dimension 9200 & windows xp install

Question

Hi all, just taken delivery of dimension 9200, spec: 1 TB raid0 sata (2x500gb) dual core 2 2 gig ram nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX Problem: I cannot install windows xp (service pack 2) it goes in to a blue screen and I think the problem is missing raid drivers. I tried to install by prompting for driver CD but that freezes on screen 'insert driver CD into drive A'. It is currently setup as default raid 0 configuration. (Is this faster/better than having 2 separate sata drives? ) If I delete raid 0 configuration in bios it does not boot up windows XP CD - It goes into a black screen. (I checked bios boot options & CD is selected as first boot option.) Can anyone advise how to install windows XP and what changes are needed in BIOS. Thanks

zuben · Answer

no dimension 9200:

jmwills · Answer

Dimension 9200?  Did you mean Inspiron 9200?

jmwills · Answer

Neither site shows downloads for that model.

jmwills · Answer

www.msfn.org has a good tutorial for setups.

zuben · Answer

what do u need d/l for? i'm creating a slipstreamed win xp cd with new raid drivers & i'll see if that fixes it.   any clue on raid setups in dells?

zuben · Answer

Well a slipstream windows xp with intel matrix storage driver has failed   Is there anyone from dell reading this?   how do i get tech supp on the first day!   i get the following blue screen message when installing windows xp pro (after stage 1 installing device drivers):   ' a problem has been detected and Windows has ben shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated'   Technical information:   *** STOP: 0x00000007B (0xF78D2524, etc etc   I assumed this was missing raid drivers from winxp cd so i slipstreamed it in. Same message. When i press F6 it asks for drivers in drive A. Of course i don't have a floppy drive so drive A does not exist.   The dell has been reconfigured as sata (still no winxp install only black screen) & reconfigured as raid. All factory default data is now lost.   Can anyone advise how to get win xp installed with perhaps missing raid drivers.

jmwills · Answer

The only other thing would be to get a USB floppy drive.

jackshack · Answer

You might try looking over the Windows re-installation guide found here:

This is an interactive guide so you might take a while to find the path that you want to use. The D9200 is down toward the end labeled "XPS/Dimension 410/9200". If nothing else it should help you arrive at a reason you're having trouble. According to your service guide, the only settings you have in bios for RAID is "RAID On" and "RAID Autodetect/ATA". I know that the second setting is used if you are NOT using RAID. I'm afraid I don't know the advantage of the first. You can view your service guide here:

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Insofar as RAID 0, this is a "striping" arrangement where the data is fed alternately to the two drives so that the two together appear as one large drive. It is supposed to make data access quicker in the same way that dual channel memory controllers retrieve data from RAM. The drawback is that you loose your data if either drive fails since neither has a complete data set. You will see RAID 1 mentioned a lot on the forum as well; this arrangement is a "mirror"; the same data is written to both drives so that if one fails you still have a complete data set. Essentially it is automatic backup to the extreme.

So far as the floppy, many Dells won't load the RAID drivers from a USB floppy, insisting instead that it be a regular internal drive.

Sorry you're having trouble; best of luck to you.

Message Edited by JackShack on 10-18-2006 03:50 PM

zuben · Answer

Thx 4 reply Jack

I've sorted the problem by making a slipstream windows xp with iastor RAID drivers built in.

It's now working.

If anyone else is reading this because they have missing RAID drivers I fixed this by including 2 sets of drivers that were provided by Dell on the original hard drive. There's also a cool freeware utility called nlite which is very useful.

The RAID setup is fast. If I revert back to 2 sata drives do u know what changes I will need to make in the BIOS & changing the setting on the drives.

Message Edited by zuben on 10-19-2006 02:08 PM

Message Edited by zuben on 10-19-2006 02:12 PM

jackshack · Answer

If you decide to go back to two individual drives from a RAID 0 you will need to re-install Win XP since neither disk has a complete file on it.  The bios setting is the second one I mentioned in my previous reply, RAID Auto/ATA.  I don't think any other adjustments are required.

jmwills · Answer

Check the BIOS for the hard drive setup.

idheath · Answer

Hi,

I have a similar problem :-( with my new Dimension 9200.

It came with XP Home and I want to trash it and install XP Professional.

I'm using a separate SATA HD for all of this having removed the original one (so I can get back to the start if I need to).

Firstly I simply installed this new HD and booted from my XP Professional CD expecting that to work! It didn't I got the BSOD very early after the boot from CD (just before it would normally copy files to the HD).

Next I got the SATA drivers from the Dell web site and put them on a floppy disk (I've installed a FD drive in the PC).

Then I rebooted and pressed F6 and selected "Intel (R) ICH8R/DO/DH SATA RAID Controller" from the list and then the installation goes further (it copies all the files from the CD to the HD). But after the 1st automatic reboot it can't see the HD so the boot fails.

Next I tried the nLite utility to slipstream the SATA drivers with my WinXP SP2 install CD but that gave the same results as the previous attempt.

Any ideas?

Cheers Ian

steinomite · Answer

Im having the same problem with a 9200 with a 500gig SATA drive... wish I saved that ghost image...grr. I have now been instructed to do a full format of ntfs not a quick one as it may have to do with the MBR.. the intel driver online exsists within xp media center so don't think you need it... once the initial files load on the HD I reboot and get that black screen message stating there is a problem with my drive config.. also tried the bios switch to do autodetect in the sata config.. ..still waiting a 500gb drive takes a while to format...

jmwills · Answer

Do a quick format.

steinomite · Answer

Actually the full NTFS format did the trick must have been something corrupt in my MBR...

Windows General

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