Comments on: A Dell PowerEdge Server, Windows 2003 x64, and the Battle Over SAS RAID Drivers

By: Steve Stonebraker

Steve Stonebraker — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:41:28 +0000

Thank you very much for posting this information! I ended up getting the installer to recognize my raid drive after following your steps and some tips i found in the comments section.

This has been quite an ordeal and i’m glad you posted your experience as it has helped me solve my issue!

I summarized your post with step by step instructions for folks with the perc 5i that just need to do a “repair” install of their windows server 2003 x64 installation.

http://brakertech.com/wordpress/poweredge-2950-server-2003-install-raid-driver-repair-window/

cheers!

By: Mexican IT

Mexican IT — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:18:09 +0000

Christian,
we ran into this same issue, and we got it thru just by leaving the textsetup.oem file as is, no changes where needed (we have the same Raid as Julie but we are using x32 bit Windows version on this box (PE1950).

Following Julie’s instructions with this minor change to it. By trying this way, everything worked just that way it should be.

Hope this helps someone

BTW. Julie, thanks for your help, very accurate and clear information.

By: Technical Support Network

Technical Support Network — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:42:05 +0000

Thanks for this thread…though I did not find my exact solution here but it helped me tremendously. Here was my scenario:

All of the above symptoms holds true for me BUT I was 400 miles away from my client’s server (PowerEdge 2950). I can do this all day long on my other ibm’s and hp’s but this issue was for sure new to me. I was connected via a remote kvm so, in theory, I should be able to emulate floppy’s, usb drives or usb cdroms without any issues (works on other servers!). Here is what I tried and what happened with each attempt:

1. Genuine 2003 Server Disk in drive bay and emulating a floppy & usb disk with controller drivers via remote kvm (RESULT: NOTHING BUT ERRORS WHEN LOOKING FOR THE CONTROLLER DRIVER)

2. Genuine 2003 Server Disk in drive bay and emulating a usb cdrom of Dell OpenManage via remote kvm (RESULT: OM KERNEL BOOTED BUT NEVER MADE IT TO WINDOWS SETUP SCREEN)

3. Genuine 2003 Server Disk in drive bay and emulating a usb cdrom of Dell USBKey Prep with drivers via remote kvm (RESULT: COULD BOOT FROM USBKEY PREP IMAGE…ONLY WORKS FOR CERTAIN DELL SMALL GB USB DRIVES)

4. Then I figured I can emulate a usb cdrom via remote kvm connected to my local web server on my laptop containing an entire 2003 server iso with the raid controller drivers slipstreamed (RESULT: IT BOOTED AND SHOWED THE RAID CONTROLLER BUT IT NEVER LOADED THE DRIVERS)

{{NOTE: At this point I realized that being physically there vs. operating remotely is not making much difference. I’ve tried procedures that would put an OS on a meteor successfully but this dell was putting up a fight!}}

I called Dell and they confirmed all of my issues and wanted to email me a driverdisk.iso specifically for that model and os that would allow me to slipstream the raid controller drivers and get the local cdrom to recognize it. All I had to do is emulate that .iso as a usb cdrom via remote kvm…right????

Well, my kvm over ip was telling me that the driverdisk.iso was too small (192kb) to be considered a cdrom iso!!!!!

So I cranked up imgburn, added two jpeg’s to the iso and saved it to make just over 1mb in size.

W()()T! The server booted from this image and I selected the option to boot from the local cdrom…..and 2003 server setup started, found the drivers that were slipstreamed and got passed the disk partition screen!!!!!!!!!!

Hope this helps…….me going to get beerz!

By: Christian

Christian — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:23:04 +0000

I had the same issue as described by puzzle and a few others on my PE860. I ended up using the OpenManage CD that came with the server to install Win2k3R2 Server. I didn’t see anyone with a solution, so I am posting to say that this is the correct way to install to avoid the windows installer from being unable to find the driver.

OpenManage ISO
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R146318&SystemID=PWE_P4_860&servicetag=&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=10655&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=36&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=204270

By: Tamir

Tamir — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:41:59 +0000

Forgive me for asking this, i may be not educated on this one. but can you tell me the further steps one by one. Cause i am having trouble installing windows server 2003 to dell poweredge 1900.

By: Dave Griswold

Dave Griswold — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:47:13 +0000

Some of this may fall on Dell’s head, but Microsoft should have made provisions for putting a path in to find the drivers, such as to the CD drive, etc., rather than forcing it to look for drivers on A:.

By: Saurabh

Saurabh — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:11:31 +0000

Hi Julie,
Thanks for the post. It did help me to an extent however I am getting stuck after the SATA Drivers are read from the floppy disk. The setup stops by saying that the Hard Disks are not powered up?? I am not sure what the problem is.
I even tried the ISO boot disk you suggested however, it never gives me an option for Windows 2003 server.

Is there some reccomendation you have that I can try?

Thanks for your help in advace.

Saurabh

By: Yagil

Yagil — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:13:48 +0000

THANK YOU !!!
Over a year later, and that information you share is so valid.
You managed to cover the issues I ran into, some hesitations (from thew stomach) and more, but finally provide a simple solution, which somehow not only Dell by my local vendor support fail to provide.
That is the internet I knew ~20 years ago.

By: Cristobal M

Cristobal M — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 05:31:55 +0000

Thanks a million. People like you make the world an easier place. I was about to go through the whole nonsense with the USB floppy and figured I’d do a bit of research first

All the best,
Cristobal

By: alec

alec — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:54:51 +0000

perfect iformation many thanks