Reformatting Hard Drive

[hk3008]

hi how are you I have a sony AR series 770 1080p laptop with dual 160g raid setup hard drives when I put the windows disc in (wich i tried without going into bios and changing the boot order) it goes the the first couple windows screens for the new windows install till it hits the select partition upgrade and where it shows the NTSC partition for the 320 total gigs it say "cannot create partition" or some other errors, I have tried taking the laptops hard drives out and plugging them into my desktop but only the secondary shows up in the other computer as well the laptop will not boot further then shortly past the bios then it goes blank and the "|" curser flashes in the left corner till you manually turn it off so..... my second question would be how do you format a primary hard drive from the laptop (or another computer for that fact) in my main computer when it won't show up ..... p.s. really need the first question answered because my desktop has quit working as well blah I turned it on a week ago and it came on for a second then turned off now it won't turn on unless I unplug it flip the power switch and and them reply it back it flip the switch then hit the power button it worked like this for 4 or 5 days then quit now after the sequence sight the power cord switch and button itll turn on for about 25 seconds reach the bios screen and turn itself off .... I ordered a POST card tester but it doesn't arrive for quite a while and I have a mortgage calculator due at any moment for my first programming class and no computer lol but any and all help would be greatly appreciated thankyou (and sorry was referenceing to the reformatting question on the initial post and decided to throw in the extra stuff, thanks again 8D )

 

[RetiredChief]

I assume that you went into the raid Bios and created the raid0, or 1 array. first.
then
Most likely you will need to hit the F6, load drivers" during install. You will need to get them off of the supplied CD, or the manufs website.
Need the F6 raid drivers.

Added only a suggestion and based on available funds -LOL:
You would be better off using a SSD for a boot drive, 10 x -> 40 x a raid0 setup using SLOWWWWWW HDDs.
In this case set the Bios to AHCI (Not raid), leave the HDD out while installing to an SSD. After installation then stick in the 2nd HDD.
NO installation hazzles, and If you do later, will have to redo your installation.

 

[jamie_1318]

If it can't access the partition and have RAID drivers installed, windows may have marked the partition as active and unable to install to it. Likely you would have to force it. If you can get the specific error message that could confirm that you have RAID drivers installed and everything else configured correctly.

 

[hk3008]

the raid setup was pre installed so I don't know what raid setup or array it has, as well Sony wants 40 $ for the setup cd with the drivers when it's going through the boot process it says
pxe-e61: media test failure check cable
pxe-m0f: existing pxe rom
operating system not found

Then stops right there now :/

 

[hk3008]

as well when I try to install windows and I'm on the "where do you want to install windows" page there is the option for refresh delete format new load driver and extend however all are grayed out but refresh load driver and new and when I click new it gives me the error "failed to create a new partition on the selected unused disk space. [error: 0x80042453].

 

[RetiredChief]

As indicated you need the F6 driver to load before windows can access the Drive(s)

 

[hk3008]

ok when I am in bios and in the windows installation screen I am pressing f6 and it just says save in bios and nothing in windows as well as I found what should be the drivers from sony's web site for the raid controllers drivers and nothing there any other suggestions or correct me if I followed the wrong step also I tried to go to seagates website and find drivers for the 160 gb momentos 5400rpm drives and their website says they are plug and play, can I take one of the drives out and turn raid off or anything else to that matter or even is there a bios reset switch in the case of the laptop like the battery in the desktop MB's ?

 

[RetiredChief]

F6 is not from BIOS screen.
Insert windows Installation disk. Select custom Install, On page showinf Where to install (probably dose not show HDD, BUT ON THAT page will be a check box for Have driver (F6). Check the box and then select continue. You will then be prompted for the driver - will need to point to the USB stick where you placed this file.

 

[jamie_1318]

Also you aren't looking for Hard Drive drivers, as they are always plug and play. You need the drivers for your RAID controller. You are going to have to fish around through your Laptop manufacturers website to find them. In this case Sony.

 

[RetiredChief]

If you do not want the raid0 set up, just go into the Raid set up and delete the array. Then you should have two HDDs that are unpartitioned and can install windows to one drive with out the need for the raid driver. Note: (1) set Bios from raid->ahci and (2) Disconnect one HDD when installing windows and reconnect after installation of Windows 7

 

[hk3008]

I went into the bios to disable the raid but on the main screen it wont let me choose and edit anything but the time and date but it shows the hdd drives and the ram along nwith the bios version machine name sserial number and UUID but will not let me edit anything here the next scgreen is advanced wich is just external drive boot and network boot enable and disable then security on the 3rd screen boot on the 4th and just drive boot order and exit and save changes on the last and final screen so I am lost :/

 

[RetiredChief]

Normally the "raid" bios is seperate from the System bios. On this machine I start the post Del key to get to regular Bios. To get to the raid setup screen I let the post continue and a screen comes up when checking the drives that indicate Clrtl I to enter raid Bios (For Gigabyte P55 MB).

 

[hk3008]

no luck I hit the key it enters the post setup and then there are no other options this is frustrating :/