I am using Windows 2000 Advanced Server on mine. Windows 2000 should be fine. Keep in mind that the non-server versons of Windows 2000 (i.e. Windows 2000 Pro) is limited to how much RAM it can use. I think for a stable machine, 768MB is max. If you want to run more memory, you will need one of the 2000 server software.

I try to avoid XP for a server for one main reason - file sharing permissions. When I configure a server, I am pretty specific about who has access to what file and Windows XP has trouble with this - even with "Simple File Sharing" disabled.

Bottom line - for simple server function Windows 2000 or XP should be fine.

Rick M.

Rick - thanks.  I really need the h/w - the application just doesn't need the server OS and in fact does not support the server OS.  Yesterday, I spoke to a systems engineer who basically said, "Should work fine, but don't quote me, since the official line is it is not supported."

We shall see - I have a new 1800 being built and shipped now.

I just recieved my 1800 a few days ago with the SATA option, and there does not seem to be an issue with my W2K. I used the Open Manage CD to install everything so it chose the drivers for me. So far so good.

Rick M.
www.customwebpros.com

Was anyone able to successfully install WinXP on a PowerEdge 1800? I get stuck when the XP install can't find the SATA hard drive. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Art

My system does not have the SATA option - I went for the SCSIs instead. However, I think the same issue applies. I installed Win2K on mind, and the installation could not find the SCSI drives - it just did not have the drivers. So, if you search your installation software, you should find an option for locating and extracting your drivers to floppy. After this, XP should ask you for an alternate driver location and off you go.

If you cannot find the drivers on the cd, drop me a note, and i'll dig out my notes.

chg

I was trying to install Windows XP on a PowerEdge 1800 with a SATA drive. As has been mentioned, Dell does not officially support WIndows XP on the PowerEdge 1800. However it is possible to install and use WinXP successfully. I thought I'd document this process a little more fully.

The first hurdle is to get the WinXP installer to recognize the SATA drive. To do so you'll need the appropriate SATA driver on a diskette. In the Dell support webpages, navigate to the downloads for the PE1800. Search for:

Download category: Serial ATA
Operating System: Windows Server 2003
OS Language: English

Then click on the link for Adaptec CERC SATA 2s

Download the file and run it. This will unzip the files into a directory of your choice. Copy these files to a diskette.

You will need this diskette during the WinXP install. As far as I can tell, the installer only looks for a diskette drive and won't read the files from a CD or a USB drive. I had to pull a diskette drive off another system and temporarily connect it to the PE1800.

Load the WinXP install CD and boot the machine. Insert the diskette into the drive. Watch the screen and at some point it says to press F6 to load additional drivers. Press F6 and follow the prompts to load the drivers.

From this point on just follow the normal course of installation.

After XP was intalled I loaded these items:

Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility
Intel PRO1000MT
ATI Radeon 7000M

These files are also on one of the CDs that comes with the PE1800. However the versions on the website might be more recent.

Hope this helps clarify things for others.

Hi,

I have a new PE1800. I do have a Dell RAID controller (free upgrade), which connects to a SATA drive as RAID 0 (factory default). And I do add two SATA drives on the MB on SATA0 and SATA1. In the BIOS, I turn on the on-board SATA drives for SATA0 and SATA1.

I manage to install a) Fedore Core 4, b) WinXP-64 bit evaluation version (not really recommend for use because you will run into many problems when you install applications like RealPlayer, etc etc.. Not all application vendors have supported WinXP-64 bit though), c) Windows 2003.

However, I am unable to install WinXP Pro to PE1800. It was complaining about hardware problem... something like pci...xxx driver not there or incompatible with WinXP pro. I must reboot the machine after seeing the big blue screen with the error message.

Note, once I have turned on the BIOS for the SATA drives, I can see the SATA drives connecting to MB when I install the above OSs.

Does anyone install WinXP Pro (SP2) successfully on a PE1800?

Please share your story with us.

Many thanks.

-Kel

 

I followed your instructions to a "T" and the server would not install XP pro. I keep getting an error that refers to "pci.sys. Any other recomendations?