2800 Missing Boot Drive C Option on BIOS Setup

Question

I am trying to get a 2800, A07 firmware, to boot from a PCI Express SATA controller card which has an SSD attached to it. The card shows up on BIOS boot with the disk drive. On the BIOS set up page under Hard-Disk Drive Sequence the card shows up at *Slot 3 Adapters with no ID support. The second entry is System BIOS boot devices. However, on the BIOS setup fro the Boot Sequence there is no option to boot from Drive C. All that is shown are the IDE CD-ROM and the Diskette Drive A.

What can be done to have Drive C show up on the Boot Sequence set up option?

DELL-Chris H · Answer

John_Latta,

The issue is that the PE 2800 is a SCSI based system. So it doesn't support SAS or SATA controllers. The card may be powering up, but the server will not understand how to properly communicate with it. Also regarding the SSD, the first generation servers to support them was the 11th generation servers.

I hope this helps.

John_Latta · Answer

I fully understand this. Does not the 2800 still boot from C: when SCSI is present? I saw this earlier when configuring the system so why is the option gone now? As the post said the system sees the card and recognizes a device attached to it - PCI to PCI bridge. Currently the way the BIOS is responding is that the only devices which it will boot from are a floppy and CD-ROM. Thus, it will not even boot to SCSI.

theflash1932 · Answer

Did you disable the SCSI controller under Integrated Devices?  That would cause it not to show in the boot sequence list (because it supports no other type of 'C: Drive').

DELL-Chris H · Answer

So the server doesn't see the SCSI raid controller that WAS installed? I would agree with Flash if that is the case, you would need to go to the BIOS and under Integrated Devices you would need to enable Embedded Raid Controller. If there isn't a raid controller installed then you would enable the SCSI Controller under the same page.

John_Latta · Answer

The following was tested on the BIOS:

Integrated Devices > Embedded RAID Controller > RAID Enabled

Integrated Devices > IDE CD-ROM Controller > Auto

USB Controller > Off

Hard Drive Sequence > 1. System BIOS boot devices; 1 * Slot 3: Adapters with no ID Support

Boot Sequence > 1. IDE CD-ROM 2. Diskette drive A:

Integrated Devices > Embedded RAID Controller > SCSI Enabled

IDE CD-ROM Controller > Auto

USB Controller > On with BIOS Support

Hard Drive Sequence > 1. System BIOS boot devices; 1 * Slot 3: Adapters with no ID Support

Boot Sequence > 1. IDE CD-ROM 2. Diskette drive A:

Thus, I have not found any way to boot from Drive C: in the boot sequence.

PowerEdge Hardware General

2800 Missing Boot Drive C Option on BIOS Setup

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