Adaptec AIC-7880

Hi Derrick,

The "SCSI bios not installed" message is a normal informational message. The bios will only install on the first bootable media found at post. Normally this is the hard drive. When you put a bootable cdrom, then the bios will install on that controller. Your PowerEdge 4200 Server has 3 scsi devices installed. A narrow Adaptec AIC-7860 which controls the cdrom and tape drive, an Adaptec LVD AIC-7880, for hard drives when you do not have a raid controller. (This one is unused and can be turned off in the system bios, eliminating one of the messages), and finally your Perc II raid controller.

ok, so once I install the SCSI CDrom , the message should go away?

where can I get the updated firmware ? So far all updates are completed except for this one.I wll install the OS tomorrow.

Mark, thanks for everything

Hi Derrick,

Sorry, I was not clear. You will get the The "SCSI bios not installed" message for every active Scsi controller until the system find bootable media. This is a normal informational message. When you get the Operating System installed, you will not notice the message because the system will not halt with the message on the screen.

Thanks

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2300 with 512Mb RAM, dual 500 CPUs, and it can not find a boot partition.  "No SCSI Boot Device Found" is stated when the system boots.  I took a bootable 9.1 Ultra SCSI drive with Win2K server and replaced the boot drive.  And still I received the error, "No SCSI Boot Device Found".  Any ideas?

 

I have four 9.1Gb drives awaiting formatting and RAID configuration.  When I insert a bootable CD-ROM (to install Win2K Server), the installation fails and states "No drives found, F3 to reboot".  Do I need to press F6 when the Win2K Server software is installing to locate the SCSI drivers for the AID-7890 SCSI Adapter?  I don't have the drivers on a seperate floppy.  If I do need them, can you please identify the location of those drivers.  Thank you.

Hi Dave,

Check where the SCSI bacplane is connected. The symptoms indicate the baclplane may be connected to a PCI raid controller and not the AIC-7890 controller embedded on the motherboard.

If this is true, you simply need to create a raid array before installing the Operating System. Depending on the controller, you may have to press F6 to load the driver.

Note: it is not necessary to press F6 to load the driver for the AIC-7890. The embedded SCSI controller drivers are included native with Win2000.

Thanks for using the Dell Community Forums!

Hi Dave,

The is the original PowerEdge Expandable Raid Controller (PERC) II.

Documents for PERC II
Note: This controller has a boot array size limitation of 12Gb. If you create an array larger than 12GB, you will receive a "Disk Read" error.
Specific instructions for creating the Raid Array using the CTRL-M Perc II BIOS Setup can be found here.

Latest downloads for the Perc II:
Perc II - Firmware, v. U84/C81, A02
File Name: PERCU84.exe

(AMI) PERC II, 2/SC, 2/DC, Driver, Win2000, v. 2.68, A03
Filename: W2k268A.exe (47 KB)

These are the latest System Upgrades for he PowerEdge 2300:
Dell System BIOS, Dell PowerEdge 2300, A15
FileName: PE2300-BIOSA15.exe [513 KB]     &nbspRelease Date: 4/24/2003

Dell ESM Firmware, A40
Filename: a40cust.exe (563 KB)
Note: Extract the files to a DOS bootable floppy disk. Boot the server to this floppy disk, and run smflsh.exe.

The SCSI backplane is connected to a PCI RAID controller, a huge card (with embedded RAM and on-board battery).  It has a ID on the back of the card -->  0006029P-17000-95A-0425.  It connects to the hard drive bay, a 1x6 hotplug board.  I have 4 9.1Gb IBM disks awaiting formatting. How do I create the RAID array before installing the O/S?  Where would I find the SCI drivers for this controller?

 

Thanks

ok.  i flashed the SCSI PCI Raid card and it sees the 4 drives.  The first drive (drive 0) is the boot drive (to be C:)  I then created two volumes for the 3 RAIDed drives (drives 1,2,3)-- one vol is 12Gb and the other is the remainder of the 3 drives, ~4.5Gb.  I load the Win2K server CD, it does not see the first 9.1Gb drive.  Why?  and now its stuck in setup, loading file (Dynamic Volume Support (dmio)).  Any ideas?

All I want to do is create disks 1,2,3 RAID 5 and the first disk, disk 0 for boot drive.  Then load Win2K on disk 0 and have the data on the RAIDed disks 1,2 and 3.  any ideas?

Thanks.

Hi,

When running a raid controller, each drive must be part of an array to be seen by the Operating System. In your case, create a Raid 0 with the first drive and then you can create a second array (Raid 5) with the remaining 3 drives.

Actually, I would wait until the Operating System is installed before creating the second array. Sometimes the Operating System setup program gets "confused" when it see too many logical hard drives (NT 4.0 was very bad about this).

Also, only the Boot Array has a size limitation on the Perc II controller, the subsequent data array(s) do not have any limitation.

Thanks
Mark

Hi,

Did you update the firmware on the Perc II?

Did you Initialize the logical drive after creating the Raid 0 in the Perc II BIOS Configuration?

Did you Press F6 when prompted by the Win2000 setup to load the Perc II driver?

If the answer is yes to all these questions, I would recommend connecting the SCSI Backplane to the onboard AIC-7890 controller and attempting the install again. There may be a problem with the Perc II.

Thanks
Mark

ok, I changed the configuration --> Raid 0 is the first drive, and the other drives are not set.  they're in limbo.

I rebooted the server after saving the new configuration changes and I have the Win2K server CD in.  After all the drivers are loaded (no disk volume message hanging in Windows 2000 Server Setup), I attempt to initialize and format the first drive, drive 0, the 9.1Gb drive.

"An error occurred while Setup was updating partition information on: 1048571 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on mraid35x.  Setup cannot continue.  To quit Setup, press F3." is the message I now get.  Any ideas?

I formatted drive 0.  No logical drives to initialize or configure here.  The O/S setup can not see Drive O.  Why?

I updated the firmware on the Perc II.  I am re-intializing the logical drive (drive 0) creating the Raid O in the Perc II Bios Configuration Utility.  I did NOT press F6 when prompted by the Win2000 setup to load the Perc II driver.  Ahh ha!  Where is that driver?  It wasn't located when I updated the firmware, or is the driver located in the W2k268A.exe zip file.  As soon as the drive is initialized, I'll reboot the poweredge 2300, insert the new diskette (from unzipping W2k268A.exe) after pressing F6 during install and it WILL work!

I'll let you know.  Thanks again Mark for your continued effort and support.

Yes, the O/S finally installed on the drive it saw because I loaded the MegaRAID drivers (press F6 during setup installation).

Thank you Mark!