To replace my old "desktop server" I recently acquired a PowerEdge 1800. Since I received it for free I'm not exactly inclined to complain, escpecially since even this machine is already an improvement from what I used to work with.

It only has 3 gig ram, 1 processor and currently used 2 sata disks (RAID 1 and RAID 0). I know it doesn't sound like much, but like I said, it serves my purposes and allows me to save up to eventually buy me a more performant machine.

The idea is to install & configure it like the old machine:

  - Windows Server 2008R2/2012

 - SQL Server 2008 R2

 - Team Foundation Server 2010

 - Hyper-V or an another virualisation infrastructure to allow me to run 1 or 2 virtual machines simultaneously.

 - Domain controller

 - IIS

None of these were a problem on my original machine, although I recently heard the 1800-series does not support Hyper-V, wich means I'll have to either use another virtualisation system or beg my friend for a 2nd more recent machine. ;-)

I am however peffectly happy with what I've got at the moment.

On my old machine I used to run Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, I recently upgraded it to Windows Server 2012, but then the freakin' machine decided to die. :(

I've been attempting to install Windows Server 2012, but I've been running into a curious issue.

When the installer starts up, I immediately get a message box telling me I need to install a device driver. Googling the issue I quickly found a link which explained my problem.

Downloading the driver I attempted to install it, but whatever I do, I cannot get any further in the install.

Strangely enough, the driver I attempt to install (a  device driver for the Adaptec CERC 1.5/6ch SATA raid controller) seems to work; I can actually see the disks when I click on the Browse button.

At least, I can see one of the 2 arrays, since the 2nde array doesn't have a partition at the moment.

What am I doing wrong? Might there be another driver I need to install?