Perc boot problem

update

the PERC2 appears to initate because 4 scsi hds are in a container.

the bios startup indicates container volume 0

Bios intiated (now I am paraphrasing here..because I only have one monitor)

after this the standard onboard controllers are initiated

and not loaded because no scsi devices attached

the CDrom is attached to the older onboard controller and it is found and intialized

as previously stated the system boots to window 2000 server

but after about 40 seconds I get the bluescreen...'Harddrive in accesable' (paraphrased here again)

Help Needed Pleeeeease :smileyhappy:

Hi Artzpool,

   When the RAID controller reports on the container during power on self test (POST), did it say the status was optimal, degraded or dead?

  If Optimal, Get a DOS bootable disk that has a copy of FDISK on it, boot to the floppy and then type FDISK at the command prompt, read the options, select to view the partitions, the "A" should be next to the boot partition, if it is not set correctly, it could cause boot problems. (windows disk manager does give you an option to set any partition to be the active partition, will not cause problems till you are trying to boot...)

  Also if there is a small bit (30-50 M/B) of free space before the main boot partition, the Dell utility partition has been deleted, but that would cause it to miss finding the boot.ini, giving no system disk found F1 to retry F2 to continue message.

  If Degraded, you'll need to T/S your RAID array, as you are a les experianced, person, perhaps you should call Dell tech support. If it's an old server the support call should be free.

  If dead you would be getting the above F1.... F2 message, so we will not go there.

  My guess: it's degraded, and you have bad sectors on the remaining drives, causing corrupted files that are critical to the operating system, if this case you're going to have to rebuild the server from the ground up, possiable replacing a couple of drives.

Hi Artzpool,

  While not Royally pooched, you are going to need a floppy. Dell spare parts will be happy to sell you one, or you can scrounge one from somewhere. On the bright side, there are companies out there that will pay big money for your PERC 2 controller if you determine it's not worth messing with. (There is a SCSI controller embedded on the M/B that can run the drives...)

  As the current install seems hosed, you can move the drives to the embedded SCSI controller and run verify on each drive, remapping any bad blocks, reconnect it to the PERC and delete the old array then create a new array. Any drives that are dead (SCSI controller fails verify on them) can be removed, leaving you with 2 to 4 drives for your array. once you have a floppy, you can update the F/W on the controller, and get the matching version of driver (this is important, as mismatched F/W and driver tends to cause BSOD's).

  warwizard DCSP

Au biggie problem here.....floppydisk

the flopy disk is working test in a workstation

the Poweredge

power on

checks memory: all is good here

come up with outof date firmware on the following

ESM Backplane power hotplug and onother one i can't recall waht it was

the next line indicates

'diskette drive 0 seek failure'

so I cannot re-install w2k with out a floppy disk...becuase of the scsi drivers need to be intalled at F6 prompt during the w2k install proceedures

any suggestion?

would the floppy device not be avaialble becuase firmware is out of date..is what come first the chicken or the egg?

Scott

I already tried switching floppy drives and caples from cross over to striaght...the original floppy cable in the PE6300 is striaght thru.

in addition a switched out floopy drive as well...same problem

I did notice in the BIOS that the mouse was disable...hmm I htough could this have something to do with the floppy for some unknow reason..switched it on and...no change..same problem

though I did not have a ps 2 mouse I have an adpater to go from usb to ps to and the mouse works fine.

forgot to mention that I have been able to install windowsxp on the PE...how this happened I have no idea..

1. tried one more time to see what happens

2. power on PE6300

3. inserted windowsxp pro, waited...the same BIOS info

4. cdrom seen by host controller..bootable media (XP) found and SCSI bios started

5. standard install windows came up this time I did not choose F6 fucntion\..just to see what happens

6. watch the drivers being loaded bottom of install window..noticed that PERC2 drivers hmm interesting

7. a complete install of XP is now on the PE an dis bootable...yes XP was installed on HD attahced to the PERC2.

8. confused 68 gig of hd space..meaning that a container is still established. and that the volume 0 is drive d in windows.

so if the container is still intacted but cannot find the partition during BIOS boot F10 fucntion

how do I do a complete re-install of the required software to mamange containers?...do I need a floppy to do this?

oh what a WIP htis is going to be

Scott,

  The BIOS may not support booting to a USB memory key or a USB floppy, but that might be worth a try, I put a 4 port USB card in my PE2300, have not tried booting to it though.

  No, F/W out of date is not likely to be the cause of your floppy drive problems. Your floppy drive works in a W/S, did you try using a diferent cable in the server? Try a different cable, inspect the pins on the cable and M/B connection.

warwizard DCSP