Removing Raid 0 and re-installing Vista

Hiya, im looking at probably buying the same system as yours. The one im looking at is the XPS 420 (D01X4055) for £768

 

 

Base Premium Chassis - Intel® 2 Quad-Core™ Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 1066MHz, 8MB cache) Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English Memory 3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024/2x512] Keyboard Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) Monitor Monitor Not included Video Card SINGLE 768MB nVidia® GeForce® 8800 GTX graphics card Hard Drive 640GB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 Stripe (2x320GB - 7200rpm) Floppy Drives and Additional Storage Devices 19-in-1 Media Card Reader Mouse Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse Modem No Modem Optical Devices 16x DVD +/- RW Drive Sound Cards Sound Blaster® X-Fi Xtreme Gamer PCI Soundcard Speakers No Speakers Shipping Documents XPS 420 English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord Gedis Bundle Reference D01X4055 Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English Standard Warranty Base Warranty - 1 Year XPS Premium Hardware Support (incl. Gaming and On-Site Support) Enhanced Service Packs Base Warranty - 1 Year Hardware Support, Next Business Day Protect your new PC No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English Order Information XPS Desktop Order - UK Dell System Media Kit XPS 420 Resource DVD Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Support Promotions Hidden Option Class Memory Upgrade

 

 

anyways, i am definately NOT having the raid system!! After reading reports like you i have found that the data is spread over 2 disks. E.g, 1 half of windows is on 1 disk, the other disk has the other half, so if 1 drive fails or dies or has errors, the other drive cocks up!! Brilliant!! You may get a slight speed increase but on my old 2 disk pc i have an old 20gb quantum fireball, (old n clunky) and it plays COD4 perfectly. So a single drive is definately what i will be asking for.

 

 As for your question, i dont actually know anything about XPS desktops as i havent got on yet but on my acer laptop i was able to back up the user image, reformat the drive, install Xp on 1 partition and re install vista from the install disc. If i HAD to have a raid drive, id be doing the same as you! so let me know how you get on with your plans. I guess all you really need is the drivers for the hardware. I have copies of xp and vista that can be plonked on even if messing with the raid drives wiped them.

     mjmaskrey,

 

   First off, I was just wondering what kind of problems the 420's are having with raid?

 

     To answer your question, yes, you can break the raid array, format your drives, reinstall windows, and use them as two seperate drives. You should have the Vista dvd with your machine, so installation will be a piece of cake. Raid 0 is not flaky, and it's more than slightly faster than a single disk, but if you are afraid of it, or intimidated by it, it is very easy to get rid of it. I have two 720's with raid, and would never go back to a single disk, until solid state drives get larger and come down in price, heck, my sons 720 has two 320's in a raid stripe, we do back up, and I do use good Western Digital drives, but raid 0 rocks!!!

 

     Enjoy your new machine,

jd

 

      alex, dude, why would I want to search the forums about a 420?

 

    Get off of your high horse, I asked a simple question, and all I was looking for was a simple answer, I guess thats over your head though. You need to use good drives with raid, not some Samsung junk, but with your experience, you probably know that.

 

   Have a nice evening, dude

I didn't bother reading all the replies but yes when you get your 420 system you will get every cd required for your system configuration. Which also includes a full version Vista OS dvd and drivers DVD.