installing windows server 2003 on poweredge 4200/333?
Hi,
I'm having difficulties getting windows server 2003 to correctly recognise the disk drives on my poweredge 4200. I've set it up (hopefully) with one RAID 1 logical drive and three RAID 0 drives. I don't have the system disks so have been downloading drivers & updates. So far I have:
- updated BIOS to version A05
- updated AMI PERC II firmware to version U84
This all seems to have gone smoothly, but:
When going through the Windows Setup disk, and hit F6 then S to install the RAID drivers I get the following message:
"The file txtsetup.oem could not be found."
I guess I don't have the correct Drivers disk. Could anyone point me in the right direction for this?
Correction on my comments. First, on the missing file. I was thinking of the unattended setup file built by the Server Assistant. Your driver install error is another issue.
Second, if your system does have an old Server Assistant CD, that CD would probably not support Windows 2003. And a newer version of the CD will probably not have the right drivers for this old of a system. Oh well; like I said, I am not an expert.
It should still be possible to do what you are trying to do, assuming the right drivers are available.
Hello Warren. I am not an expert at this, but are you booting the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD first? All the drivers you need should be on this CD and it builds the file you are missing. Make sure you have the latest version of Server Assistant and boot it first. Otherwise someone with more knowledge may be able to help you out with the drivers and adapters supported.
David, thanks for the responses. Unfortunately I don't have the OpenManage CD and can't find a download for it. I have however now found a fix to the problem...
For windows to recognise the disks I had to create partitions on each of them using the Windows Setup program: When installing Windows you need to create a partition on the drive you want the OS to run, then format it and continue with the install. I hadn't created partitions on the other drives which meant they weren't recognised upon completing the install. This wasn't an obvious thing to do but I'll remember for next time - always create a partition (even if you want to utilise the whole space) on all disks that you want windows to recognise.
As I'd already installed the OS I couldn't get back to this part of the Windows 2003 Setup thus was stuck for a while, thinking I'd need to start from scratch again. The way round this for me (I'm sure there must be an easier way) was to use an alternate Windows Operating System disk (e.g windows 2000). This then allows you to get to the part of Setup where the partitions are specified.
As I say I'm sure there must be a better way but this did the trick for me. Thanks again for your help,
Just to clarify, I was able to install Windows 2003 without having to go through the "F6 Install RAID drivers" route. Simply ignored this and let Windows sort out the drivers....As it turns out the problem was not a driver one but an omission I'd made when going through the Windows Setup disk...hopefully this is clearer!
David.Brown
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Posted January 24th, 2005 21:00