Dell Inspiron 1720 and RAID support?

netman

Anyone got a Dell 1720 laptop?

I'm thinking of buying one, and seeing how it supports two hard drives it would be a reasonable expectation to think it would support RAID.

Unfortunately the information on the Dell site leaves a lot to be desired, and only mentions RAID briefly on the 1721 model (AMD-based).

If anyone has one of these babies can you check the BIOS if there's any mention of RAID?

ethernet

I did a quick search. It's bad when you can't even find the info you want in Dell's documentation.

It would seem it supports RAID0 and RAID1. There's also the Inspiron 1721.

Another website review and 1720 and 1721 but only says the 1721 supports RAID0 and RAID1 with no mention of the 1720 suppporting it.

You'd imagine it does support it. Surely you could resort to software RAID on Windows?

IconoclastCynic

I own an Inspiron 1720, which, before I boguht, I asked Dell if it would support RAID, and they had told me it would. After I received the computer and wanted to install a second HD, I asked them for help on setting it up, to which they replied that only the 1721 supports RAID. When I questioned further, I was told that the 1720 will not accept RAID because the BIOS won't accept it. When I asked why not I was told because the motherboard doesn't support it. At this point I was asked if I'd like to make an exchange for the 1721, but I perfer Intel over AMD and nVidia over ATI, so I refused.

Although I couldn't get any usefull information out of them as to getting around it, I believe it should be possible. I believe this because I know the chipset it uses (Intel's GM965 express) supports RAID functionality and it can hold two HDs.

Some things I thought of would be flashing the BIOS and buying the RAID controller that goes to the 1721 as a spare part from Dell (if it doesn't already have one natively) - assuming that it would fit considering they use the same caddy (or do they?).

I'm not too savvy on computer hardware, but, I hope this helped.

joenailface

found this topic and wanted to bring it up again, has anyone come across any way of using raid on an inspiron 1720 or 1520 or vostro 1700 or 1500? ive had two hard drive failures from my 1720 and would dearly love to not have to lose any more :P

MunsterCycling

That many failures would suggest it is a PEBTAC error.

MC

joenailface

Two of the same model of hard drive have hardware failures and that equates to me being the problem. You think its unlikely that two hard drives manufactured at roughly the same time couldn't possibly break right? Well then explain the flood of threads all over the internet consisting of 'inspiron 1720 2000-0141 error' and reconsider that. I asked a question, I didnt need a smart arse reply, my advise to you is instead of pretending you're clever by attempting to insult people by using the acronyms you found on www.uberleethaxorx.com you should maybe **** off and finger yourself in future, k? k.

Anyone with a somewhat less childish or wittier response to this would be welcomed though

AlmightyCushion

His response may have been childish but yours was a hell of a lot worse. Banned.