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

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.

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

 

Dell will release RAID drivers, likely in the next few weeks.

 

You can, Re-install XP

 

or

 

Disable RAID & install Vista

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.

 

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

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.

Do you think we may get those drivers soon?.

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.

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?