Dell notebook installation problem

[Grabby]

I upgraded a Dell studio 1558 notebook to a 2TB drive (Samsung/Seagate ST2000LM003) but can’t install BIBM 1.29a. Actually this is the second drive, since support said a possible reason was a defect in the first sector, but I was able to install to a smaller drive I had lying around. Still, I took it back and got another one. Anyway, the BIOS doesn’t seem to allow writing to some part of the first sector. Letting it create and install its own partition brings me to a

Creation of EMBR on HD0 failed

Then when I go into working with partitions and try to change the disk type to EMBR it comes back with

The partition layout could not be changed to match your selection

If I change to BIOS (direct) mode I AM able to change to EMBR, but when I resume installation I get

Unable to add entry

Finally, when I create an 8MB partition for BIBM in BIOS (direct) mode it works and the MBR changes to reflect it, but I still can’t install. For what it’s worth, the BIOS is up to date (A12).

I guess my question at this point is does anyone else have this experience with Dell BIOS, or is there anything else I can try?

[TeraByte Support]

definitely BIOS - wonder if you contacted them, if they will fix it or
perhaps there is some BIOS setting that is hidden away?

"Grabby" wrote in message news:9402@public.bootitbm...

I upgraded a Dell studio 1558 notebook to a 2TB drive (Samsung/Seagate
ST2000LM003) but can't install BIBM 1.29a. Actually this is the second
drive, since support said a possible reason was a defect in the first
sector, but I was able to install to a smaller drive I had lying around.
Still, I took it back and got another one. Anyway, the BIOS doesn't seem to
allow writing to some part of the first sector. Letting it create and
install its own partition brings me to a

Creation of EMBR on HD0 failed

Then when I go into working with partitions and try to change the disk type
to EMBR it comes back with

The partition layout could not be changed to match your selection

If I change to BIOS (direct) mode I AM able to change to EMBR, but when I
resume installation I get

Unable to add entry

Finally, when I create an 8MB partition for BIBM in BIOS (direct) mode it
works and the MBR changes to reflect it, but I still can't install. For what
it's worth, the BIOS is up to date (A12).

I guess my question at this point is does anyone else have this experience
with Dell BIOS, or is there anything else I can try?

[Grabby]

Haven’t tried contacting them – not sure of the response I’d get to an out-of-warranty issue that may only affect BIBM. I’ll give it a shot, though.

[DrTeeth]

On Tue, 3 Mar 2015 12:28:37 PST, just as I was about to take a herb,
"TeraByte Support" disturbed my
reverie and wrote:

>definitely BIOS - wonder if you contacted them, if they will fix it or
>perhaps there is some BIOS setting that is hidden away?

Does Dell still use custom BIOSs where they had many of the settings?
The first (and last) time I had a Dell, it came with Win 95. It was so
proprietary that I decided 'never again'.
--
Cheers,

DrT

** You've never known happiness until you're married;
** but by then it is too late.

[DrTeeth]

Does Dell still use custom BIOSs where they *hide* many of the
settings?
--
Cheers,

DrT

** You've never known happiness until you're married;
** but by then it is too late.

[rich071]

Grabby,

Not sure if this will help with your issue, but I have a relative that has a Dell Studio 1558 notebook and the following is what I noticed on his laptop since I get the luxury of working on it when he has issues with it. The following was done a awhile back and I have since deleted the full backups since they were not needed anymore. This may show a possible conflict between the Dell Studio 1558 and BIBM. Notice, I said possible.

The first time I worked on it, I was amazed how slow booting the laptop was. For a machine that had a i5 processor and 8GB ram, it was way too slow. If my memory is correct, it had (4) partitions, (2) Dell partitions, which I had never seen before. Normally, they had (1) to restore the system. I backed up all (4) partitions, formatted the drive and restored the just the C partition. The machine booted, but the mouse and the keyboard did not work period. I then reformatted the HD and restored the second Dell and the C partitions. It booted fine and worked as expected, but it was still slow booting.

I didn't really want to, but the curiosity got the better of me. I reformatted the HD once again and reinstalled Windows from scratch. The machine booted fine and the boot speed increased drastically. I noticed Dell, had drivers and other items in the second partition. It was not as big as their restoration partition. At the time, I thought, why would they do this? Would the updated drivers actually be used under Windows? Was this some type of bios extension? This reminded me of the time, back in the mid 90's, my boss at the time, bought a HP Windows Deskjet. I don't remember the model. He bragged about how cheap it was until he discovered that it was designed for Windows only, You could not print under DOS at all. Needless to say, he replaced the printer.

Like I said, I'm not sure if the extra partition is causing any issues with BIBM. I'm curious about some info with your unit. If you answer is no, to the following, the above is more than likely a non issue with yours.

1. Is the Windows, the original OS that was shipped with the laptop?
2. Do you have (4) partitions on the HD, not counting the BIBM, if it was installed into it's own partition?

