SATA Raid on Windows 7 x64

[Diamond Jim]

I have a Dell Precision Workstation 670 with two 500Gb SATA drives in a RAID1 array. I am trying to install Windows 7 Ultimate X64 but I cannot find any drivers that Windows will recognize. If I try to use the 32 bit drivers the computer is unstable and will go into a reboot loop. If I try to install any of the x64 drivers I have found they either will not show up in the window or the install tells me it cannot find any installed drives to put the OS onto.

HELP!!

Jim

 

[sk1939]

Try these drivers if you haven't already, the first one should do the trick:

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=R97711

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/RC1009777/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=R126744&FileId=2731114419&productCode=precision-670&urlProductCode=False

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/RC1009777/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?DriverId=R126744&FileId=2731114419&productCode=precision-670&urlProductCode=False

The problem is that the system is old enough that new drivers were not created past XP because it was declared End of Life. It may be time to upgrade your PC.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I understand what you are saying about an end of life system but it is REAL hard to argue with two dual core 2.8GhzPaxville Xeon Processors that are hyperthreaded with 16Gb of memory all for under $400 these days.

I'm sure I could upgrade but I have had very good success maxing out older systems and getting newer system performance out of them.

I know there are solutions out there because I have a Computer Reseller here in town that sells the Precision 670 with SATA RAID and Windows 7 x64 on them. They have offered to install it for me (at a price) but the network admin inside mew doesn't want to part with the money for something that I should be able to do myself.

I will give those drivers a try and let you know what I find.

Thank you,

Jim

 

[Diamond Jim]

I just went to download the drivers that you suggested.

The first is for an CERC SATA 1.5/6 and I am running a CERC SATA 2S,

The other two are pointing to the same file (R126744.exe) was there a third choice?

Thank you.
Jim

 

[sk1939]

There are two more actually:

This one is technically for Server 2003 64bit, but should work fine (although Dell's site is having issues).

http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/04/DriverDetails/DriverFileFormats?c=us&s=bsd&cs=04&l=en&DriverId=R126742

The R126744.exe file is a self extracting Zip that contains the Dell driver for the Adaptec HostRAID SATA 2S, for Windows XP 64bit. It may or may not work with the Win 7 installation, but give it a shot. You do need to load the drivers to a floppy disk though.

 

[Diamond Jim]

Well I have tried all of them and none allow Win7 to see the raid array. It will see the array if I install the 32 bit but will not finish the install.

I KNOW it can be done because there is a shop here in town that sells the 670 with Windows7 installed.

This is getting frustrating!

Jim

 

[sk1939]

They may sell it with Win7 installed, but do they install the 32 bit or 64 bit?

Also, these links may be of use to you:

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3514/p/19356466/19788846.aspx

http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/forums/dell/win-7-drivers-precision-670-a-276269.html

 

[Diamond Jim]

When I stopped in there last week they said that they sell the systems with Windows7 x64 installed and offered to install mine (for a price). I might go back over there and ask if I can get the drivers from them just to see what they say.

 

[Diamond Jim]

I do find it interesting that any mention of the actual driver name on the dell community website seems to have been edited out by the moderators. It appears they will go to great lengths to see that a product is obsolete so you will have to buy a new one for thousands of dollars just to get equal performance.

 

[sk1939]

I do find it interesting that any mention of the actual driver name on the dell community website seems to have been edited out by the moderators. It appears they will go to great lengths to see that a product is obsolete so you will have to buy a new one for thousands of dollars just to get equal performance.

Sad but true. It doesn't surprise me that they did that. I would try the PC shop, although it would be good enough if you even just got the driver file name.

 

[Diamond Jim]

Just for the heck of it I tried to install XP Pro x64 yesterday. When I got to the point where I had to install the SATA drivers I found out that they could only be installed from a FLOPPY!
Who has those anymore?

LOL

 

[sk1939]

Just for the heck of it I tried to install XP Pro x64 yesterday. When I got to the point where I had to install the SATA drivers I found out that they could only be installed from a FLOPPY!
Who has those anymore?

LOL

They still sell them, and according to Dell's documentation, that's all they have support for (XP x64). Your right that not many people have them anymore though.