireston

IIRC, the RAID menu doesn't activate unless it detects at least 2 qualifying (matching) drives.

Makes sense.  So, I put the drives in when the machine is powered off, Power on, hit F2 to get to the raid configuration, RAID will now be selectable, select RAID, and then save and exit followed by completing the boot.  I assume that it will find the proper drives in the correct order - I know which should be first, but I do not know the logical order of the three remaining drive bays (I am assuming I should not move the SSD drive which is my 'C' drive) from the upper right corner looking at the 4 drive bays.  Does that sound correct?

I think something very close to that ... try it ... remember, I don't use RAID

IIRC, there is an option in the normal BIOS that might have to turned on before it shows the RAID Bios screen on boot.

The downloadable PDF Owners Manual for the Aurora R4 was just a Service Manual the last time I checked. Download the Aurora R1, R2 or R3 real Owners Manual for docs on AW RAID.

Well, I put the two RAID configured drives into the system, pressed F2 as the machine was powering up to get to the BIOS, got to the screen which shows the two choices (AHCI and RAID) and neither the tab or arrow keys had any effect. As the choices were number (1) and (2), I also tried entering the number.  Nothing.  Powered off and put my other drives back into the machine.  works fine.  

I searched through the documentation on the R3 and while it was clearly more 'user friendly', and did have  a section on RAID, it read the way other BIOS manuals have indicated - i.e. mentions RAID, but as I suspectected  essentially expects the on screen instructions to guide you (the tabe and arrow keys to move to the next option).

You're saying you highlight the RAID/AHCI selection and then press TAB or LEFT/Right arrows?

I've changed the setting by going to the RAID/AHCI setting, pressing enter. It then shows a dropdown menu so you can choose between the 2 with the up/down arrow and then hit enter.

Nisei,

I will try that, but I won't get a chance until tomorrow.  I will report back with my results. 

Thank you

Robert Fireston

Nissei,

Thank you.  I did get a chance to try it before tomorrow and it worked as you described.  I am in the process of extracting all of the data I need from that RAID disk now.  It took a few reboots - The first one appears to have installed the needed drivers and then I had to go into device manager to find out the drive letter it had been assigned, but it seems to be working perfectly now.

Again Thank you

Bob