No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified - Dell M43MT but with RAID

[stuzathegreat]

Hi Guys

i originaly purchased a Dell 435MT I7 with 6 gig ram.

I used the onboard raid controller to control my raid 0 data array. I then used a Silicon Image PCI-E raid card to stripe two raptors and had no problems.

I've now purchased a Rocketraid 620+SSD and taken out the raptors. I setup the SSD in bios to be second boot device AFTER HD/BD drive. Just to be sure, I put the Win 7 DVD into the drive, rebooted (remember, it has no operating system at this point), F12'd and forced boot from the DVD...... i then get the following error:

"No Diagnostic Utility Partition Identified: Press any key to reboot"


So, my questions are:

1 - Why did I not get this error when I RAID'd the O/S first time around with the Raptors?
2 - If I download these utilities from Dell, create the Diag CD-ROM, how Do I then install the RAID drivers so that the Dell diag CD can see the RocketRaid/SSD?
3 - Is there anyway to by-pass this BS? I don't want to waist space and time doing this!

4 - Why is life never easy?


Thanks!!!

 

[COLGeek]

Sounds like your Dell didn't pickup the DVD (remember to hit any key....) and instead reverted to the on-board diagnostics. To use Dell's diagnostic tool, you do have to set up the paritition it requires. Go to dell.com/support to download, get the instructions, and install.

Answers to your 4 questions:
1. Why not the first time? You likely either already had a partition installed under your old config or you simply didn't use the diagnostics.
2. If you download....Yes, you should see everything if all are installed properly.
3. Anyway to bypass? Be sure to watch the screen prompts when booting from your Windows DVD in the event you need to press any key to enter Windows.
4. Why is life never easy? What would be the "fun" in that?

Good luck!

 

[stuzathegreat]

Thanks Geek

1 - Nope, these disks did not come with the dell and were installed after by me. After some investigation it appears that Dell have made it some sort of requirement that the boot disk has the diag system partition installed on it however, this is only in newere BIOS updates. So, with this "update" it won't boot without it.

2 - cool.

3 - Found one! The same thread that told me about the diag also suggests configuring the boot disk/array, unplugging and then try booting. Bizarly, this works! Once booting you can then plug them back in (don't you love the modern days of hotplug SATA!) and continue on with the install. Once this has been done for some strange reason there is no further need for the diag partition.

4 - been in IT far to many years, i'm now knocking on 40 years old and "just want stuff to work". Sigh :/


Thanks though for your help! All looks good now

 

[COLGeek]

I hear you on the "just want stuff to work" desires. BTW, you are a youngster, knocking on 40.....Glad you got everything working! HOOAH!!!

 

[Guest]

Thanks Geek

1 - Nope, these disks did not come with the dell and were installed after by me. After some investigation it appears that Dell have made it some sort of requirement that the boot disk has the diag system partition installed on it however, this is only in newere BIOS updates. So, with this "update" it won't boot without it.

2 - cool.

3 - Found one! The same thread that told me about the diag also suggests configuring the boot disk/array, unplugging and then try booting. Bizarly, this works! Once booting you can then plug them back in (don't you love the modern days of hotplug SATA!) and continue on with the install. Once this has been done for some strange reason there is no further need for the diag partition.

4 - been in IT far to many years, i'm now knocking on 40 years old and "just want stuff to work". Sigh :/


Thanks though for your help! All looks good now

I don't quite understand what you did in step 3. Can you give more detail. I have a system I'm putting a new SSD into and am having the same issue. Can't get it to boot from the Windows 7 CD. How (in detail) did you get around this again?

 

[Olderthanyou]

I don't quite understand what you did in step 3. Can you give more detail. I have a system I'm putting a new SSD into and am having the same issue. Can't get it to boot from the Windows 7 CD. How (in detail) did you get around this again?

I have the same computer and the same issue. I thought that "Step #3" was a bit confusing, but I figured it out and sure enough it worked! Thank you StuzaTheGreat!!!!

Here's what I did in detail. Please read my disclaimer below. I am not telling you what to do, only sharing what I did.

I removed my old hard drives (it was a RAID stripping system with one bad unit)
I put in a new hard drive
I connected both the power and the data cable to the new drive
I inserted the old OS startup disc that came with my 435mt
I powered on the computer with the side panel of the tower still open
After the initial "Dell" logo, I pushed f12 and then f2 (don't know why both, but I needed to go this route)
The Bios setup window allowed me to change the order of the boot up options, and I set it to go to my optical drive first.
I also changed the drive setting from RAID to ATA
I unplugged the data cable to the new hard drive
I pushed f10 to save and exit the setup
The Bootup menu appeared.
I verified that optical was first in line for boot up and exited
The computer began to load from the optical disc
There was a countdown from 9, during which I was instructed to push any key
I quickly reconnected the data cable to the new harddrive
I pushed the any key
IT WORKED, and I continued to install the OS on my new HDD

I can't fully explain why this worked (well maybe I can, but you don't care).
I suspect that you could do this with different steps, however I tried doing a couple of things differently without success.
It took me about 4 trys to get it to work.

DISCLAIMER - I'm sharing what I did, not telling you what you should do. There are lots of reasons why this is a risky fix, not the least of which is a real danger of electrocuting yourself or worse yet - destroying some precious hardware. Dell says "keep the case closed when ANY power source is connected." They're right. It's solid advice, so I'll restate it: Keep the case closed when plugged in.