PowerEdge T110 - Windows Home Server Software

Shouldn't be any reason why not ... the version in Beta right now is really just Server 2008.  The older version is Server 2003 underneath, so you might need to wait for the new version.  You might be able to install the original Home Server, BUT the T110 only supports 2003 R2 SP2, so I don't know if Home Server matches up to this version of 2003 or not.

Thank you Flash.  Any idea when Windows Home server (2008) will be released?  Thanks.

"Sometime in 2010" it says ... and I said it was built on 2008, but it is actually 2008 R2.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/01/first-build-of-next-generation-windows-home-server-leaks.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Thank you.  Very interesting article.  I think I will try the current version with a T110 and see what happens.........  Thank you for all the advice.

I have received the T110 without and operating system.  I have received the Windows Home Server software.  How do I get the T110 to read the DVD drive with the Windows Home Server software disk in it.  I simply get a message that says "No operating system is currently installed on this computer."  I tried to get to the boot section in BIOS to see if I could get it to read the DVD drive first but I can't find that section in the BIOS.  Suggestions????  Thanks.

Okay.  With help of friend by phone I found that if I press F11, while the black screen with white letters is displaying, another screen comes up with boot choices.  I was able to tell it to boot this time from the DVD drive and Windows Home Server program started to load.  It got about 1/2 way through and failed.  The messaged said to start over and see if that  will fix it.  So I have started it over and am waiting for the install to complete.

About and hour later.  It failed again and said to run CHKDSK /F.  I don't know how to do that.  I did notice the instructions for Windows Home server say to connect to LAN before install.  So am starting all over with LAN connected.

What RAID controller do you have in it (if any)?  It is possible that it doesn't have the "right" driver for the controller, so you might try loading the latest 2003 driver for the controller.

Hi Flash:  I went to Dell and downloaded the latest driver for the SCSI backplane controller, unzipped it and put it on a flashdrive.  I plugged the flashdrive into one of the USB ports on the T110.  Next I started the system and when I got to the screen that said "Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI driver" I pressed F6.  The next screen says to press "s" to specify additional SCSI adapters.  So I pressed "s".  Next screen says "Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A:  Press ENTER when ready."  Well the T110 has no Drive A so I assumed the system would pick up the flashdrive in the front USB slot.  It did not do that and went to the screen that says there is a problem and had to stop.  Do you know how to make the flashdrive the A Drive?  Thanks.

Windows XP/2003 Setup can only see Floppy disks, so without a floppy drive, you will need to trick it.  The utility below was designed for that very purpose.  Make sure you follow the directions carefully or it will not work.  * This will format your flash drive, so save what you might need from it.  ** If you get an error while trying to format the key, REMOVE the Volume Label - leave it blank.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&cs=08&l=en&s=bsdr&releaseid=R237984&SystemID=PWE_2900&servicetag=&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=13724&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=7&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&fileid=342467

What driver are you using?  What controller does the system have?  Have you tried straight booting to the DVD, or does it not recognize any hard drives?

Hi Flash. Thank you for the link.  I'll try to do that carefully.

The T110 has only motherboard controllers (the one for the 4 hard drives and I guess the DVD, the one for the internet connection and the one for the display.  When Windows Home Server program starts to load into the computer I assume it is going to the hard drive (there is only one connected now) so the existing driver must be working.  That driver comes from I do not know where?  To get the driver needed at the F6 pause screen I tried to download a driver from Dell.  It got to a screen with all the drivers and firm wear for the T110.  Then I believe I downloaded the driver for the Seagate drives (I checked and the drive is a Dell manufactured by Seagate).  After I down loaded it I unzipped it.  Only two files were unzipped  One called OEMSETUP.inf and the other called dellbp.cat.  The first file that came zipped also remained called DellBPA05.exe.

What do you mean straight booting to the DVD?

Thanks for all the help.

Later...............  I down loaded the utility to make a flashdrive look like Drive A.  It has some directions (README.TXT) to tell you how to use it.  In the directions it speaks of going to the support area of www.dell.com and downloading the needed driver.  It indicates there should be two drivers available.  One labeled "Update Package" and the other labeled "Hard-Drive".  It says to pick the one labeled "Hard-Drive".  When I go to the driver page on Dell website for the T110 there is only one driver available and it is an enhancement not a complete driver.  When I downloaded it and unzipped it it did not contain the TXTSETUP.OEM file that appears will be looked for. (See above that indicates the only two files OEMSETUP.inf and dellbp.cat.)  

Any idea where I might get the driver that is needed?

Thank you.

Ok ... sounds like you ordered your T110 with no add-in RAID controller, so you might be okay just booting to the Home Server disc and not messing around with F6 at all (what I meant by booting straight from install DVD).  Just try booting to your Home Server disc and going as far as you can with the install.  If at any point of the installation you get a Blue Screen, it hangs, or it tells you that it cannot find any hard drives, then you will need to use the USB/F6 method to load the driver for the onboard controller (motherboard SATA connectors).  In this case, you will need to use the driver below (there are no "backplane" or hard drive drivers that will work here - you need to load the driver for the controller the drives are attached to) ...

If  you don't have a raid contoller, during post (black screen) press F2 to enter the bios. Explore the various options and look for Sata mode. It will be set to AHCI by default, change this to ATA mode and you should be able to install WHS without pressing F6

Thank you Tom.  That is exactly how it finally got done.  I had tried to do it that way but:  When I selected ATA in the SATA the BIOS would not let me select the DVD as the booting device (It only gave me one choice: I believe it was external of some kind).  I finally gave up.  I got in touch with a friend of mine who is a wizard at these things.  I took the T110 and the software to him and asked him to try.  Well, by the time I got to Justin's place, he was pretty sure he knew what to do.  By the time I got home I heard from him that the install was well on its way.  What he did was select ATA in the SATA and THEN he rebooted the T110, selected F11, which THEN gave him the three boot  choices (DVD, C:Drive, External) and he was able to select  DVD.  I guess the trick is to select the ATA and then reboot the server before looking for the booting device because if you don't (at least in my case, and I tried several times) you will not be able to select the DVD.  Since Friday the server and WHS have been working great.  It is a great program for a home user with several computers and lots of digital photos and the T110 does not seem to have the fan noise that I was a little concerned about.  So Far, thanks to Justin, So Good!  Thanks for the suggestion.  You are 100% correct.

Hi,

I´m experiencing this issue with a dell poweredge T105server. Im having a "SAS 6I/R INTERNAL CONTROLLER CARD RAID"  raid card. And when I start the installation of Windows Home server i first need to add drivers to find the disk, and after that the installation works fine but then after the first reboot i get a bluescreen. This bluescreen is caused by the operating system doesent find the drivers for the raid i think. And then I have the issue that I cant install Raid driver when pressing F6 during the setup cause i doesnt have a Floppy.

I then tried theflash1932 solution with the USBKeyPrepF6A08. I think i have followed the instructions correct with the preparations of the USB Stick (im using  a 16GB). And the drivers I have added to the USB is R194052 Not 100% sure if this is correct. So maybe this is the error not sure??

After doing this i put the USB in a back USB port of the server and restarted it and when the installation of Home server starts i press F6 for installing my own RAID drivers but it still doesnt work Still just saying "Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into drive A: Press ENTER when ready.".
Is it something that I have missed here or? I know the USb port is working cause somewhere in the booting i see the name of the usb stick so the server seems to have found it.

I´m completely stuck here and would really appriciate any help I can get regarding this.

Thanks,

/Kent

You could try using nlite to integrate the driver into the server 2003 part. It does integrate but i don't have a spare system to try it on.

copy the whole dvd to a directory, point nlite to the SVR_2003/i386 directory and then follow the screens. Copy the modified files back to the directory and burn to dvd.

As i've said, i've no way of testing this but the theory is good...

Hi Flash,

Seems the url is for the Intel 3420 chipset SATA AHCI Controller, what if i need to use with the raid 5, using Sata II hdd?

Where can i download it?