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Dell Power Edge not booting
Hi y'all:
I have a PE 2650 server (quite old) running RH linux. The OS system is broken and does not boot to it, but it DOES boot halfway (it stops at "no inittab found, enter runlevel..." a simple way to solve this is to boot from the CDROM and create a new inittab file. BUT:
System does not boot from CD ROM. Replaced the CDROM unit two times already (I have two other identical servers), nothing.
Tried: Rescue CDs, Dell's Server MAnage, Windows 7, Ubuntu, Centos... nothing.
Tried: MSDOS floppy, Dell's BIOS bootable floppys (two)... nothing.
I took anothe server, a spare HD, installed the OS thinking I could just mount it on the server, but the PERC complained that the HD wasn't initialized.
The server DOES try to read the CDROMs and the floppies, but it says it cannot find a bootable disk.
I want to boot BY ANY MEANS just to update the BIOS and see if thast solves the booting issue.
Questions:
1) Anybody can shed some light?
2) If I initialize a HD with the PERC utility, will I lose the configuration i currently have? (i have data on the HDs that are currently on the server).
Please, help. I'll buy a new server if I can boot this one. Promised,.
Cheers,
Carlos...
DELL-Geoff P
990 Posts
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March 29th, 2013 10:00
It appears that its passing from the hardware to the OS since its giving you a Linux error message. I would reduce it down to the minimum to POST and see if it gives you any hardware errors prior to handing off to the OS. One DIMM in the first slot, 1A, disconnect the CD drive, and the hard drives. Record any errors. If no errors, then connect the CD drive first, and try to boot to a CD without the drives being connected.
Regards,
DELL-Rey G
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March 29th, 2013 15:00
Carlos, just to be sure, if you press F2 and enter the bios/setup screen, scroll down to where it shows Boot Sequence, what is the order that is shown in there? Also, After Boot Sequence is Hard-Disk Drive Sequence, how is that order shown? Also, just to be sure, you are trying to boot from cdrom discs, NOT dvd discs? Or do you have a DVDrom drive installed?
cecsofrt
3 Posts
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March 29th, 2013 16:00
Hi Geoff! Thanks fdor your answer. Since I want to force non-HD boot, I removed the HDs. I only have a cdrom/floppy unit,. I disconnected the battery and removed the power and all memory modules yesterday to force a clear-CMOS and see if that would fix things, but it didn't. I'm going to try leaving only one memory module as you suggest and I'll post the results.
cecsofrt
3 Posts
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March 29th, 2013 17:00
Hi Ray! Thanks for your answer. I have selected ONLY CDROM, ONLY floppy and disabled the PERC to force a cdrom. I have enabled them both and set CD first, floppy second and all the way around. Nothing. I am trying to boot from CDs burned at 4X and 8X (just in case). My floppies are MSDOS and Dell BIOS update floppies. I'm setting up a PXE server to see if I can boot off it. The server DOES try to boot off the removable units as evidenced from the lights that indicate access to the removable media. I do not have a singel HD installed now.