Problems with installing win2000 server on new Dell

  • Thread starter Thread starter bill allemann
  • Start date Start date
B

bill allemann

I had an unused win2000 server package so I wanted to save some $ and use it
for a low-tech server.
I bought a new Dell SC440 and it comes with a "Server Assistant" software
package on the install CD.
I used the software to config a mirror RAID configuration with the 2
identical SATA hard drives.
The BIOS boot screen shows one drive now, and displays a Ctrl-C prompt to
access the RAID config.
I created a C drive of about 5gb and left the remainder in an unformatted
partition for now.
The Server Assistant software will only install Win2003 as an OS, so I
needed to do the usual setup with the Win2k CD.

I downloaded a driver file for the SAS 5i/R RAID controller. It was called
DRVR_WIN_R150416.EXE
There seemed to be several other choices of files, though, and the
descriptions were all the same. I was kind of confused about which one to
use. Within a text file on this driver set is "Dell PowerEdge SAS 5
Adapter Device Driver for Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003 x86
Edition Version 1.24.04.00"

Anyway, did the win2k cd boot and used F6 to access the floppy with the RAID
drivers, and it seemed to go normally from there.
Win2k server boots up, and the logo screen with the "Starting Windows...."
comes up. When the progress bar gets to 100%, I get a BSOD.

Screen shows:
STOP 0x0000007B (0xF201B848, 0xC0000034, 0x0,0x0)
INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

I tried booting with F8 and booting to command prompt, same thing.
First time through, my C drive was FAT (from the Server Assistant setup), so
I used the Win2k setup to reformat the C drive to NTFS, also same thing.

The text file with the RAID drivers says that it is for Win2000 and Win2003
server, and those options are displayed during the intial setup.

Questions:
Is there a better NG for this?
Do I need to try all the driver files that Dell has available?

Thanks, Bill
 
Usually the floppy files for raid drivers comprise, cat, inf, sys files at
least and not usually an exe file
Its not the case that your exe is a self extracting zip is it, the resulting
files being used on the floppy.

Allthough if that was the case I wouldnt have expected the win installation
to have seen the hd

If there are multiple raid drivers available, it could simply be that you
have selected the wrong driver, or it could be the fact that you appear to
have set up the raid set with the SAS software cd, which is apparently only
for w2003, that being the case the raid set may not be recognised by the
driver/controler you are loading.

I have no experience with win server, but in the past when I have set up win
on a raid config, in mirror I have sometimes installed to a single drive,
run a repair to install via F6 the raid driver, then in the raid bios built
the raid set.

Hope this helps
 
Actually more times than not a windows installation will make close to or
through the end of text mode setup without the controller driver.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Dave,
The Dell driver would seem to be compatible, the following is in a text file
within the file set
"Dell PowerEdge SAS 5 Adapter Device Driver for Windows Server 2000 and
Windows Server 2003 x86
Edition Version 1.24.04.00"
and Win2k server boots up, and the logo screen with the "Starting
Windows...."
comes up. When the progress bar gets to 100%, I get a BSOD.

I think the Win2k server CD might be an early release. Might it just be
that something in the hardware, being quite new, is just not compatible with
Win2k? I noticed that Dell doesn't show win2k server as being tested on
their compatibility chart on the SC440.

Bill
 
Serial ATA came out after the release of Windows 2000 so there's no question
that you'll need the controller driver. As DL mentioned typically the files
named oemsetup.inf, txtsetup.oem, and the *.sys file for your drive
controller are what's required on the floppy. The EXE you downloaded is
probably the compressed files.


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
 
Back
Top