Coolname007
Distinguished Member
Ok, this is my first post here in a while.
I hope you guys still remember me.
I just recently purchased a new laptop computer system, an Alienware M17x R3, which has a RAID 0 volume setup for 2 hardrives of 500 GBs each.
I'm attempting to multiboot Win 7 Ultimate (which came preinstalled on the laptop) with Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu 11.10. But I'm learning
multibooting is a lot tougher with a RAID system (which I figured it would be). Now let me describe the current state of where I am in the installation
process. I have installed XP, but not Ubuntu yet (since I'm having issues with the Ubuntu installer not seeing my RAID partitions at all, even though
I've already installed it once on this laptop, but then later removed it, since I forgot about the 4 primary partition limit, and ended up reaching the
max with the Ubuntu partition, which I stupidly selected to make primary instead of a logical partition within an extended, when I made the original
install happen). However, the problem is, Windows XP cannot see Windows 7, and vice versa. Basically, what I figure is the reason for that, is the
first time I tried to install XP, I hit a BSOD stop error with SATA RAID mode in BIOS, so I switched it to ATA mode instead, and managed to bypass
that and install XP. Now, the thing is, when you turn off RAID mode in BIOS, the computer no longer sees the RAID setup (though no surprise there),
and thus does not see both hard drives of 500 GBS as a single hard drive, and also does not see the partitions setup on that RAID volume. Thus,
when I installed XP, I ended up having to select to install it on the second hard drive (Win 7 is installed on the first hard drive of the RAID array).
And so now, when i want to boot into XP, I have to make sure SATA mode is ATA, not RAID, in BIOS, and I have to make sure the second hard
drive of the RAID array is set as first in the boot order. What also sucks is, since XP was installed outside of the RAID array, it basically only
sees itself as a single partition on one drive (with the drive letter E), and it sees a C: "unformatted" volume, which when I double-click to open
it in My Computer, it offers to format it (which of course I don't want to do, since I would overwrite Win 7, along with the Dell Utility partition and
the Recovery partition which is on there). Now, note that from Win 7 (which is installed on the first hard drive of the Raid 0 array), the C: partition
which contains Win 7 basically sees itself as having 852 GBs (roughly), which means its seeing the second hard drive of the RAID array (which
now contains XP) as part of the Win 7 partition, which obviously wont do for my multiboot.
So obviously, EasyBCD doesn't see XP at all, and thus wont allow me to create an XP entry for the XP installation in the BCD. And neither does
XP see Win 7, so the two operating systems can't copy files back and forth between each other, which is what I really need it to do. Also
note that Win 7 doesn't boot in ATA mode (no surprise there), nor does it (unfortunately) boot in AHCI mode either. It will only boot in RAID mode.
So how do I solve this problem? Basically, I want Win 7 and XP (and also Ubuntu, if I can ever install it again) to see each other, so that I can move
and/or copy files from one to the other without any issues. Also, I would obviously like to be able to select any operating system which is installed from the boot
menu of the BCD at startup. Anyone else get a RAID system multiboot working here?
Thanks in advance.
Note that I've considered creating another RAID volume with the Dell Configuration Utility which is accessible at startup by clicking Ctrl + I, and possibly installing
XP on that, but still XP doesn't seem to like RAID at all, so I imagine that probably wont work well either. I already went ahead (right before I installed it) and downloaded
the RAID driver for my system, and put it on a floppy disk, which I loaded during XP installation (by pressing F6 during setup), and selected it to install it, along with
some kind of hard drive controller which went along with it, so in theory it was installed (though the installer gave me no confirmation as to whether it did or not,
so I don't know for sure). But still it can't boot in RAID mode, it has to be ATA mode in BIOS. So that's a serious problem right there. But I might be able to work
around it by installing Intel Matrix Storage Manager (which fixed a similar issue on my other laptop, though it was AHCI, not RAID, that XP couldn't boot in), if I can
find one for this system. A quick Google search right now didn't turn up one in the first page of results anyway.
