Sony VGC-RB57GY Desktop with Raid 0 issue

[Nolan]

Purchased my computer off UBID (Maybe my first mistake). After 6 months the computer crashed while trying to X out of Word. I clicked on the X and the computer didn't do anything. I powered it off and on again... it never booted up. When I power up the computer the Sony banner page displays however, the computer stops before the Windows banner page. After a few seconds the display says " Not a bootable Device".

I suspected one of the hard drives. Now to the part where I need help.

This machine is setup as a RAID 0. I want to reload this thing from scratch and disolve the raid 0 function. I want two simple drives c: & d:. I have purchased a new drive to replace the bad drive and installed the old and the new drives. I'm totally aware that I will loose everything. That is okay. The problem is after purchasing the drive and reinstalling/installing them. I cannot load XP PRO. It doesn't see the hard drive(s). Its appears like the Raid 0 still exsist in the BIOS. I have deleted everything availble to me in BOIS. I do see the new drive in the BIOS ... Maxtor 160 Sata II .

What do I need to do?

 

[rwpritchett]

Did you try to delete the array in the RAID controller BIOS? This is separate from the motherboard BIOS. Usually you have to push CTL-I or CTL-H to get into the RAID functions after POST.

 

[billystringer]

Is this onboard raid or a discreet card? If it's onboard then just set your bios settings to default. Since onboard raid is controlled through the system bios, and off by default, this should work.

-The String

 

[Nolan]

I was able to use the CTRL - I command to go into the RAID setup. I removed all volumes that were represented there. Rebooted once again and tried to go into that same area to determine weather the change was accepted. CTRL - I didn't work any longer. I tried it two other times... I then tried loading XP once again thinking the RAID option was deleted. The XP reload proceeded until it got to the place in which it asked if I wanted to… (delete the partition) or (load to the existing partition), etc. Since there were no partitions to delete I chose to create one. I chose “C”. The XP install didn’t quit immediately however, it eventually said that it could not find any hard drives.

...the same as before.

Bummer!

 

[Nolan]

You can see in the thread I tried deleting the raid stuff that existed. I was successful. Also you can see that didn't work. I then went into the BIOS and set the BIOS to default and saved and exited as you instructed.

...same thing.