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May 21st, 2008 16:00
Restoring RAID 0 Array in XPS 720
XPS 720
SATA RAID 0 with dual 250GB HDDs
Vista Home Premium
The machine won't boot. I get a brief Dell startup screen then a black screen with "Missing Operating System" in the upper left corner.
I ran HDD diagnostics under F12 boot options and both drives passed. I booted to the Dell OS DVD and attempted an OS repair, which failed (details mentioned corruption of the partition table). I'm unsure how to repair a corrupt partition table. I opened a command prompt and used bootrec.exe to fix the MBR ( /FixMbr), which reported successful, but the machine still wouldn't boot. I tried bootrec.exe to fix the boot sector ( /FixBoot), which failed. I tried to reinstall the OS, but couldn't access the C:\ drive (no recognizable file system on that drive).
I'm inclined towards reformatting C:\ and reinstalling Vista, but I have no experience working with RAID arrays and am unsure how to proceed from here. I don't want to break the array. If I reformat C:\ and use the Dell OS DVD to restore the system to "factory condition," will that restore the original RAID 0 configuration or will I need to do that "manually" after reformatting? If the latter, can that be done easily by entering Setup and enabling RAID 0 on both drives before reinstalling the OS? If so, then will using the Dell OS DVD to restore the system to "factory condition" serve to partition the array as it was shipped? I'm sure it's very obvious I'm in well over my head here and quite clueless. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!
SATA RAID 0 with dual 250GB HDDs
Vista Home Premium
The machine won't boot. I get a brief Dell startup screen then a black screen with "Missing Operating System" in the upper left corner.
I ran HDD diagnostics under F12 boot options and both drives passed. I booted to the Dell OS DVD and attempted an OS repair, which failed (details mentioned corruption of the partition table). I'm unsure how to repair a corrupt partition table. I opened a command prompt and used bootrec.exe to fix the MBR ( /FixMbr), which reported successful, but the machine still wouldn't boot. I tried bootrec.exe to fix the boot sector ( /FixBoot), which failed. I tried to reinstall the OS, but couldn't access the C:\ drive (no recognizable file system on that drive).
I'm inclined towards reformatting C:\ and reinstalling Vista, but I have no experience working with RAID arrays and am unsure how to proceed from here. I don't want to break the array. If I reformat C:\ and use the Dell OS DVD to restore the system to "factory condition," will that restore the original RAID 0 configuration or will I need to do that "manually" after reformatting? If the latter, can that be done easily by entering Setup and enabling RAID 0 on both drives before reinstalling the OS? If so, then will using the Dell OS DVD to restore the system to "factory condition" serve to partition the array as it was shipped? I'm sure it's very obvious I'm in well over my head here and quite clueless. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks!
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mombodog
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12.7K Posts
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May 22nd, 2008 03:00
Maybe this?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932932
Factory restore is contained on the hard drives, if you format, the restore feature is gone forever.
Use F8 at the dell splash screen to access the factory restore feature, all current data will be lost when using this feature.
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=28C0548D825EB65DE040A68F5B2865A8&c=us&l=en&s=dhs
The DVD is just the operating system, and recovery environment, it is not a "restore" DVD
deadbee
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May 22nd, 2008 20:00
Thanks for the response, mombodog. I don't know what caused the situation, but when and if I get the machine to boot, I'll definitely look into the fix mentioned in the link you provided to MS Help & Support.
Since I can't access the HDD and the restore feature is on the HDD, then the restore feature is gone. I tried F8, just the same, but the machine didn't respond. The only options given on the Dell splash screen are F2 (Setup) and F12 (Boot Menu). I've booted from the Dell DVD to try to repair the system, but the repair was reported unsuccessful due to a corrupt partition table.
Unless someone can tell me how to repair a corrupt partition table without having access to the boot drive, then what I need is a description of (or a link to a description of) how to reformat and restore a RAID 0 array. Thanks!
mombodog
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12.7K Posts
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May 22nd, 2008 20:00
You might try to turn raid to ON for each of the drives in the bios, see page 33 below.
"I went into Setup today to check the status of the array and found RAID off on both drives, so maybe it's already broken"
The real raid status cannot be seen in the F2 bios, you need to use the Nvidia Media Sheild ROM Utility
page 33
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps720/en/OM_EN/NP756A00.pdf
deadbee
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May 22nd, 2008 21:00
Thanks for the quick response, mombodog. When the problem first arose I read this in the manual, but I didn't consider this option because at the time, I assumed the array was still intact. When I checked its status in Setup today, I didn't think about the ROM utility. Thanks very much for pointing it out. I'll try it this evening and will report back on the results.
deadbee
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May 23rd, 2008 00:00
Success! I entered Setup, re-enabled RAID on both HDDs, exited Setup and the machine booted, restored to its pre-crash condition. I have no idea why the thing popped its RAID configuration. Thank you for saving my bacon, mombodog!
mombodog
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12.7K Posts
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May 23rd, 2008 01:00
not so dead after all! :smileyvery-happy:
If it happens again, suspect a failing cmos battery.
deadbee
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May 23rd, 2008 19:00
mombodog
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May 23rd, 2008 19:00
You are welcome.