Problem installing windows server 2003/SATA RAID

Question

I'm having a hard time installing Windows Server 2003 on a PowerEdge 850.  The server has a two drive raid 1 array setup, and I am using a MSDN/certified MS partner volume liscence edition of the OS.   If I try to use the dell server assistant to install the OS, it tells me that the disc (which contains both standard and enterprise editions of 2003) is invalid (likely because it is not the standard/commercial version).   If I try to install from the CD directly, I run into another issue:   When the system boots from the CD, I hit F6 to install a raid driver.  It prompts me to insert a floppy with the driver on it.  The only floppy drive I have that will work with this system is a USB one.  The floppy drive is read and it identifies the driver on the disk as the Dell CERC SATA 1.5/6ch driver.  The installation then continues to the point where it checks/'formats' the drive.  Right after this, it again prompts me to insert the disk labeled 'DELL CERC SATA 1.5/6CH WINDOWS 2000/XP/2003 DEVICE DRIVERS' into the floppy.  This is the point where I get stuck.  The only drivers available for the DELL CERC SATA RAID controller are already on the disk.  I should also mention that the disk drive is not read again at any point, so even if I was to swap it out with another disk, it wouldn't even check to see.   I've been working on this for several hours now and the only other thing I can think to do is move the HD to another computer and do the installation there before plugging it back into this one.  Since the only compatable systems that I have right now are in production, I would like to avoid this if possible... any suggestions that people have would be greatly appreciated.

Mabangiz · Answer

I'm also having the same kind of issue with another system PE2900, I get stuck when it ask again for the PERC driver.  I hope somebody can answer this...

EdwardEMeyer · Answer

Same issue on our new poweredge 2950. You can use the open manage cd, but I want to repair an existing install. Anyone know how to build a new win2k3 cd with the correct drivers added?   thanks, Ed

eBorci · Answer

At setup Windows only recognizes few brends of USB Floppys. Search Microsoft site for those.
Alternative is to burn your own install CD that contains needed drivers with nLite or some other suitable program.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

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