dell precision t3400 troubles

[tobiaslee]

got a used dell precision t3400 and trying to boot it up on single sata drive
the options in bios sata operations is raid auto detect/achi
raid autodetect/ata and raid on
it says onboard sata drive is not present
but shows the 3 16gig sata drives and have win 7 pro 64bit up and running

 

[Ketchup]

So what is your question? The BIOS info? No worries. I have seen Dells and HPs before where it looked like they missed the removal of a BIOS option or two. It looks like that's all that happened here. You can look on Dell's website for a newer BIOS. But if the system is running fine otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[tobiaslee]

So what is your question? The BIOS info? No worries. I have seen Dells and HPs before where it looked like they missed the removal of a BIOS option or two. It looks like that's all that happened here. You can look on Dell's website for a newer BIOS. But if the system is running fine otherwise, I wouldn't worry about it.

i want to run the system on a single 160 hard drive

 

[Ketchup]

Edit: that would require a complete re-install of Windows. If you don't have the restore disks, Dell can provide them for a small fee.

 

[tobiaslee]

do not care i want to use the other hard drives in other projects but the issue is that the computer will not see a eternal sata drive it only sees the drives already assigned

 

[Ketchup]

So you want it to boot from an external drive? It won't. They gotta be connected to the motherboard sata connectors, and the drive will need an os installed since it's a new configuration

If you are asking for something different, please be more specific about what you are trying to do.

 

[tobiaslee]

So you want it to boot from an external drive? It won't. They gotta be connected to the motherboard sata connectors, and the drive will need an os installed since it's a new configuration

If you are asking for something different, please be more specific about what you are trying to do.

what i mean is it has 3 160 gig drives and i want it to boot from a single internal sata drive but its not seeing the onboard sata drive
i even updated the bios to Ao14 but its still not working

 

[Ketchup]

Ok, I think I see your quandry. Select AHCI, save changes, and reboot. Use your OS install media booting the computer and let us know how far it gets. Don't worry if the BIOS menu doesn't readily show your drive. The important things at this point are the the location of the OS installer is first (dvd, usb, etc), and that and RAID options in the BIOS are disabled.

 

[Ketchup]

Also, I don't know exactly how these are set up, but from what I have been reading about this model, you probably will want to go into the RAID bios first and remove the array.

 

[tobiaslee]

Also, I don't know exactly how these are set up, but from what I have been reading about this model, you probably will want to go into the RAID bios first and remove the array.

there is no option for ACHI by its self the options are
sata operations is raid auto detect/achi
raid autodetect/ata and raid on

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you don't care what's on the current drives, it sounds like they are configured for RAID. Connect them one-by-one to another PC as a secondary drive, one that only has AHCI and not an auto-RAID setting, boot to Windows, open an administrative Command Prompt, run DISKPART.

Here's where things get important to be accurate.
LIST DISK
See your target drive listed.
SELECT DISK #
This selects your disk as the active target for commands.
LIST DISK
Should show the selected disk indicated.

Warning: These commands wipe the data off of the disk.
CLEAN ALL

 

[Ketchup]

there is no option for ACHI by its self the options are
sata operations is raid auto detect/achi
raid autodetect/ata and raid on

Like I said in my comment that you quoted, you probably need to go into the RAID BIOS and remove the array first. That should allow you to load Windows on a single drive. You may need to go back into the regular BIOS immediately after deleting the array to make sure the boot settings are correct.

 

[Oasmcler]

got a used dell precision t3400 and trying to boot it up on single sata drive for dell password reset
the options in bios sata operations is raid auto detect/achi
raid autodetect/ata and raid on
it says onboard sata drive is not present
but shows the 3 16gig sata drives and have win 7 pro 64bit up and running

I'm very disappointed about dell , last week ,I set my USB CD ROM as primary boot device on the dell menu, I inserted the disk and restarted several times without any success. Anyway,I Stil can not access my dell . I guess the next best thing is to try and repair it with a Windows boot CD?