Poweredge R720 Boot Drive Configuration

Hello,

     I am in possession of a poweredge R720 Server that was deaccessioned from my work (They wiped it and gave it to me) and I'm trying to get it operating for personal use. So, I need help with the following questions:

1) When I start up the server, no boot drive is detected.  Where would the boot drive be located? [there is a drive located inside the server behind its interface buttons/screen.  I would assume its this?]

2) Said drive is wiped.  If I try to install windows server 2016 on it from a boot drive, windows installer says it is formatted as a GPT, which is incorrect for this function and wont install.  Windows installer wont reformat this disk.  Should I reformat it on a separate computer?

3) Does any of this sound like I'm going in the right direction?

Thank you in advance!