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Windows system restore on RAID 1+1, PERC H700
Greetings,
I have encounter such problem, trying to restore windows server .
System setup: Poweredge R710 server with PERC H700 Raid controller, configured for 2 VD RAID1 (4 physical SAS drives), and Windows Server 2008 x86 SP2 instaled.
Goal: Restore windows system (drives C,D) using windows system image. I'am strictly limited to use only windows server backup feature, no other imaging software is allowed.
My seuqncing of action:
1. Using F10 utility mode I configured OS deployement.
2. After boot from Windows server 2008 x86 SP2 DVD I pushed Repair link.
3. There problem is that windows restore can't find any windows system installation, because initialy it can't find any of 2 RAID1 VD configured in RAID H700 controller. Additional installation of latest PERC H700 Drivers from external USB drive does not help.
4. Then I closed repair windows and tryed to run installation of OS, because earlier Windows Server was succefuly deployed like that. Windows installer found two internal disks Disk3 (C:), Disk4 (D:) and one external HDD Disk2 with system image.
5. So I closed installation window and started repair once again. It didn't detected any Windows OS but now it was able to see RAID1 drives Disk3 and Disk4.
6. I tryed to run restore procedure using system image, but it ended with error "A data disk is currently set as active in BIOS. Set some other disk as active or use the DiskPart to clean the data disk, and the retry the restore operation."
7. Using CMD and Diskpart I have cleaned Disk3 and Disk4. Then I was able to start windows restore from system image and operation ended without mistakes.
8. But after reboot BIOS was not able to find any bootable device.
9. I loaded from windows DVD once again and tryed to fix it using CMD and BOOTREC /REBUILDBCD command. It was able to find G:\Windows but ended up with "no installations found".
10. Right now I'am in dead end.
Can somobody help with detecting possible cause of the problem and maybe even a sollution to it?
We have another r710 servers with perc 6/i RAID controllers, configured as RAID5. And I don't have any problem with them.
Thx in advance!
DELL-Chris H
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February 15th, 2016 13:00
Microwave_UA,
The first thing I would start with is verifying that the R710 is current on BIOS, iDrac, as well as H700 firmware updates. The reason being is to ensure the stability of the R710. After that could you boot to the controller BIOS and verify the Status listed for both Virtual Disks, as well as for the individual physical disks? This is to confirm if the drives are possibly showing as Offline, Failed, Missing or Online.
Let me know what you see and we can go from there.
Microwave_UA
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February 16th, 2016 01:00
Hello,
Today I have managed to restore windows using system image without installation of new BIOS, iDRAC or PERC H700 firmware. I have performed the same routing as earlier but with one exception. During step #4 I canceled installation window right after initial load (Screen with "Select the operating system that you want to install"). Yesterday I canceled installation window on "Where do you want to install Windows" screen. After such action windows was able to find hard drives and installed OS. Restore finished without any mistakes as well system was successfully booted .
I suppose the case can be closed, even though system behavior is not ordinary, compared to other servers with PERC 6/i RAID controllers that we have.
If somebody will be able to explain such behavior between Windows Setup and PERC H700 I'll be very appreciated.