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My first goal is to notify the group about an intermediate solution to a problem that I have had with my new W700ds. Another poster had the same problem and his posted solution in my thread was how I was able to get my computer recovered as I wanted it to be.
I purchased a new W700ds 2757-CTO - ordered 12/11/2009 – received late January 2010 (but that is another story).
I realized about a week after ordering the computer that I had mistakenly ordered it as a RAID0 when I wanted a RAID1 – my bad. I called Lenovo and they said no problem just call them when I got it and they would guide me through it. They were very helpful at the start and really tried to help but it became apparent to me that something else was going on. The computer seemed to work very well when I received it in the RAID0 although I didn’t load any additional software because I wanted to get it configured to a RAID1 before doing so.
The bios was already set to RAID because of the RAID0 but I did move the cd drive to the first boot position. I went into the RAID setup and deleted the RAID0 and set up the RAID1. The CD-DVD drive would not pick up and recover using the recovery CD-DVDs. Lenovo sent me a set of recovery discs and they did not work either. The RAID1 showed up on reboot as being there and in good shape and set to bootable but the CD drive would not even start to turn.
Without going into the month long discourse suffice it to say that for some reason there was a problem with the CD-DVD drive or in timing or something in the computer that was keeping it from picking up and recovering in any mode other than “Compatibility”. That is, it would not even start to pick up when the bios-config-sata setting was set to either AHCI or RAID but would recover when set to Compatibility - everytime.
Lenovo also sent a replacement identical CD-DVD drive but it did not make any difference.
The intermediate solution:
The poster that had the solution had the same CD drive as the one in my computer (FRU P/N: 45N7465) and had the same exact problem. His computer model was different. He had borrowed a FRU P/N: 42T2537 drive from his boss' W700 and was able to build in all three modes – RAID, AHCI, and compatibility. He got a 42T2537 drive of his own and was then also able to build in all three modes.
This poster showed up two days after I had thrown in the towel and was planning to back up often but when I saw his post I remembered another post in another thread where a person could only recover in Compatibility mode. My son-in-law borrowed a cd drive from his office mate FRU P/N: 42T2515 which had the same docking configuration and I was able to build my RAID1 the first try using that drive.
Long Term solution:??
I know that Lenovo has been made aware of this but I don’t know what is being done about it. I’m not even sure they believe it.
What I suspect is that there is a large number of people out there that have the same problem but don't know it because they haven't had any need to recover their new computer.