Read update first, before the garbled mess below please! Hey there all, it's been quite some time since I have been on the forum! Anyway, I have an AORUS X7 (gen 1) With upgraded RAM and storage. It has 32GB of Corsair RAM, and 2 1TB Samsung 840 EVO MSATA drives in RAID 0 as well as a 2.5" 1TB Samsung 840 EVO SATA drive. Other than that, the laptop is completely stock. Anyway, it had Windows 8.1 on it, along with Steam, and various other programs (you can fit a lot on 3TB of solid state). None of the files that I had on the computer were ciritical, or anything like that, so it's no great loss. However, the reason that I lost the RAID array (I think) is that I was goofing around with a USB drive that had a bootable Ubuntu image on it, and when it booted into the Ubuntu OS from the USB drive, there are a few options for what you would like to do. One of them is "Something Else" and from what I gather, that one is for creating new partitions, and things along those lines, since I didn't really want to go through deleting my old RAID array. I suppose that at this point, I should mention that I recently went to college, and I went across the US (from Washington State, to Washington DC) so I don't have any of the backups that I had made previously anywhere near me. I made the decision to simply install a new copy of Windows 8.1 PRO, since I had one anyway. I just really need to know if the method outlined here: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/windows/3435649/how-install-windows-8-upgrade-on-empty-hard-drive/ is still an accurate way to install windows 8 (and presumably 8.1?) on a new, or reformatted hard drive. If anyone has any better ideas for how to do this, that would be awesoeme! Anyway, I should also say that in the BIOS, the two MSATA drives still show up, so I deleted the old (failed) RAID volume, and created a new one. Also of note, the SATA SSD showed up before I reset the RAID volume, but I haven't seen it in the BIOS since I updated the RAID volume. Is there a reason for that, or do I have a dead SSD in my laptop now? Anyway, lesson learned that I should really just create an entire separate partition for Linux/Ubuntu before I start actually trying to install it! The Ubuntu version was 13.04 LTS, if anyone is curious. I guess my main question here is, does anyone know of a way to better protect my drives, or should I just make sure to keep up on my backups? Thanks, Kevin P.S. I know, I'm amazing at getting myself into trouble spots with computers... Anyway, on the plus side, I have no classes for the next three days! Update: I have gotten the computer up and running, however, the 2.5" drive doesn't show up anywhere. It isn't in the BIOS, and I can't see it in the file explorer system in windows, or the disk management area. I have not disassembled the laptop to check the connection, but based on the fact that it was working about 5 hours ago, and I have not dropped, or otherwise roughly handled the laptop, I don't think that it is the physical connection. Any suggestions?
Jeez. Wall of text. Break it up into paragraphs, man! There's an easier way to install Win 8 from a USB. I'll tell you how. Firstly, get the .ISO file and put it onto a bootable memory stick through whichever means you wish to use. I personally use PowerISO as it's yet to fail me but there are plenty of others. A Windows 8.1 .ISO is extremely difficult to find (or it was). I have one in my Dropbox which I can link you to if you want a quick, painless download. EDIT: I've not actually got it on my Dropbox. It's on my external drive. I'll upload it for you if you wish. Now, once you've done that, you need to create a blank text file, in Notepad. Right click on your desktop and click New > Text Document. Do NOT change the name yet. Just leave it as whatever it is called and then open it. From there on, you want three things in the file, and nothing else; and they are as follows: Time to save, click on Save As, and select ALL file types. Don't save it as a .txt or anything like that or it won't work. You want to save it as a file called 'ei.cfg' and note that the .cfg ending is a config, and is important that it is there. Once your .ISO is on the bootable memory stick, copy or move the 'ei.cfg' document into the 'Sources' folder on the memory stick. Job done. I'll allow you to install like a Windows 7 install and it will also allow you to skip the product key insert stage (if you need to) like 7 too, which you can enter later on. To answer your question regarding the way to protect your drives, I'd plainly and simply keep a backup of 'important' data and then be prepared to reinstall if your system goes belly up. I don't believe your SSD is dead. You may need to launch the Intel RAID utility, 'break' the array and create a new one, and start afresh. Hopefully that's a bit of help for you. PS: I should really make a thread on that for people who don't know how to do it...
Thanks a lot for the reply! The Windows install was pretty painless for me, other than taking a long time (For some reason, I get 90MBPS down and up at my university, on my laptop, but the public computers, also on LAN, get far less) it took over an hour and a half to download Windows 8.1 Pro. The thing is that I set the RAID array up again, but the RAID set up is, and has only ever been, the two MSATA SSDs. The third, 2.5" drive is the one that I can't find, but it's always been on its own, not in the RAID setup. (I do think that thread on the Intel RAID utility would be very useful!) I'll see if I can get a friend back home to set up my desktop as an offsite backup location. Thanks, Kevin P.S. Paragraphs! hahaha
If your 2.5" drive isn't being detected by the BIOS then it doesn't sound good, but try pulling it out and if you can, try plugging it into as USB adaptor if you can get hold of one (always useful I find).
I'll check it tomorrow, luckily, I did think to bring my USB hard drive dock with me to college, so that'll hopefully shed some light on the issue. Thanks!
