Fresh install of Windows 2016 install on new 3.5 HDD on Poweredge T310 - Help - TIA!

Hi sorry I'm afraid we do not have that kind of official guidelines .T310 supports Windows 2016. Check here. https://dell.to/3O9Ei9e;
Please know depending on which RAID controller you are using, OS driver will differ.       

The link is not working. Can you please recheck and repost the link? How to know what RAID controller the server is having? Thanks!

Hello, there is a good article on OS installation "How to install the operating system on a Dell PowerEdge Server? (OS deployment)" https://dell.to/3MQVDmv

But I have to say I couldn't see W2K16 supported by T310 and also your hard drive is a non-dell part. Your PowerEdge T310 supports these operating systems https://dell.to/3NRmgca These might be causing issues when you are trying to install OS. You can check your RAID controller with CTRL+R or in lifecycle controller.

Hello WUFD,

Page 11: You can enter the LifeCycle controller ,  Unified Server Configurator , by pressing on the POST screen when powered up.   Owner manual :   https://dell.to/39mi4Ch

If you are running W2K16 then it was not installed by Dell. The list Erman posted shows the Dell supported OS's.

You may get it to run but it is not supported by Dell.  Since it is an unsupported OS your best bet is to boot to the OS install media and try to install but note we don't have any WS2016 drivers to supply. I would recommend burning your install .iso as an image to DVD and use that. 

We are currently running W2K16, 64 bit on T310. It was installed when we purchased it. The resource you mentioned states other supported OS. I think it is installed on swappable HDDs. Do you think the wrong OS might cause issues? We are having glitches with Dentrix. So the tech said reinstall of OS might be a good place to start since there are some corrupted files which might be causing glitches. CTRL+R didn't do anything. Where is lifecycle controller? Thanks!

WUFD,

It is true that the OS isn't supported, but you can see if it was installed via the Lifecycle Controller by the presence of the recovery partition, if there is no partition then it was installed direct from the media. If you have an iDrac Enterprise then the easiest solution would be to mount the ISO to virtual media and then boot to it, but being it is unsupported we can't guarantee results.

I checked the server but there are is no sign of iDrac (checked through Dell EMC - no Dell EMC installed) or Lifecycle Controller. I am guessing who ever installed W2K16 - they forgot to install Dell drivers. I can't guess what happened and why those drivers are not present. So what should I do install a fresh copy of W2K16 on my T310 with supported drivers? Please help.

Hi, since the controller and the disk are recognized, yeah go ahead and install and maybe you can let us know by posting a screenshot if you ever encounter an issue during installing? (I suggest that you create a new thread for that should that happen)

WUFD,

The recovery partition would have been seen in the OS partitions, not the idrac or LCC. As far as getting it installed, being it is unsupported, you may want to look at Microsoft for assistance with drivers and license recovery, as we don't have access to those. 

Hello there, NO I could not see anything related to iDrac or Lifecycle Controller. So I am back to square one about installation. If there is a way to find out W2K16 Product key, I can start working on installation. Please help me find out the PK. Thanks.