Dell SC440 Tips
From Web3us, LLC
Contents |
NIC Driver
Solved the NIC driver problem…. Dell’s automatic driver installation utility will not run on Windows XP,…. BUT, if you run setup.exe with “/a” afterwards, setup.exe /a then the utility will not try to install the drivers, it will simply extract them to a folder of your choice. Then you can go into device manager and update the driver for the onboard NIC. I found this tip in Dell’s release notes for the Broadcomm NIC……seems like they just wanted to make it difficult to use this computer for anything other than a server.
Raid Driver
I downloaded a driver file for the SAS 5i/R RAID controller. It was > called DRVR_WIN_R150416.EXE > There seemed to be several other choices of files, though, and the > descriptions were all the same. I was kind of confused about which one to > use. Within a text file on this driver set is "Dell PowerEdge SAS 5 > Adapter Device Driver for Windows Server 2000 and Windows Server 2003 x86 > Edition Version 1.24.04.00" > > Anyway, did the win2k cd boot and used F6 to access the floppy with the > RAID drivers, and it seemed to go normally from there. > Win2k server boots up, and the logo screen with the "Starting Windows...." > comes up. When the progress bar gets to 100%, I get a BSOD. I have no experience with win server, but in the past when I have set up win on a raid config, in mirror I have sometimes installed to a single drive, run a repair to install via F6 the raid driver, then in the raid bios built the raid set.
Driver Download
This one works to add support after installing Windows XP Pro R165652
Hereby the link to the correct drivers for the Dell SAS5IR Raid Controller: (use the WHQL-one for Win2k03) download
Which drivers did you get? Please post exact link. It might also help to post detailed directory of files on your floppy.
Get files for XP_x86 from here:
Message was edited by: Peter_vm
Sorry, those were not good. Proper (and tested ones) are here: http://www.lsi.com/support/downloads/hbas/scsi/software_drivers/windows/symmpi_1.21.25.00_XP_x86.zip
Some others here
Boot sequence
Colin,
I'm up on a brand new SC1430 (Quad Core E5320 Processor 2X4MB Cache, 1.86GHz, Xeon 1066MHz Front Side Bus, 2GB 667MHz (2X1GB), Dual Ranked Fully Buffered DIMMs, (4) 250GB 7.2K RPM SATA II Hard Drives, SAS 5IR SAS, PCI-Express Internal RAID Adapter, Broadcom NetXtreme 5721 SinglePort Gigabit Ethernet NIC, Cu PCIe x1, 48X IDE CD-RW/DVD ROM Drive, Add-in SATA/SAS controller, 4 Hard Drives, RAID 0.). The only problem I had was during install, I couldn't get it to boot after the first portion of the install. I then tried turning off RAID, but it still didn't work. Finally had to go into BIOS and change boot sequence, then BINGO, worked like a champ. Other than the rempte access problems I've posted about elsewhere, I haven't had any problems with the hardware or software and I love it.
I didn't get that warning. Did you get the server with any OS installed? I got mine blank. Anyway, I went through the sae proble you did with it being unable to boot after installation. When you reboot, if it shows the hard disk as a single drive with 1TB capacity, then you have to go into the RAID setup (I think it was contol - C when booting, I'm not sure, but it shows you when booting) and disable the RAID configuration so you have JBOD. Then when you reboot, you will see the 4 250GB drives and all should be well. Turns out that the RAID controller makes it own little partition that is the only one it displays to the BIOS for boot, but WHS installs elsewhere which is why the computer won't boot. Go into the docs disc and look at the RAID options to double check me on this, it was hard to navigate through the screens to get to that setting. Now, ordinarily you wouldn't want JBOD for data integrity, but since WHS is doing it for you via DE, you're good to go. Hope this helps.
Slip Stream
Slipstreaming Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Create Bootable CD
Slipstreaming a Service Pack, is the process to integrate the Service Pack into the installation so that with every new installation the Operating System and Service Pack are installed at the same time.
Slipstreaming is usually done on network shares on corporate systems. But with the advent of CD burners, it does actually make some sense for the home user or small business user to do the same.
Microsoft added the ability to Slipstream a Service Pack to Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It not only has the advantage that when you (re)install your OS, you don't have to apply the Service Pack later, also if you update any Windows component later, you'll be sure that you get the correct installation files if Windows needs any.
Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 2
Download the (full) "Network Install" of the Service Pack (English version [266 MB]), and save it to a directory (folder) on your hard drive (in my case D:\XP-SP2). Other languages can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Web site.
Note: do not use spaces in the folder name!
Next copy your Windows XP CD to your hard drive. Just create a folder (I used \XP-CD), and copy all the contents of your Windows XP CD in that folder.
Next, open a Command Prompt (Start > Run > cmd), and go to the folder where you downloaded SP2 (cd \foldername). Type the command: servicepack filename /integrate:drive/path. In my example the command is WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU /integ : :\ P-CD.
