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XP Recovery on a Dimension e520
Had a nasty virus episode which led me to reinstall from the recovery disk (first time ever). Unfortunately, I get an error that "unknown.sys" cannot be copied during the installation, and upon restart, the message states that there is something wrong with my disk configuration. I can change from RAID to Auto/RAID in the BIOS and install successfully. This does dramatically effect performance though, and I renders the PC unusable for any games/multimedia. It appears that the SATA drivers are not included in my recovery CD (which blows my mind as the PC came with the SATA drive). I have used the F6 method and also the nLite integration method with the same results... "unknown.sys" is not copied. I don't know if that has to do with anything, but I do not get that error message when installing as IDE (Auto/RAID in BIOS).
Does somebody have a new avenue for me to try? Did I get a bad recovery disk?
jackshack
6.4K Posts
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February 21st, 2009 21:00
Sorry you didn't ask before you tried to reinstall. The E520 normally ships with a restore partition that gets disabled when you perform a manual install.
Since you have already installed, I must assume that you already know that you must boot from the CD to perform an installation. To install using the AHCI SATA interface you must have the drive controller set to RAID ON. The symptom you should be getting if there is no SATA/RAID driver on your installation disk is "No Hard Drive Found". I don't recognize "unknown.sys". Are you certain that you are using the installation CD that came with the computer? Having a more exact statement of the error messages you are seeing would definitely help us understand what you are going through.
One other thing; switching the drive controller to RAID Autodetect/ATA should make no noticeable difference in computer performance. There is no difference in the speed of data transfer, and the ability to queue the commands is next to useless on a single drive system.
seraphex
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February 22nd, 2009 21:00
I was trying to get rid of a virus, so I did wipe the thing clean. I scrubbed it.
The error message I'm getting comes up during the initial installation process, the copying of files after formatting. "Unable to copy unknown.sys," then an option to skip it or try again. Once skipped, installation proceeds, but when the system restarts, I get an error message stating the drive is not configured correctly. I'll get an exact message asap.
Not sure why this PC is such a dog if there is no difference... Before the restore, I was cooking right along. Now it takes over an hour to transfer 20 GB from my C:\ to my G:\, not to mention the multimedia issues I mentioned before. Any other suggestions beside the drive?
jackshack
6.4K Posts
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February 23rd, 2009 10:00
Just as a check, you've done all the usual things like making sure the installation CD was free of scratches and smudges, and having all peripherals disconnected with exception of monitor, mouse, and keyboard?
I'm not sure what "unknown.sys" is. It is possibly a file that Setup can't figure what is due to being unable to read the directory entry. You may very well have a damaged installation CD given that you can see no defects on the disk.
Two things you might try; make the SATA drivers disk and use the F6 prompt to load these in advance of having the machine copy them from the CD, and reset the NVRAM by removing the back-up cell from the motherboard for a few minutes. You probably don't have a diskette drive to make or use a diskette having these drivers, but you can install one temporarily if you can find a drive and cable.
demon646
3 Posts
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November 30th, 2009 20:00
During the 'F6' method, Where did you get the raid drivers?