Dell PowerEdge 2950 - Possible RAID issues installing Windows Server 2012

The drivers for the PERC 6 are native to Server 2012, but you may need to update your PERC firmware for it to be compatible.  BIOS and ESM/BMC should be updated before other device firmware.

(FYI ... it is not applicable to your current situation, but for informational purposes, all Dell drivers are in EXE format, but the ones you want are the "hard drive" (ZPE) versions, which are self-extracting EXE's; the "Update Package for Microsoft Windows" will attempt to install the drivers on the system.)

Thanks very much for the reply, much appreciated! :)

Do you know where i can get the updates/files required to update BIOS and PERC as the only ones i can find are all EXE files. All of which seem to need to run from within an OS, in my case there is no OS currently so i just need to update.

Any ideas?

Thanks! 

There is a "floppy" and "non-packaged" version for use with bootable DOS utilities.  The EXE's would be runnable under that platform.

You can also use SBUU/SUU (boot to SBUU, insert SUU when prompted for the repository), although the downloads are huge.

You can also create a bootable ISO of updates that apply only to that system, using Repository Manager.  Use only Linux packages when exporting to the bootable ISO.

Thanks very much, I have tried a few things and I still cannot get it to work! I am struggling to find it.

I have tried booting into the Windows Server 2012 Installer CD and ran command prompt, i had put the exe files on pen drive and tried to run the files like that which didnt work. I also tried doing it via BartPE with Windows XP which also didnt run. I cannot find the files to run directly and to be honest i dont really know what i am doing. 

I have never had to do this before, usually id have an OS to update from, but i dont have an OS on the system and need to upgrade the BIOS and RAID controller.

If someone could provide me with step by step instructions that would be very much appreciated!!

Thanks in advance! :) 

You could install 2008, then update the firmware from the OS.

Did you try Repository Manager?  SBUU/SUU?

The Command Prompt and WinPE in modern Windows is not an actual DOS environment.  You would need to create actual "DOS" bootable media.  Dell's 32-bit Diagnostics I believe would work here as well.

I think I found the solution to this..... I was running into the same thing trying to install Windows 7 and couldn't find the driver. 

I felt so dumb once I figured it out...... When you are booting the machine and it is running through it's DOS code there is a section that goes through the RAID controller. There is a key sequence you push to get into the RAID controller. All you have to do then is configure your drive(s) in a RAID 0 and then initialize your disc(s) from that menu. All this is before you ever hit the Windows install disc. 

Once you do this and initialize the discs in that RAID utility then you will see your discs in the Windows install menu when booting from the Windows install disc. 

I also managed to find a solution, similar to yours i think.

I went into the RAID config already, however i had three disks in the drive bays. Two of the disks were set up in RAID1 configuration and the remaning disk had not been initialized, i didnt think this would make a difference! 

I removed the third disk and it worked! If i had set it up in RAID on its own i am sure that would have worked too, but yes, very silly!

Thanks for the advice though :) 

The PERC doesn't support non-RAID, so you MUST configure RAID before any disk space is presented to Windows, even with the correct driver. The OP said he configured RAID already, so that was not the issue - the firmware was likely incompatible/old.

As to removing the third drive - that should not make any difference. Chances are that drive was bad or had an existing recognized configuration on it.