Excellent. I'll give it a try. Thanks for the help!

I created a slipstreamed SP4 W2K install disc using an SP3 CD as the base. I also set the floppy drive up as you suggested. The problem persists. I believe the second time 2K is asking for the SCSI driver disk, the reason it can't see the floppy is that it no longer sees USB devices. Any other ideas? I checked inside to see if there is a floppy connector, just to see if I could get away with using a floppy drive from another system. No dice (as expected). I may just give up and put 2K3 on here and pay too much for terminal services licenses to connect machines to it.

It may be a waste of time, but I like a challenge every once in a while. ;-) I checked out NLite and I have to say that's a darn nice piece of software! I used the driver disk I created for the SAS device, chose to have the install add it and guess what? The installation worked like a champ! Freaking awesome. I DID walk away from it while it was getting ready to boot for real the first time, but I'm confident it will work. I should have thought ahead and added the NIC and video drivers, but that's what I get for thinking. Thanks for the time and assistance!

Did you get this working? I tried to create a CD using nLite but each time I boot from the CD, I get an error that says:
"The file lsi_sas.sys could not be found."

This file is on the CD. nLite put a file named "LSI_SAS.SY_" in the \i386 folder of the Windows 2000 SP4 CD.

I downloaded the drivers named "SAS5iR_WS03x86_1.24.04.00.exe" at:
http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/format.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&deviceid=10269&libid=46&releaseid=R150416&vercnt=3&formatcnt=0&SystemID=PWE_XEO_1435SC&servicetag=&os=WNT5&osl=en&catid=-1&impid=-1

I see there are some other files on that page. Are these the correct ones?

The drivers I am trying to use are as follows:

07/21/2001 05:30 PM 22,048 cocpyinf.dll
08/09/2005 06:44 AM 1,015 delpseud.inf
03/05/2007 07:07 AM 13,027 lsi_sas.cat
02/09/2007 10:21 PM 6,691 lsi_sas.inf
02/09/2007 09:53 PM 347,136 lsi_sas.pdb
02/09/2007 09:53 PM 93,184 lsi_sas.sys
03/07/2001 10:39 AM 3 lsi_sas.tag
05/21/2007 01:50 PM 0 sas.txt
02/26/2007 10:45 PM 4,641 SAS5iR_WS03x86_1.24.04.00.txt
02/09/2007 11:05 PM 3,660 symmpi.dbg
02/09/2007 11:05 PM 369,664 symmpi.pdb
02/09/2007 11:05 PM 104,496 symmpi.sys
12/07/2006 08:12 AM 5,060 txtsetup.oem

Message Edited by atlantisnet on 05-21-2007 02:05 PM

I did get it to work. Are you sure you added the drivers correctly using NLite? It's been a while since I set this up so I'm trying to recall all the details of the software. You may want to add video and NIC drivers to the install as well to avoid a reboot or 2.

I'm pretty sure I added them correctly. I simply clicked on the "Driver" button in the "Integrate" button on the "Task Selection" window. On the "Drivers" window, I clicked the "Insert" button and selected "Single Driver". I browsed to the folder I extracted the driver files to and selected the "lsi_sas.inf" file (I also tried the delpseud.inf file -- same result). Finally I selected "Textmode driver" and the "Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6c Controller Driver (Windows 2000)". I see there is an option for "Regular PNP driver". Did you use that?

I'm pretty sure I used the PnP driver option, not the text mode as I believe the drivers Dell provides are the PnP drivers. If I had an option to make it so you could download it, I'd make an ISO of the disc I created.

Thanks for your help slerch666!

I finally got it working. What I did was create a new copy of Windows 2000 into a folder on my hard drive. It seems as if nLite made changes to the original one I made. I then edited the txtsetup.oem file to only contain information about the Windows 2000 driver (symmpi). Finally I made a new CD using nLite. I selected single driver, delpseud.inf, Testmode driver. At this point I selected the "Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6x Controller Driver (Windows 2000) option. By the way, since I made the change to the txtsetup.oem file, this was the only driver shown. I then made the CD and it worked!

Here is a copy of my altered txtsetup.oem file:



# txtsetup.oem - version S2003.2 for symmpi Windows Server 2000 driver
#
# ***********************************************************************
# *
# Copyright 2006 LSI Logic, Corp. All rights reserved. *
# *
# This file is property of LSI Logic, Corp. and is licensed for *
# use as is. The receipt of or posession of this file does not *
# convey any rights to modify its contents, in whole, or in part, *
# without the specific written consent of LSI Logic, Corp. *
# *
# ***********************************************************************
#
# format for txtsetup.oem.
#
# General format:
#
# [section]
# key = value1,value2,...
#
#
# The hash ('#') introduces a comment.
# Strings with embedded spaces, commas, or hashes should be double-quoted
#


[Disks]

# This section lists all disks in the disk set.
#
# is a descriptive name for a disk, used when
# prompting for the disk
# is a file whose presence allows setup to recognize
# that the disk is inserted.
# is where the files are located on the disk.
#

d1 = "Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6X Controller Driver (Windows 2000)",\lsi_sas.tag,\


[Defaults]

# This section lists the default selection for each 'required'
# hardware component. If a line is not present for a component,
# the default defaults to the first item in the []
# section (see below).
#
# is one of computer, display, keyboard, mouse, scsi
# is a unique string to be associated
# with an option.

scsi = DELL_SAS_2K


[scsi]

# This section lists the options available for a particular component.
#
# is the unique string for the option
# is a text string, presented to the user in a menu
# gives the name of the key to be created for the component in
# HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Services

DELL_SAS_2K = "Dell SAS 5x and SAS 6x Controller Driver (Windows 2000)",symmpi


[HardwareIds.scsi.DELL_SAS_2K]
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F041028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F061028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F071028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F081028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0054&SUBSYS_1F091028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F0E1028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F0F1028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_1F101028", "symmpi"
id = "PCI\VEN_1000&DEV_0058&SUBSYS_021D1028", "symmpi"


# This section lists the files that should be copied if the user
# selects a particular component option.
#
# is one of driver, port, class, dll, hal, inf, or detect.
# See below.
# identifies where the file is to be copied from, and must
# match en entry in the [Disks] section.
# is the name of the file. This will be appended to the
# directory specified for the disk in the [Disks] section to form the
# full path of the file on the disk.

[Files.scsi.DELL_SAS_2K]
driver = d1,symmpi.sys,SYMMPI
inf = d1,lsi_sas.inf
inf = d1,delpseud.inf
driver = d1,cocpyinf.dll,none
catalog = d1,lsi_sas.cat


[Config.SYMMPI]
value = Parameters\PnpInterface,5,REG_DWORD,1