High end Alienware Laptop Issues, no hard drives will be recognized. - Tech Support Forums

adema066 · February 13th, 2008, 11:51 PM

Ok, I just want to start by saying that this is my first post here, and I leave it to all of your collective knowledge to help me figure out a solution to this problem! On a related note, I'm no n00b with computers, but laptops are totally different when it comes down to hardware..so...with that being said, let me explain my situation..

It all started with the hard drive. Barely have had the computer over 2 years (just long enough for the warranty to be void, good job alienware) and the hard drive starts getting weird. By that I mean 50% of the time when I boot my computer it either starts windows normally, and loads windows normally or it just flat out says, "No Operating System Found". Okok, so I know it's the hard drive...no biggie, of course being the computer techie I like to think I am, and since the warranty was void and I'm not trying to get ripped off by alienware, I'm like, "I can fix this myself"...Or so I thought, I've had nothing but horrendous experiences trying to get a new hard drive installed...with that being said..

I buy my first hard drive...I decided to go the external route since I didn't want to necessarily have to mess with the internals of my laptop (even though I could). Ok, good deal, 500gb Seagate FreeAgent, everything checks out, I get a last boot out of my original internal HD and clone the partition to my external. Excellent right? Not quite, my computer, I come to find out, does not allow booting an OS from an external device...ok, retarded, but fair enough I suppose...

So I buy 2 different internal HD's, both being the same connection as the original, one was a Hitachi I believe, and the other was a Toshiba. Ok, so no matter WHAT I DO, windows and/or BIOS will NOT detect either of them with any settings, jumpers or not, even though I'm trying to make it the master (obviously) and no, neither worked on cable select either. With that being said, I still try to install windows, and f6 it up to install my controllers that are on my Utility CD that came with my Laptop. Ok, cool, windows will handle it right? No, I loaded like 20 different controllers, just to see if I could get one that was compatible (even though the ones of the Utility CD should do the job). So, it gets to where it's about to install windows xp (I'm using my restore disk, with SP2 on it(Home Edition, I also have the full non-restore version of xp, so it's not just that install) and it finds...wouldn't you know...NO HARD DRIVES.

Okok, so I figured, I will replace the hard drive with the SAME EXACT one as the original working one that was in there. I just got it earlier today, tried all the jumper settings, all the BIOS settings (my bios doesn't let me do a whole lot, thanks alienware) and loading a bunch of different controllers to no avail.

So what I'm looking for is some ideas or theories..I really don't want to have to bring it anywhere, and last time I talked to Alienware tech support, they tell me after all this, that it could be the MOBO...um, I haven't even had it barely 2 years dipshits, there's no way I'm paying to have a MOBO replaced when it's clearly their fault. ANyways, I'd like to hope its not the MOBO, hence posting here asking for suggestions and ideas to this. I'll include specs of my laptop, and currently I have the same exact replacement hard drive in my laptop.

Specs are as follows...
P4 3.4Ghz with HT technology
4GB DDR2 PC4200 SO-DIMM LEAD FREE
SEAGATE 100GB 7200RPM PATA
2 of 8x DVD burners
USB Floppy drive

Hmm, I can't think of anything else necessary so let me know if you need anything I left out. I can't install windows on my laptop (if you didn't catch that already so NO utilities through windows WILL work, and I've tried a whole BUNCH of DOS Utilities.

Steve R Jones · February 14th, 2008, 02:22 PM

Is the drive detected in the BIOS?
If not, is there a setting to switch it to AUTO?

adema066 · February 14th, 2008, 02:50 PM

Only thing in BIOS that wasn't there originally when I had a working windows on my original hard drive is PCI SCSI, which isn't even hard drive related because this is PATA connection for starters. No, BIOS only shows the two DVD drives, and that's it. My BIOS is retarded and does not let me set anything to AUTO, and I've tried DOS programs to scan the controllers and ports, and nothing shows up except the DVD drives..

Keymaker · February 14th, 2008, 03:49 PM

What model?

Last resort is to re-flash the BIOS.

I have a felling that there is a certain step that you aren't doing right.

You mention PCI SCSI? This is a laptop? There's PCI controller cards for SCSI?

You do not have to clone a partition to an external drive to use it. Just plug her in and look in My Computer for the drive. Operating a computer from a external hard drive that has your OS would negate the purpose of a "fast laptop"

What are the models of these two hard drives and the one that is original. They are all 500 GByte models?

adema066 · February 14th, 2008, 04:09 PM

Re-flashed the BIOS countless upon countless times, does not change anything in the least. I'm just telling you what's new in BIOS boot order that was never there before I had all these HD problems. The PCI SCSI I've never seen or even knew about before, so I have nothing on that. Yeah, plug it in look on "My Computer" with what windows installation? I said I cannot access windows, the time I managed to was the LAST time before my original Hard drive died so I cloned the partition to the external, and my PC doesn't allow external boot devices so I will get a BLUE SCREEN error every time I try to load windows from the external. The external is the 500gb Seagate FreeAgent, and the internal is the same as the original one was, but a brand new one, thats a 100gb 7200rpm 2.5in Seagate Momentus 7200.1

DNichols13 · April 3rd, 2008, 03:36 AM

Ever find anything that fixed the issue. I'm currently going through the same thing

crazydrummer18 · May 11th, 2008, 09:18 AM

i'm having the same problem but i believe its a raid oriented thing for some reason the laptop shows the drives in their raid config. but not in the bios any one who can help please do.

Keymaker · May 11th, 2008, 09:33 AM

What are the exact BIOS boot options? What model is the Alienware laptop?

When you first install the OS it will ask if you need to install a third party driver. Perhaps that is the case here. However, I guess the hard drive doesn't even show up in BIOS? There has got to be a setting or something that must be looked at. I would love to see what the BIOS looks like..

crazydrummer18 · May 11th, 2008, 10:46 AM

i have an alienware d9t laptop. in the bios there is an advanced option to set the drives as raid,ata,or disabled. when i set them to raid they don't appear in the bios when they are set to ata or disabled they appear in the bios as two seperate drives. i am trying to reformat and install xp so when i put in the alienware recovery cd or my xp mediacenter cd it doesn't recognize the drives if you can help please do!

Keymaker · May 11th, 2008, 11:13 AM

Okay, I think the drives need to be in ATA first. Then Install mediacenter, but when it asks you for the RAID driver, you need to install that before you continue with the mediacenter installation. The RAID driver can probably be obtained at Alienware's site. When you have installed the raid driver and operating system, go back into BIOS and change ata to raid.

I have never did a raid setup, so me thinks I have this right.

Pretty sure..

I forgot. When you go to install a raid driver it will ask for a floppy disk. Well, you haven't got one. So you have some options.. Either customize medaicenter with the raid driver already on the CD with nLite, use a USB stick or USB floppy drive. That is if the BIOS can detect and read from the USB port.

http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/...windows-xp-cd/