Hard Drive problems galore..

[SystmDcln]

Just recently bought a new hard drive for my laptop.(Seagate momentus 5400rpm/PATA). Upon installing the hard drive I have encountered nothing but problems. I purchased the computer from Widow PC, and when I ordered it I requested the drive be done in RAID 0. I had to reformat it once and use a floppy disk and the f6 function to install RAID drivers, and I have sense forgotten where that disk is, and do not know how to create another. Below is a list of problems and information. I hope somebody out there can help me..I'm beyond lost on this one.

Computer: Sting 917 (Widow PC)
BIOS: Phoenix cME FirstBIOS Notebook Pro V146 1.00.07

When I boot up I see the following:

CPU = Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
1023M System RAM Passed
2048K Cache SRAM Passed
System BIOS shadowed
Video BIOS shadowed
ATAPI CD-ROM: PHILLIPS CD-RW/DVD-ROM SCB5265
Mouse Initialized

As I mentioned before when I bought the laptop I had to option to put the Hard Drive in RAID. I chose RAID 0 (Performance). When I installed the hard drive I was getting "No Array Defined" so I defined it as RAID 0. Now in the BIOS I have the option of "ATA Mode" or "RAID Mode", and I get the same outcome for either mode. If I put my cd in to install Windows I go to the screen to install, and once I get to where I can choose,make,edit a partition to put it on, any option gets me a Blue Screen telling me to disable caching,shadowing etc (I can't find these options in my BIOS)

It also shows the HDD in the boot up(after the first screen listed above). See the following:

SATA378 TX2p(tm) BIOS Version 1.00.0.33
(c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. All Rights reserved

D0 ST9160821A 149GB Ultra DMA 5

IDE BUS Master Enabled

-or-

System Configurating Data Uploaded

...then it reboots goes to the BIOS screen above..and then goes to "Operating system not found" unless the Windows XP CD is in the drive..then it goes in to that setup.

I've also got the following message on a few boot attempts:

FastTrak 378 (tm) BIOS Version 1.00.1.35
(c) 2002-2005 Promise Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
Scanning IDE drive.........................................................


BIOS Not Installed!

 

[SystmDcln]

Suppose I'm beyond help?

 

[sPlAtOiD]

If you could find out what your motherboard is you can get the files to make your floppy disk for your raid drivers. Then you could clean the hard off and restart with the Raid disk.I have fought with raid setups for many days and on some motherboards i've just given up.

 

[SystmDcln]

Appreciate the reply. Without being able to get in to the OS I really don't know how to find out what the mother board is. All I know is that it's the same mother board used on Alienware Area52 Laptops. I'll try to find out.

 

[Brunoboy]

This may be worth a try mate . If you can get your hands on a Linux CD, I recomend PCLinux, its KDE based, you may be able to get the Live cd to run (runs the operating system without actually installing). Then you go to KINFO CENTRE, thats on PCLinux anyway and it tells you all the hardware installed, pheriferals etc. I have used this method a few times especially to find out what the make and model of onboard sound and graphics are. Because windows can't tell me what drivers to look for, not even doing a custom live update. If it has trouble starting make sure you select start in safe mode. Worth a try i reckon. Hope you get it sorted mate. Cheers.

 

[SystmDcln]

Dude..I don't know why I didn't think of that. You -may- have just saved my life. I'm going to give that a shot tonight when I get home from work. I haven't used Linux in about a year..but eh it's not that hard. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Brunoboy]

No worries mate, just hope it tells the board info for you. I use PCLinux quite a bit, second partition, dual boot. Looks great with the 3d desktop and what i love is on every comp i have installed it on, after the install it all just WORKS ! The only complications i've had is with getting a Canon printer installed. But got there in the end thanks to a guy on the PCLinux forum. Let me know how you get on. Cheers.

 

[EricB]

get the controller driver from here

here's how you update you xp cd to have almost all drivers. you need the driver packs and the driver base software. here are the links

http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/

DriverPacks.net > DriverPacks > DriverPacks BASE

download driverbase. put your downloaded driver packs files in the driver pack folder that you get when you extract driver base download with 7zip

7-Zip

extract driver base. put your driver zip files in the right folder.

open driver base. click the arrows to get to the next screen. notice that i have an xp folder on my desktop (I have 2 actually. I use ryanvm integrater to slipstream all of xp updates into the disc too). you need the files there as driver doesn't copy your xp cd files to the hdd. you have to manually do it yourself or use nlite to copy the files to the hdd

if you put the files in the right place you will see the drivers on this screen. just follow the steps leaving the default options. you can change them if you understand them.

when you are done use nlite to create a bootable iso file from the folder.

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