XPS 400 Windows XP Media Center 2005 missing drivers

First, you need to install the Intel chipset driver I believe for that orphaned device, it's part of the system bus.

 

Secondly, if you already installed your OS before making a hardware mirror in Intel Matrix' BIOS then your only options are to a) create a hardware RAID1 by typing CTRL-I when you boot and follow the prompt; you'll have to reinstall the OS though, or b) go into Disk Management (right-click Computer and select Manage) and convert your disk to Dynamic, reboot, then go back and right-click and select Add Mirror.

 

Be advised that the latter is a software RAID and has some drawbacks.  But you won't have to reinstall your OS.

Thanks for the response Tolstoy143.

I had run the chipset prior and I still have that missing driver.

 

I had already gone into the Intel Matrix BIOS and set it as Raid 1 (MIRROR).  In the Setup (F2) I had originally chose Raid on, per the Dell support persons instructions.  After running the OC install, the PC would not boot. I got the following message:

    Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.

    Could not read from the selected boot disk.  Check boot path and disk hardware.

    Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference

    manuals for additional information.

After checking everything several times and re-installing the OS, I decided to go back to default ( Raid Autodetect/AHCI.  I ran the installation again, and this time I was able to boot up.

 

So this is were I am.

My next question is this, should I be able to see the second drive under Windows Disk Management?  At the moment I can not see it.  Is this how it should look?

 

Thanks,

Cheri

No, you will ly see a single disk in Windows.  The hardware controller does the mirroring behind the scenes and reports a single disk (called a LUN) to the OS.  As far as Windows is concerned it only has one hard drive.

1st I did get the driver issue resolved.

 

The Hard Drive issue is still up in the air. 

I converted the disk to Dynamic.  The PC rebooted 2 times.

I went back into disk management and the only choice I have is to extend volume.  Add mirror is greyed out.

 

Help, what did I do wrong?

Setup SATA operations is set to Raid Autodetect/AHCI

  Drives are:

SATA 0 AND SATA 2  each is 160gb  1 seagate (original) 1 WD (replacement from Dell)

 

Intel Matrix storage manager (Cntl/I)

Raid 1 (Mirror)  149gb  Normal  Bootable:Yes

Port 0  and Port 2

 

The desktop version of Intel Matrix Storage Console, just shows there are 2 drives.  It really doesn't tell me if the drives are mirrored or not.

 

If I need to redo everything, I would like to do it as soon as possible to get my sis back up on her PC.

I need to know if I need to change anything in the hardware setup.

then I would need details on what I should do during the reimaging process.  What steps to follow.

 

Now that I know where all the drivers are, I won't have a problem with that process.  I just want to get the two drives mirrored.

 

Thank you.

Cheri

 

I think you are confusing yourself because you clearly do not really understand RAID (that's okay, it is confusing at first).

 

First, you need to understand that in your situation that hardware and software RAID are mutually exclusive.  You can't mirror them in the Intel BIOS and in Windows at the same time.  It's like trying to ride a bike and drive a car at the same time.

 

Secondly you need to understand what RAID levels are.  I am not sure why you chose RAID1, unless you want the system to survive a single drive failure.  Basically here is an explanation:

 

RAID0 - Two or more drives are striped together to create one big drive.  For example, two 160GB drives are striped to make a 320GB drive.  This is faster too, but also risker as a failure of either of the two drives loses data on both.

 

RAID1 - Two drives are mirrored together to make an exact copy of each other.  For example two 160GB drives are mirrored into a single 160GB drive.  This does not yield substantial speed increases (a bit faster on read but slower on write) and it also is the least economical, but if either drive fails you lose nothing and the computer will still boot.

 

There are other RAID levels such as RAIDs 3, 5, 0+1, 1+0, 50, 6, DP, etc but if you really want to know do a Wilipedia search.  Your controller only does RAIDs 0 and 1.

 

You already have a hardware RAID, so you do not need to convert to Dynamic to set up a software RAID.  You do not need to extend anything.  Your RAID1 is ALREADY WORKING!  As you said, you made the RAID1 in Intel Matrix' BIOS.  This is called a HARDWARE RAID.  A hardware RAID is managed at a lower level than the operating system and reports the Logical Unit (LUN) as a single drive (and does the mirroring and failover invisibly).  Furthermore a RAID1 is a mirror: two disks with identical data. You will only see one drive in Windows, and that is all you are supposed to see.

 

I thought that your alternative was to make a software RAID, but I just remembered that this option is only available in Windows Server.  But to explain, this is where the controller does not do any RAID on the drives at a hardware level and simply reports two indepepent disks to Windows.  Windows Server then can create a software 'mirror' which is like RAID1 in that you are synchronizing two drives but at a software level.  Disk Manager will show two drives in this case, but you would only see one drive in My Computer.

 

You do not need to do anything else.   You can test this by turning off your PC and unplugging the cables from one of your SATA drives (to simulate a failure).  Then power on the PC and it will still boot, because the other drive has an exact mirror of all the data.  Them shutdown and reconnect the drive, and power on.  Then wait while the mirror is resynchronized before you do anything else with the drives.

 

Converting to dynamic was not a bad thing though.  It allows you to span a new drive onto it later if you wanted, but I don't recommend doing that right now.

Thanks again Tolstoy143,

You are correct in that I didn't understand something, and that was that the software in windows was separate from the controls in the BIOS.   Sometimes it is hard to tell, where to go to get things done.  Not having experience with Raid on a home computer, I admit I was lost.

 

I do understand the differences in the 2 Raids though.  I wanted Raid 1 so that we would not lose data again.  My Sis had a false sense of security.  She and her husband lost probably 2 years worth of pictures and files when it crashed.  Having 4 different people use the computer, and not noting when it would blue screen can be dangerous.  Our Mother is the worst culprit, because she was afraid to tell, thinking she did something wrong.

 

My question that I should have stated from day one was how to identfy if I am mirrored.  I evidently had the setting correct, I just wasn't physically "seeing" it.  I thought that there would be a way to see from Windows.

 

I did do what you told me, in order to test the mirroring.  I unplugged the first drive, and booted up.  We got the message that the raid was degraded, I pressed F1 to continue, and the second drive booted just fine.

 

again, thanks for your assistance.

Cheri