I hope you guys still remember me.
I just recently purchased a new laptop computer system, an Alienware M17x R3, which has a RAID 0 volume setup for 2 hardrives of 500 GBs each.
I'm attempting to multiboot Win 7 Ultimate (which came preinstalled on the laptop) with Windows XP Pro and Ubuntu 11.10. But I'm learning
multibooting is a lot tougher with a RAID system (which I figured it would be). Now let me describe the current state of where I am in the installation
process. I have installed XP, but not Ubuntu yet (since I'm having issues with the Ubuntu installer not seeing my RAID partitions at all, even though
I've already installed it once on this laptop, but then later removed it, since I forgot about the 4 primary partition limit, and ended up reaching the
max with the Ubuntu partition, which I stupidly selected to make primary instead of a logical partition within an extended, when I made the original
install happen). However, the problem is, Windows XP cannot see Windows 7, and vice versa. Basically, what I figure is the reason for that, is the
first time I tried to install XP, I hit a BSOD stop error with SATA RAID mode in BIOS, so I switched it to ATA mode instead, and managed to bypass
that and install XP. Now, the thing is, when you turn off RAID mode in BIOS, the computer no longer sees the RAID setup (though no surprise there),
and thus does not see both hard drives of 500 GBS as a single hard drive, and also does not see the partitions setup on that RAID volume. Thus,
when I installed XP, I ended up having to select to install it on the second hard drive (Win 7 is installed on the first hard drive of the RAID array).
And so now, when i want to boot into XP, I have to make sure SATA mode is ATA, not RAID, in BIOS, and I have to make sure the second hard
drive of the RAID array is set as first in the boot order. What also sucks is, since XP was installed outside of the RAID array, it basically only
sees itself as a single partition on one drive (with the drive letter E), and it sees a C: "unformatted" volume, which when I double-click to open
it in My Computer, it offers to format it (which of course I don't want to do, since I would overwrite Win 7, along with the Dell Utility partition and
the Recovery partition which is on there). Now, note that from Win 7 (which is installed on the first hard drive of the Raid 0 array), the C: partition
which contains Win 7 basically sees itself as having 852 GBs (roughly), which means its seeing the second hard drive of the RAID array (which
now contains XP) as part of the Win 7 partition, which obviously wont do for my multiboot.
So obviously, EasyBCD doesn't see XP at all, and thus wont allow me to create an XP entry for the XP installation in the BCD. And neither does
XP see Win 7, so the two operating systems can't copy files back and forth between each other, which is what I really need it to do. Also
note that Win 7 doesn't boot in ATA mode (no surprise there), nor does it (unfortunately) boot in AHCI mode either. It will only boot in RAID mode.
So how do I solve this problem? Basically, I want Win 7 and XP (and also Ubuntu, if I can ever install it again) to see each other, so that I can move
and/or copy files from one to the other without any issues. Also, I would obviously like to be able to select any operating system which is installed from the boot
menu of the BCD at startup. Anyone else get a RAID system multiboot working here?
Thanks in advance.
Note that I've considered creating another RAID volume with the Dell Configuration Utility which is accessible at startup by clicking Ctrl + I, and possibly installing
XP on that, but still XP doesn't seem to like RAID at all, so I imagine that probably wont work well either. I already went ahead (right before I installed it) and downloaded
the RAID driver for my system, and put it on a floppy disk, which I loaded during XP installation (by pressing F6 during setup), and selected it to install it, along with
some kind of hard drive controller which went along with it, so in theory it was installed (though the installer gave me no confirmation as to whether it did or not,
so I don't know for sure). But still it can't boot in RAID mode, it has to be ATA mode in BIOS. So that's a serious problem right there. But I might be able to work
around it by installing Intel Matrix Storage Manager (which fixed a similar issue on my other laptop, though it was AHCI, not RAID, that XP couldn't boot in), if I can
find one for this system. A quick Google search right now didn't turn up one in the first page of results anyway.