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Help - can not properly install Windows 7 on RAID (reposted to Alienware Forum)
Hi,
I have Aurora system. It currently has a RAID 0 with 2 hard drives installed.
One drive is going bad, so I need to build / restore to a new RAID. I installed 2 new drives (on ports 3,4) and configured another RAID 0. That all seemed to go well.
BUT - I can not seem to get ANY kind of Windows 7 properly installed on the new RAID. I have tried:
- Dell Datasafe backup - booting from a system restore disk.
- I did this for my current save point, and a factory reset.
- Windows 7 install from the CD that came with the system.
In any case above, the process seems to go well. All files are loaded to the new RAID array. But that's when the trouble starts.
I can NOT get the new array to boot.
In my latest attempt, I left the original RAID connected and running. And somehow, the Windows 7 Install proceeded to build the new array with the OS, but will boot from the old array.
What is the trick to getting getting a new volume on the new RAID array to boot? Please help.
Thanks,
89fordprobee
1.2K Posts
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April 10th, 2011 10:00
did you configure the raid array and make drives active when posting you need to do this with the raid setup its somehting like ctrl+l or somehting when posting/booting , been a few months without an alienware so memory aint so good lol from this you need to setup and choose the drives your gonna use for the raid array and format andconfigure as such this must be done before windows install .... also this is were you set the array to be bootable or secondary or what not
ArcticCloud
10 Posts
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April 10th, 2011 11:00
You might want to troubleshoot the Master Boot Record. This page has a solution for it.
http://www.tomstricks.com/how-to-repair-and-restore-windows-vista-master-boot-record-mbr/
siegmjd
14 Posts
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April 10th, 2011 12:00
Thanks - I will give this a try. I'll let you know how I get along.
siegmjd
14 Posts
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April 10th, 2011 12:00
Thanks for the help/advice. I tried both ways - created the array both from the Intel Windows RAID Controller tool, AND from the ctl-I BIOS tool. In either case, the controller boots, and shows the drive as Bootable, but I could not get the drive to boot - even after Windows 7 Install (and Dell Backup) partitioned and installed to it...
There must be something I am missing, but can't quite figure out what...
siegmjd
14 Posts
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April 10th, 2011 19:00
Update:
I used the steps in the MBR article - but it did not appear to fix anything. I tried the FixMbr option, and the RebuildBcd options. Thinking of trying the bcdedit steps next.
Just to update on what happens when I attempt to boot from this new drive: I get a cursor (Underscore) on a black screen. Cursor is top-left of screen. And nothing ever happens.
But I do know that the Dell Backup software wrote to it thinking it was restoring my files. So, it looks like I have a valid drive - I just can't get it to boot.
Any other help is appreciated...
Thanks
Picture of how two drives look when booting from the old (and slowly failing) RAID array: