Skip to main content
Start a Conversation

Unsolved

This post is more than 5 years old

JJ

JJ Johnson

5 Posts

41431

July 9th, 2007 21:00

Install Win2k3 Server without a floppy drive

I had to blow away the factory installation of Windows Server 2003 that I received from Dell on a PE 2950 and I'm now trying to install from the supplied Windows CDs.

This server has the 3.5" x 6 backplane, so there's no room for a built-in floppy drive and I have no USB floppy either. It has a PERC5/i RAID controller. Windows does not see the disk drives by default, so I'll need to load a driver for the controller during the initial Win install.

1. Can I expect to find the PERC drivers on the Dell Win2k3 CD?

2. When I get to the prompt for drivers, Windows asks for them on drive "A:" - I don't see any way to get it to search the CD drive. How do I work around this? Surely a floppy disk drive isn't required in this day and age just to install Windows...

Thanks.

DELL-David Wa

17 Posts

July 10th, 2007 13:00

JJ,
 
To answer your questions:
 
1:  The Win2k3 CD supplied by Dell does not have "extra" drivers on it.  Essentially, the bits are as they come from Microsoft. 
2:  An Installation and Server Management CD should have come with your server, but if you cannot find it, I will include a link below.  Booting from this will prepare your system and perform a custom install with correct drivers (although perhaps not the latest, depending on what has been released), so you will not require a floppy drive.
Link to CD:
 
Installing from the base Win2k3 CD does require a floppy drive, or a workaround.  We have developed a program that will configure a USB key to act as an A: drive, and that can be found here:
 
 
Updated drivers/FW link for 2950 (if you want newer drivers than are on the CD, or want the 5i drivers):

JJ Johnson

5 Posts

July 10th, 2007 15:00

Eh, I went out and got a USB floppy drive.

Now I'm dealing with the DRAC's "virtual" drives screwing up the drive lettering. My first attempt at installing Windows ended up with an OS installation on the F: drive. With the virtual floppy enabled, apparently it becomes the A: drive and the USB floppy drive became the B: drive, so the Windows install didn't find the PERC drivers. Changing the configuration of the virtual drives must have made them C: and E: and the boot HDD partition became F:. I'll try again with the DRAC card disabled.

erikd105

5 Posts

July 24th, 2007 14:00

I am trying to use the USB method. It does get me past the item of not finding any hard-drives; however, it is only finding the 244 MB utility partition instead of the 3 X 160 GB drives. Ideas? Have I pulled down the wrong driver for my PowerEdge 840?

DELL-David Wa

17 Posts

July 24th, 2007 15:00

erikd105,
 
Is it possible you have the wrong driver, and may just be seeing the rest of your usb drive?  The 840 has several controller options, and some of them require different drivers.   What controller are your drives attached to?
 
Regards,
 
David W.

erikd105

5 Posts

July 24th, 2007 16:00

That is entirely possible. The configuration of the 840 I have is: 1 JR942 PROCESSOR, 885932, XCO, 3050, 2M, LONSDALE/LAVACA 0 3260R PREPARATION MATERIAL, DEV, SRV, DCRS #1 1 5120P CORD, POWER, 125V, 6FT, SPT2, UNSHIELDED 1 TX235 KIT, DOCUMENTATION ON COMPACT DISK, DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL, V5.2, WORLD WIDE 1 YD043 ASSEMBLY, COMPACT DISK READ WRITE/DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE COMBO, 48X, HALF HEIGHT, HITACHI LG DATA STORAGE, BLACK 4 D6502 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 1GB, 667M, 12X72, 8, 240, 2RX8 1 CJ027 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, SERIAL ATTACHED SCSI, CONTENTS, HDD, PE840 1 PD147 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, LIGHT EMITTING DIODE, HARD DRIVE, AUXILIARY, PRECISION WORKSTATION, 490 3 PK110 HARD DRIVE, 160G, ES3, 7.2K, 3.5, V2, WD-HWK 1 UN939 PRINTED WIRING ASSY, CONTROLLER, PC INTERFACE EXPRESS, SERIAL ATTACHED SCSI, SAS5/IR, ADAPTER I downloaded the drivers for the Dell SAS 5/E Adapter (package R149175) and copied them to the"FILES" directory for the USB Utility.

erikd105

5 Posts

July 24th, 2007 17:00

Got it! Thanks to the pointers in this thread I got the correct driver and am loading the OS.

erikd105

5 Posts

July 24th, 2007 18:00

False start. I got the drivers and was able to format one of the drives to install the OS. It then prompted me for the drivers again (on the floppy). I have not gotten past this yet... Any ideas?

DELL-MarkH

4 Posts

July 24th, 2007 19:00

If you used the USBKeyPrepF6 Utility to create the driver load, did you edit the TXTSETUP.OEM file to point it to the correct driver?
 
see the readme file included with the utility;
 
 
Essentially:
... locate the line that beings with
"scsi =" in the [Defaults] section. Change the value on the right hand
side of the line starting with "scsi ="
 
Dell PERC 5/i Integrated Change to:  scsi = PERC_32
 
Hope this helps!

erikd105

5 Posts

July 24th, 2007 20:00

Thanks for the reply Mark.

I had edited the OEM file to correct for that item. Its just that I get to format one of the drives, it copies all the install files from the DVD and then prompts me with:

Insert the disk labeled:

Dell SAS 5x and 6X Controller Driver (Windows 2000/Server 2003 32-Bit)

Into drive A:

* Press Enter when ready

DELL-MarkH

4 Posts

July 30th, 2007 15:00

 
"Dell SAS 5x and 6X Controller Driver"  is for the SAS driver... that is not the PERC. Do you have a SAS AND a PERC controller in the server?
 
If so, try loading both the SAS driver and the PERC driver with the appropriate changes to the TXTSETUP.OEM.
 
Another option; the 'Unattended Setup' options in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254078/en-us
 
 
Hope this helps!
 

View More

View All

No Events found!

Top