oparating system not found when booting is Sata option AHCI

[Thowgate]

so here what's wrong with my comp , i have an m17 r2 alienwAre laptop.in the bios menu the sata option HCAI is selected but when the comp boots it says no operating system is found when booting for bios sata option RAID it runs fine. But the comp should be on HCAI in order to run features that a specific to that computer . I have tryed reformatting but in HCAI it on finds the second of 2 500g hard drives but the partition with the boot is on hdd1 not hdd2 . Boot up again with RAID it finds both and and I can reformat . I have tryed to reset the registry and have tryed using drivermax to find out if I'm missing sata drivers I've also tryed reinstalling my bios from the dell/ Alienware site now im lost one what to do please help

 

[Sir George]

so here what's wrong with my comp , i have an m17 r2 alienwAre laptop.in the bios menu the sata option HCAI is selected but when the comp boots it says no operating system is found when booting for bios sata option RAID it runs fine. But the comp should be on HCAI in order to run features that a specific to that computer . I have tryed reformatting but in HCAI it on finds the second of 2 500g hard drives but the partition with the boot is on hdd1 not hdd2 . Boot up again with RAID it finds both and and I can reformat . I have tryed to reset the registry and have tryed using drivermax to find out if I'm missing sata drivers I've also tryed reinstalling my bios from the dell/ Alienware site now im lost one what to do please help

Are you referring to the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI)? I have never heard of HCAI as an acrnoym in computer terms. If you want to change from a RAID (dynamic) to basic disk it will require formatting the drives.

See the following article for some information;

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/understand-the-differences-between-basic-disks-and-dynamic-disks/5797060

HTH

 

[gregrocker]

It sounds like your computer was built with a RAID array with two HD's striped into one.

In order to change it to AHCI you'd need to undo the RAID array by accessing it when prompted before or on the BIOS splash screen. This may be in addition to changing the SATA controller setting in BIOS as you're doing. To find out for sure go to the Dell Support Downloads webpage for your exact model and read the Manual.

Then back up your data, unplug one HD, boot the Win7 installer to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.

Afterwards plug back in the other HD to use as storage. Keep a Win7 backup image so you never have to reinstall again. Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

 

[Thowgate]

hi yes sorry i ment AHCI

@ gregrocker so what your saying is Switch the SATA oparaion back to AHCI and then remove hdd2 and try to reinstall windows with a reformat? i not sure what you mean by "you'd need to undo the RAID array by accessing it when prompted" thanks for your help

 

[Thowgate]

So I changes the SATA options back to AHCI and remove hdd0 rebooted with windows install and it doesn't even show the hdd as there, tryed the Same with hdd1 and it shows it but I can't format or reinstall windows7 to it , looking in the bios with one hdd out that in my sata options where it shows the HDDS it have a " u " where it should say the HDDS memory . apon putting both HDDS back in and booting with raid again I can no longer get in to windows. Any help on this would be awesome thanks

 

[bobkn]

Do the drives appear in the PC's BIOS setup?

It's been a long time since I've broken a RAID array, but I think that you may need to fix the MBR for each disk.

How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows

 

[gregrocker]

As I stated there is often a RAID menu which shows up as the first or second screen when booting. That may need to be accessed to unRAID your BIOS and not just the SATA setting within BIOS setup alone.

Googling your model I found this on Laptop Review:

Originally Posted by NotebookNeophyte
How difficult is it to "UN-RAID 0" a laptop lol. I am probably going to be picking up an m17x R2 tomorrow and it comes with 2 256GB SSD in RAID 0. I'm not so sure I would want to keep them configured like this...the laptop will be wiped clean and come only with Windows 7. So what exactly does this entail?

You will need to go into the bus controller/RAID menu on startup and select "delete array," I believe. Another clean install will be required as you will lose all the data on both hard drives.

Again there is normally a RAID controller first booted into which needs to be accessed to delete the array, or unRAID.


Your Manual includes nothing about this. Have you asked at Dell chat or forums?