Hi,

Have you connected two hard drives on your computer and have enabled RAID in BIOS? Also, please let me know the default option selected for RAID in BIOS. 

You can run a diagnostic test on your computer to check if it is an issue with the hard drive of your computer following the steps below:

• Please restart the system.
• As soon as you see the blue Dell logo, start tapping the ‘F12’ key which is at the top of the keyboard.

Note: If you wait too long and the Microsoft Windows appears, then continue to wait until you see the Windows desktop. Now shutdown your computer and try again.

• After we have pressed ‘F12’ key then a new window will appear. Now highlight the “Boot to utility partition” and press ‘Enter’. 

Hello,

     Thank you for your response.  When I try to go into "Boot to utility partition" it tells me it is unavailable. There is only one hard drive, and the default option is set to "RAID on".

     And yes the hard drive is getting detected in the bios.

Hi,

Thank you for your quick response. You can change the Sata Operations to 'RAID Off'. Ttry debugging the hard drive and then re-installation of Operating system. Before you proceed, I will advise you to take a complete backup of your data (pictures, music, applications, videos, documents) as this step leads to complete data loss. Remove all the external peripherals (like printers, scanners, any USB device except keyboard and mouse) connected to your computer. 

The steps to debug the hard drive are listed below:

1. Boot to Resource DVD.

• Insert the Resource DVD in the CD/DVD drive and restart the computer.
• Tap the F12 at Dell logo to access the ‘One Time Boot Menu’.
• Press the ‘Down’ arrow key to highlight CD/DVD drive and press ‘Enter’.
• When the message ‘Press any key to boot from CD’ appears, immediately press any key on keyboard.

2. Once the system boots to the Resource DVD please select the option ‘Quit without any action’

3. It would present a prompt window. On the prompt windows, type the following commands:

• Type C: and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of C:\>, type debug and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of –F, type 200 L1000 0 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of –A, type CS:100 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:0100, type MOV AX,301 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:0103, type MOV BX,200 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:0106, type MOV CX,1 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:0109, type MOV DX,80 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:010C, type INT 13 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:010E, type INT 20 and press ‘Enter’.
• In front of xxxx:0110, press ‘Enter’.
• In front of -G, press ‘Enter’.
• When you see ‘Program terminated normally’ press

This would delete all partitions from the hard drive. Try re-installing the Windows and see if it works.

For more information on this, you can refer to the link: http://bit.ly/OnWmh2 

Please reply in case you have further questions.

I know that this is an old thread, but I am having difficulty at the moment with a rebuild of an E520. In short, the problem is that the computer will not boot from the hard drive with the RAID set to on. I have tried a clean install of Windows 7 Pro on a new SSD with the RAID set to On in the BIOS but the computer will not boot unless I either a) have the windows installation disc in the CD ROM drive, or b) hit F12 and go into the Boot menu and manually select the SSD. I have now managed to install Windows to the SSD with RAID set to AutoDetect/ATA and it seems to boot OK. However, I want to be able to install 2 HDDs in RAID 1 for data storage and I fear that having installed Windows with RAID off, if I switch to RAID on it will not boot correctly. The weird thing is I have another E520 with Windows installed on an SSD (same manufacturer and model: Intel 530) and two 500Gb HDDs in RAID 1 and the whole thing works perfectly. I cannot figure out what is going on. Any insights into this vexing issue would be greatly appreciated.

Eureka! I have found the solution. In the BIOS in the Boot Sequence section when RAID is On, there is a statement that "Only devices that are preceded by a number are bootable (the space key controls whether a particular device is bootable)." All I had to do was to select the SSD drive in the list and press the space bar. It assigned a number to the drive and the machine boots perfectly to Windows with RAID enabled. This had been frustrating me for two weeks and it was all solved with one simple key stroke. Interestingly, there is no mention of this in the user manual. In any event, I have learned something and for any readers of this thread, this should solve the problem.