How to turn on RAID / eSata port on XPS 420....

safely remove is there, but hard drives aren't listed -- can't say they ever were or weren't. I do not hot swap no. My external is for backups and pics images -I simply let it power off wqhen I shut down.

I also am running a03 and have the sata downloads from 1/15 and 1/28 if tthat makes a difference...

Ok, I got RAID mode turned on... here is what I had to do.

I went into device manager and found the 2 disk controllers as in Smooths instructions. However, instead of trying to update the drivers to the ones from Dell, I selected something like "Generic 1.0 SATA Controller" or something similar to that. It updated the driver and then prompted for reboot. As the computer was rebooting I entered the BIOS setup and turned RAID ON. When Vista came back up it spent a while detecting new hardware and installing the Intel ICH9R SATA drivers automatically. On more reboot and it was done. Sorry I don't have the exact name of the driver I clicked on.

I had initial success with Smooth's procedure.  But oddly my computer suddenly stopped...the monitor went blank but the computer stayed on (per the power button) but I have no idea what was on the screen..obviously.

It would not reboot, it went into the windows repair mode.  I was very concerned but then went into Bios and switched back to autodetect ATA/RAID again and it worked.  It appears Windows used Restore and put my drivers back to original, so it worked again.

Key question is why did my computer suddenly stop working.  Oh, even when it was working, the esata port wasnt recognized (yes, external esata was turned on in bios) 

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=Tech_Talk_XPS&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=44374#M44374

I think it was the registry setting that did the trick. Anyway, it worked for me. 

Nice work, SmoothSL! Perfectly clear instructions, and it worked like a charm.

You should be made an honorary Dell technician. I'm actually surprised there is so much talk on the boards indicating that this is not repairable and that Dell has misled or mistreated their customers. I guess not everyone finds your thread.

Anyway, Many thanks!

Bryan

SmoothSL your post 18 Jan 2008 05:35AM

Your solution don't work on my XPS 420, I suppose your XPS 420 has a different  (non raid??) configuration.

My XPS420:
North Bridge Intel Beachwood X38
South Bridge Intel 82801IR ICH9R
2 harddisks 2x233GB Raid0 (Stripe)- Intel Raid 0 Volume (465 GB)

In VISTA device manager:
I don't see "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
under Storage manager i see:
-Intel(R) ICH8R/ICH9R/ICH10R/DO SATA RAID Controller
-A1AW7YBJ IDE Controller (Intel(R) ICH9 SATA AHCI Controller)

I have made a dual Boot system (Vista-XP) (februari 2008 slipstreamed a DVD for XP with Intel ICH8R/ICH9R SATA Raid controller drivers)
So i had to repartition the whole harddisk (Raid0 stripe) and reinstalled with the VISTA -original dell DVD and XP slipstreamed DVD.

Never the less i have tried your solution, but it dit not work. I lost my eSATA drive.
I reinstalled the driver STOR_allOS_8.7.0.1007_PV.exe, my esata dirve was back.

See my post 25 Feb 2009 01:32AM (http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19259328/19436826.aspx#19436826)

Question: I have an external hard drive that I want to connect to the eSATA port just as another drive, not in RAID mode. I have one internal hard drive and don't want it in RAID mode with any other drive. My external hard drive is actually a RAID 0 array that my computer sees as one drive and I need the eSATA connection for the speed. Will following these instructions solve my issue? Or is everyone here actually using their eSATA drive in RAID. It is hard to tell from the comments. It sounds like even if I turn RAID mode on in the BIOS, I wont actually have to use my internal hard drive in RAID. Also, I absolutely cannot remove my Vista install (yes, I have important stuff backed up).

I was hoping to get assistance with activating the RAID on my XPS 420 so I ran across this procedure.  I updated the controllers as prescribed and the system did a reboot.  The Intel Matrix Storage Manager screen comes up and list the two drives.  It indicates that there are no RAID volumes defined and both drivers are in a Non-Raid Disk under the type/status (VOL ID)  It then says press CTRL-I to enter the configuration utility but when I do I get "NTLDR is missing" and is ask me to CTR+ALT+DEL to restart, at that point it brings me back to this screen again. 

So, I went back into the bios (A07) to switch back to RAID Autodetect/ATA to try and get a successful boot and my computer is currently attempting to do repairs because it will not boot.

I was hoping someone could tell me what went wrong?

Thank you.

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I just wanted to get some things clear.

It seems like some of these solution worked for a lot of people and I wanted to make sure if I might be able to get it to work for my situation.

I currently have TWO internal harddrives in a non-RAID config (1x500GB, 1x1.5TB).  I want to purchase an eSATA external drive.  Will any of these methods work for me?

I am looking to attempt the reverse. Just installed an ssd and I want to switch back to ahci for obvious reasons - without reinstalling the OS. Thoughts?