installing NT 4.0 Server on Dell PowerEdge 400SC

Hi.

I can see that there has been no help to your problem so far. I am thinking of buying a Dell 400SC without the OS, as we already have NT. So, did you figure out how to install the drivers? Do reply if you have.

Thank you.

Alpha

I have similar problems installing NT on Poweredge 400SC. How did you install NT from the NT CD? I would appreciate you help and some brief instructions. I tried to install it but NT did not recognize the hard disks.

I found a way to install the ATI Rage XL (the video card installed in the server) video driver and worked fine. You can find this driver in the www.premiersupport.dell.com FTP site under the "video" drivers subdirectory. The name of the file is: RXLNT4_A5. Unzip the file and go thru the setup. It will setup the appropriate drivers and when you re-boot, the correct drivers will be installed and can start using the video adapters full potential.

P.S.

I was finally able to install NT 4.0 on Poweredge 400SC. The trick is to create an partition no larger than 4GB (NT limitation) and install NT. Then apply at least service pack 3. When NT boots ok, go to NT Disk Administrator and allocate the rest of the disk space as an NTFS extension and then format it using the "quick" option.

unfortunately I had to install Win 2000, then installed NT4.  Everything works but the video display.  I am unable to change the settings. 

I was directed to the following site http://www.lsilogic.com/downloads/selectDownload.do#a for the ATARaid controller driver for NT 4.0. I was directed to the following file nt-4-03.zip under raid controllers

Installing Windows Server NT4 onto a Dell SC400
===============================================

=============
-------------
Sections:
-------------
=============
A. Component Specific Drivers for NT4
B. Installation Method

==========================================
------------------------------------------
A. Component Specific Drivers for NT4:
------------------------------------------
==========================================
1. SATA RAID Controller (Promise Fasttrak S150 TX)
2. CDROM Controller
3. Intel Network Card (Pro 1000 MT)
4. Graphics Adapter (ATI Rage XL)

1. SATA RAID Controller (Promise Fasttrak S150 TX)
==================================================
Drivers for the SATA RAID controller for NT4 are not currently available from Dell, you will need to get them from Promise.
- At the time of writting these drivers could be found at:
+ FastTrak S150 TX Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 Drivers - v 1.00.0.37 - 580.87KB - 2003/9/5
-> File:
http://www.promise.com/support/file/driver/1_FastTrak_S150_TX_Windows_NT4_2000_XP_2003.zip
-> URL:
http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=107&category=driver&os=0

2. CDROM Controller
===================
The generic driver (IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller) that comes with NT4 seems to work fine, the only issues that I had was the order that I loaded the driver, when installing NT4.
This order is explained under section B. 'Installation Method'.

3. Intel Network Card (Pro 1000 MT)
===================================
The driver for the Intel Pro 1000MT network adapter was part of a package available from Intel's site:
+ Windows NT 4.0 Network Adapter Driver Set - v 9.0 - 8101KB - 2004/4/16
-> File:
ftp://aiedownload.intel.com/df-support/4232/eng/pront4.exe
or
http://aiedownload.intel.com/df-support/4232/eng/pront4.exe

For use during the initial setup of NT4, you will need to extract the contents of this package onto another machine and copy the nesessary files (NT4 Specific ones) into the root dir of a CD (or a series of Floppies).

4. Graphics Adapter (ATI Rage XL)
=================================
ATI Rage XL graphics adapter drivers are available from http://www.ati.com (http://www.ati.com/support/products/pc/ragexl/nt/ragexlwinntdrivers.html).
+ Windows NT 4.0 RAGE XL Display Driver build 4.00.1006 (Recommended Driver) - 5.8MB - 2000/12/14
-> URL:
http://mirror.ati.com/support/drivers/nt/NT4RPRORXL4001006.html
-> File:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/NT4RPRORXL4001006.exe
or
+ Windows NT 4.0 Display Driver build 4.0.1381.1012 (OpenGL Driver) - 7.78MB - 2002/04/02
-> URL:
http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/nt/nt4-rxl-4013811012.html
-> File:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/nt4-ragexl-4-0-1381-1012.exe


===========================
---------------------------
B. Installation Method:
---------------------------
===========================

Now this method worked for me, but you may have to tailor it for your own needs. It is based on suggestions from the Dell techincal support team, so kudos to them for suggesting it.

NOTICE: Stage 'i.' is very important, it was the key to getting the SATA RAID controller to work under NT4, for me at least.
i. Use the NT4 bootable floppies to boot the server, as soon the screen goes blue, hit 'F6' a couple of times (like you would with Win2K or XP but you don't get the message prompt to do so on NT4).
ii. This should mean that you'll skip the automatic detection process and after loading the second floppy it'll prompt you to load drivers for attached CDROMs, mass storage devices, etc.
iii. Now this is where I had a lot of trouble and although it doesn't seem to make any sense, you have to be specific about the order in which you load the drivers for the CDROM / SATA RAID controller.
iv. You need to load the CDROM Controller Driver first, hit 'S' to specify a driver, then scroll up the list till you find 'IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller' and install that one.
v. When I loaded the SATA RAID from the disk first and the CDROM controller second, it failed, CDROM first and SATA RAID second, worked fine.
vi. Once the CDROM controller is added to the list hit 'S' to specify another driver, select 'OTHER' and insert the floppy disk with the SATA RAID drivers, select the NT4 drivers (I personally removed the other driver from the disk) and install them.
vii. It should install them (assuming you've done the F6 on boot thing), leaving it till later (i.e. allowing NT4 to run it's natural course) ends in failure (for me at least).
viii. You can now continue with the setup process, using the Intel Pro 1000MT drivers (which you burnt onto CD, unless you really like swapping floppy disks over) and installing the graphics drivers once you've got a GUI as visuals aren't that important at this stage.

The rest is just normal NT4, hope it worked for you. Big thanks to the Dell technical support team for their input. If you can avoid it, don't try and put NT4 onto a nice new server, talk the powers that be into shelling out for a better OS.