1. Since the RAID controller is built in to the main board, you really don't have a choice of removing it. The drivers installed during Windows setup depend on the setting of your SATA drive in system setup (F2 during POST). According to the on-line service manual, you have the choice of RAID Autodetect/ATA, RAID Autodetect/AHCI, and RAID On. The last two require the special drivers listed in the SATA Drives section of Drivers and Downloads in order to work properly. Despite the name, RAID On doesn't necessitate use of a RAID. My E520 has a single drive, but it is set to RAID On.
If you used the Windows XP installation CD that was shipped with the computer, you probably already have the basic driver required for AHCI or RAID On and do not need to go through the F6 process of installing a third party driver. The AHCI driver would be loaded automatically if the controller is set to either RAID Autodetect/AHCI or RAID On. Looking at the Drivers menu for SATA Drives, there are two files. The first file is an Intel application to help manage your hard drives. The second file is the drivers only version of the application that you would use with F6 should you ever need to install from a Windows CD that for some reason did not already have the drivers built in. You need to install the first file, about 15 MB in size, which has updates to the drivers already found on your Windows CD. That file also contains a management application to help set up a RAID and report on the health of your hard drive(s). There is no guarantee that this will fix your current problem, however.
2. You have the controller; it is built in to the computer and you cannot remove it. The three settings I mentioned above allow you to either set the controller to IDE compatible mode, make use of the AHCI interface, or set up a RAID. The first setting allows you to make do without the SATA drivers altogether as it allows the controller to pretend to be an IDE controller. As I indicated earlier, if you are using the Windows installation CD that was shipped with the computer, you probably don't need to worry about that mode.
3. If the answers I have given have helped, you asked the right questions.
One thing you might consider is to run the Dell diagnostics for your system, particularly the extended test for the hard drive if you can find it. Errors such as those you are reporting indicate a problem with reading the information from the disk, and this can be caused by a failing drive.
Edited in an attempt to improve a poor presentation. :emotion-10:
Thanks, Jack. Your answers were very helpful and confirmed what I was finding through some research. For example, from the Intel website I was instructed to determine if my device manager had an entry named "SCSI and RAID Controller." It did not. The next step was to determine if the device manager had an entry named "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers." It did. I wad direct to look for a controller "Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller." It was there. The instructions sated the system is an ICH6R system in ACHI mode and no further action is required.
Although that answered the question regarding what controller I had and what, if anything else, was needed, I am still baffeled by the Microsoft Windows Error Reporting that "my problem was cause by your RAID controller.....download and install thedriver for your RAID controller."
Your last guidance was to run the Dell diagnostics. I did run the extended test (overnight) and the results were that everything passed, there were no errors. However, I am still concerned that my hard drive may be failing so I am prepared to do a full system backup with daily backups of documents and files. I feel like I have closed the proverbial barn door since I recently lost a great deal of data. Thanks again for your response.
jackshack
6.4K Posts
0
April 27th, 2009 16:00
1. Since the RAID controller is built in to the main board, you really don't have a choice of removing it. The drivers installed during Windows setup depend on the setting of your SATA drive in system setup (F2 during POST). According to the on-line service manual, you have the choice of RAID Autodetect/ATA, RAID Autodetect/AHCI, and RAID On. The last two require the special drivers listed in the SATA Drives section of Drivers and Downloads in order to work properly. Despite the name, RAID On doesn't necessitate use of a RAID. My E520 has a single drive, but it is set to RAID On.
If you used the Windows XP installation CD that was shipped with the computer, you probably already have the basic driver required for AHCI or RAID On and do not need to go through the F6 process of installing a third party driver. The AHCI driver would be loaded automatically if the controller is set to either RAID Autodetect/AHCI or RAID On. Looking at the Drivers menu for SATA Drives, there are two files. The first file is an Intel application to help manage your hard drives. The second file is the drivers only version of the application that you would use with F6 should you ever need to install from a Windows CD that for some reason did not already have the drivers built in. You need to install the first file, about 15 MB in size, which has updates to the drivers already found on your Windows CD. That file also contains a management application to help set up a RAID and report on the health of your hard drive(s). There is no guarantee that this will fix your current problem, however.
2. You have the controller; it is built in to the computer and you cannot remove it. The three settings I mentioned above allow you to either set the controller to IDE compatible mode, make use of the AHCI interface, or set up a RAID. The first setting allows you to make do without the SATA drivers altogether as it allows the controller to pretend to be an IDE controller. As I indicated earlier, if you are using the Windows installation CD that was shipped with the computer, you probably don't need to worry about that mode.
3. If the answers I have given have helped, you asked the right questions.
One thing you might consider is to run the Dell diagnostics for your system, particularly the extended test for the hard drive if you can find it. Errors such as those you are reporting indicate a problem with reading the information from the disk, and this can be caused by a failing drive.
Edited in an attempt to improve a poor presentation. :emotion-10:
JLB41
3 Posts
0
April 28th, 2009 13:00
Thanks, Jack. Your answers were very helpful and confirmed what I was finding through some research. For example, from the Intel website I was instructed to determine if my device manager had an entry named "SCSI and RAID Controller." It did not. The next step was to determine if the device manager had an entry named "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers." It did. I wad direct to look for a controller "Intel(R) 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller." It was there. The instructions sated the system is an ICH6R system in ACHI mode and no further action is required.
Although that answered the question regarding what controller I had and what, if anything else, was needed, I am still baffeled by the Microsoft Windows Error Reporting that "my problem was cause by your RAID controller.....download and install the driver for your RAID controller."
Your last guidance was to run the Dell diagnostics. I did run the extended test (overnight) and the results were that everything passed, there were no errors. However, I am still concerned that my hard drive may be failing so I am prepared to do a full system backup with daily backups of documents and files. I feel like I have closed the proverbial barn door since I recently lost a great deal of data. Thanks again for your response.
jackshack
6.4K Posts
0
April 29th, 2009 12:00
You are very welcome. Best of luck to you!