Unable to boot Raid Failure

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I have a new Dell XPS using Raid in a striped array. Last night while attempting to burn a DVD, computer crashed. Now I just get as far as the opening screen saying “F2 for setup F1 to reboot”.

In setup, both hard drives are normal but the Raid is “failed”.
Dell says its “toast” and that I will have to reload Windows after formatting my hard drives.

Is there anything else I can attempt before going through with the formatting?

Is there any way to copy files before doing this (under Windows 98, you could boot to a floppy and enter Dos commands).

Thanks.

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Uh-oh, RAID level 0? That is not a fault-tolerant configuration (more RAID info). If the system partition was striped, you are going to have a heck of a time booting without the RAID controller working correctly. It would be nice if they’d at least send you a new controller to try the data recovery… or is the problem something on the drives themselves? In theory you could use a bootable CD and see if that gives you access.

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Uh-oh, RAID level 0? That is not a fault-tolerant configuration (more RAID info). If the system partition was striped, you are going to have a heck of a time booting without the RAID controller working correctly. It would be nice if they’d at least send you a new controller to try the data recovery… or is the problem something on the drives themselves? In theory you could use a bootable CD and see if that gives you access.

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You might want to try adding a working hard drive with an O/S or moving the RAID array to a working PC (that supports RAID) and boot to the single HDD, back up the data from the RAID then reformat.

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You might want to try adding a working hard drive with an O/S or moving the RAID array to a working PC (that supports RAID) and boot to the single HDD, back up the data from the RAID then reformat.

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I had something similar happen on my (non-Dell) computer. In the RAID setup in the BIOS, I was able to recreate the array (may have had to first delete it and then create it) and select the option to NOT reformat. Computer booted normally with all data and programs intact. Best I can tell, a bit in the BIOS was clobbered and making the computer “forget” the RAID setup. Going through the delete/create cycle reset it.

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I had something similar happen on my (non-Dell) computer. In the RAID setup in the BIOS, I was able to recreate the array (may have had to first delete it and then create it) and select the option to NOT reformat. Computer booted normally with all data and programs intact. Best I can tell, a bit in the BIOS was clobbered and making the computer “forget” the RAID setup. Going through the delete/create cycle reset it.

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