Vista doesnt detect my hard drive

Question

I have an xpx 710 desktop, i formated everything and I am going to do a clean vista ultimate instal, the thing is, vista set up isnt detecting my hard drive, i know i need the raid driver, however... i cant find it anywhere....   i have 2 discs that came with my ´pc, the red one which has the operating system and aplications and a blue one that has the drivers, however the raid drivers aint there, nor in the dell website... i used to own an alienware computer and all i did was just go into the alienware website, download the fasttrack driver, put it on a floppy and load it on the windows install.. why cant dell just have my hard drive drivers online??

DELL-Donald K · Answer

Since the Vista Raid Drivers haven't been released yet, that will be a problem.

scott784 · Answer

Kuhnesito, Read this link below.  It is kind of lengthy but very informative about the topic of RAID and setting up Vista.  Trust me, I know.  I've already gone through all these headaches with RAID and not knowing where to find drivers.  Chandler gives some excellent information, which myself and another Dell forum user responded to in the thread below:   http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=vista&message.id=11581#M11581   Hope this helps you.

kuhnesito · Answer

Thanks for that info I really apreciate it. Im gona post here what I posted there to see if you can help me with this   I have a new XPS 710 with Raid Mirror config, 500gig   it came with windows xp media center, however I separetly bought a copy of windows vista ultimate edition so I completly formated my dell (100%) and I tried a vista install.   for starters, the computer went bluescreen when i booted with the vista disk but eventualy it loaded (after many tries) and of course, it didnt detect a hard drive, it needed a driver (which i didnt have or at least didnt know where to look for)   so what I did was, load up my windows xp media center cd that dell gave me, it loads the files but then i reboot the computer and switch it with the vista disc, then vista detects my hard drive and install the OS.. .everything seemed fine but now i realise every once in a while (more often actualy) i get bluescreened... and i have to reboot... I dont know whats going on.. Im gona install media center again .. which s cos i wanted vista ultimate in this pc...   how am i gona be able to fix this eventualy? i dont know if dell is gona release and vista hard drive drivers? for my machine

DELL-Donald K · Answer

Dell will release RAID drivers, likely in the next few weeks.   You can, Re-install XP   or   Disable RAID & install Vista

scott784 · Answer

dageezerus,

Thanks for your response about raid drivers. That is what I did a couple of weeks ago....that is I cut off raid (put it in autodect mode). It was the only way to get Vista on my 3 month old Dell XPS 410. I bought a full retail version of Win Vista. The sad part is no one at Dell or Microsoft had a clue how to help or how to diagnose the problem. You see, setup never tells you that it's a raid issue, only that driver(s) are needed. Then it's the blue screen of death (BSOD). It was so frustrating and unbelievable when I went through this over 2 weeks ago.

I did turn off raid and put it in "Autodetect" mode in the BIOS. This seems to be the ONLY way to get Vista installed as you also stated at the present time. Another forum member had a problem with an alternate solution presented by someone else.

You stated you felt that dell will release raid drivers for Vista. It is sure to be hoped that they do so very soon! Otherwise, all of their customers who have patiently been waiting on them to release the upgrade DVDs for Vista are going to be screaming at them if the OEM Vista DVD's don't work.

btw, now that I am stuck with my full retail version of Vista (since I decided to buy this on my own) for my 3 month old Dell....do you think there will be anyway I would be able to use a Dell patch for raid (on separate media of course) with my retail full version of Vista Home Premium. It just makes me mad when I think of how much I paid for the retail version. Right now, I don't have a need for raid because I am dual booting XP and Vista. However, I may want to utilize that technology in the future. Sure couldn't do it now even if I wanted.

Message Edited by scott784 on 02-20-2007 10:10 PM

DELL-Donald K · Answer

When Dell releases a Vista RAID driver, it will work with Retail Vista too.

scott784 · Answer

DaGeezerUS, Are you saying you expect Dell to release a RAID driver on www.support.dell.com?  I guess that's what you mean.   Obviously, the appropriate driver(s) MUST be on the OEM versions of Dell's Vista.  Otherwise, people that have bought Dells since they released Vista would not have workable machines with Vista and Raid technology.  Of course the other scenario is that dell has changed the BIOS on these PC's released since January 30 (Vista launch).   It's hard to say because obviously there is no one is participating in these threads about problems getting Vista going 'if' their machine came with it as factory installed.

kuhnesito · Answer

Do you think we may get those drivers soon?.

DELL-Donald K · Answer

I feel quite confident that Dell will have a driver on support.dell.com just as soon as the driver vendor writes one that Dell sign's off on.  Dell doesn't ship Vista on the XPS 700 series for this very reason.  Once you see the XPS 710 shipping with Vista, you'll see a driver posted on the web site.

kuhnesito · Answer

Ok cool, thanks   btw, even when I boot my machine with the vista disc inside... it boots on to the screen where it says windows is loading files, then it starts to show the vista loading bar (what it shows right before you enter the windows setup) and then the screen goes blue right there... whats up with that? is that driver related as well? if it is, thats kind of weird as windows doesnt ask for the drivers until after that point..   I just find it weird that i get bluescreened even before vista gets into the setup..... sup with that?

scott784 · Answer

dageezerus wrote: I feel quite confident that Dell will have a driver on support.dell.com just as soon as the driver vendor writes one that Dell sign's off on.  Dell doesn't ship Vista on the XPS 700 series for this very reason.  Once you see the XPS 710 shipping with Vista, you'll see a driver posted on the web site.   Scott784 wrote: Dageezerus, you said you felt support.dell.com would have raid drivers for those people owning the XPS 710 once that system actually ships from Dell with Vista.  Maybe that is true.  HOWEVER, Dell is already shipping my machine (the XPS 410 model) in Vista AND there are no raid drivers on the support.dell.site for my computer.  So I guess what I am saying, is how are those people with the XPS 710 to have any more confidence?   As I've wrote before, I personally think Microsoft and Dell failed the customer miserably when they FAILED to work together on this retail version of Vista.  I mean it really is crazy when you think about it.  Retail versions is where the money is for Microsoft....not OEM versions!!!  So for this very reason, you'd think MS and Dell would've worked together on this to prevent such a ridiculous scenario.    Fortunately, my machine is back up now and working fine.  BUT I hate what I went through and hate to see so many other people having this problem.  Thanks for your post.

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Vista doesnt detect my hard drive

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