Not sure if it will help, but you may try to insert the drive into a USB dock or housing and see if that makes a difference. Tech Support can chime in on this since I have not tried to convert a USB drive to EMBR.

Do you have another system, to boot the BIBM from a flash drive or CD to see if you get the same problem?

I have been looking at the 2TB drive, like yours, to install in a Dell M6400 laptop, that already has BIBM installed, as a second internal drive. I'm looking for more storage than for speed. If I get the drive, I will report back with any issues that I encounter.

I hope some of the info, above, helps.

[TeraByte Support]

doesn't have anything do with with partitions - BIOS won't update the drive
(first track for sure) when the larger drive is installed.



"rich071" wrote in message news:9427@public.bootitbm...

Grabby,

Not sure if this will help with your issue, but I have a relative that has a
Dell Studio 1558 notebook and the following is what I noticed on his laptop
since I get the luxury of working on it when he has issues with it. The
following was done a awhile back and I have since deleted the full backups
since they were not needed anymore. This may show a possible conflict
between the Dell Studio 1558 and BIBM. Notice, I said possible.

The first time I worked on it, I was amazed how slow booting the laptop was.
For a machine that had a i5 processor and 8GB ram, it was way too slow. If
my memory is correct, it had (4) partitions, (2) Dell partitions, which I
had never seen before. Normally, they had (1) to restore the system. I
backed up all (4) partitions, formatted the drive and restored the just the
C partition. The machine booted, but the mouse and the keyboard did not work
period. I then reformatted the HD and restored the second Dell and the C
partitions. It booted fine and worked as expected, but it was still slow
booting.

I didn't really want to, but the curiosity got the better of me. I
reformatted the HD once again and reinstalled Windows from scratch. The
machine booted fine and the boot speed increased drastically. I noticed
Dell, had drivers and other items in the second partition. It was not as big
as their restoration partition. At the time, I thought, why would they do
this? Would the updated drivers actually be used under Windows? Was this
some type of bios extension? This reminded me of the time, back in the mid
90's, my boss at the time, bought a HP Windows Deskjet. I don't remember the
model. He bragged about how cheap it was until he discovered that it was
designed for Windows only, You could not print under DOS at all. Needless to
say, he replaced the printer.

Like I said, I'm not sure if the extra partition is causing any issues with
BIBM. I'm curious about some info with your unit. If you answer is no, to
the following, the above is more than likely a non issue with yours.

1. Is the Windows, the original OS that was shipped with the laptop?
2. Do you have (4) partitions on the HD, not counting the BIBM, if it was
installed into it's own partition?

Not sure if it will help, but you may try to insert the drive into a USB
dock or housing and see if that makes a difference. Tech Support can chime
in on this since I have not tried to convert a USB drive to EMBR.

Do you have another system, to boot the BIBM from a flash drive or CD to see
if you get the same problem?

I have been looking at the 2TB drive, like yours, to install in a Dell M6400
laptop, that already has BIBM installed, as a second internal drive. I'm
looking for more storage than for speed. If I get the drive, I will report
back with any issues that I encounter.

I hope some of the info, above, helps.

[Grabby]

rich071 et al,

Sorry to take so long to post back. You don’t say how large the drive you were working with is. As I wrote before, I was able to install it using a much smaller (80GB) drive. I can now agree with TeraByte Support that the BIOS simply won’t allow installation with the large drive (2TB) I was trying it with. It might be useful to others facing this situation to know where the cutoff is, whether it’s 500GB, 1TB or whatever, but I’m no wiser in that regard. In the end it turned out to be a moot point for me, because I realized I wanted to encrypt one of the Windows installations in my multi-boot scenario with TrueCrypt, in which case it has to be the bootloader. Oh well!

[rich071]

Grabby,

The hard drive was the original 500GB drive that came with the unit. Basically, I was telling about the experience with the 2nd Dell partition and the issues with it. I should have realized when you tried to install the new drive, I was comparing apples and oranges.

You may want to try and post on the forums, listed below, to see if anyone has tried the 2TB drive or find out what the maximum drive that it will support. I have used both of these in the past to find out information. I would say, for Dell to put out a new bios, for a discontinued unit, would be slim to none unless it would be needed to support a SSD drive.

Dell's Laptop Forum
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/

NoteBook Review's Forums - Dell Inspiron and Dell Studio have their own forums
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forums/dell.4/

Good Luck,

[rich071]

Grabby,

FYI, I finally I upgraded a Dell m6400 laptop with the same drive you had issues with, Samsung/Seagate ST2000LM003. I installed it as an internal secondary drive with no issues. I had no issues when changing the drive type from MBR to EMBR. I'm confident I will have no issues when restoring the bootable Windows 7 partitions to the drive.

Have you had any luck in getting the drive to work with your Dell Studio 1558?

Later,