I just got a PE SC420 box with with a single SATA drive.  Added another SATA drive of same size to build a RAID.  Went into BIOS and enabled RAID.  When box starts up, it detects both drives and RAID is turned on.  Also, there is no floppy drive but BIOS is set to recognize USB drive as a floppy.

When I try to install using Dell-supplied Server Installation Disk  (version 2.3), it states that it supports Windows 2003 only.  Going through the installation, it pompts me to insert O/S disk.  I insert the Win2000 disk, but installer does not detect it and ejects the disc.

So then I try to install directly using Win2000 disk.  I have extracted the CERC SATA 2 driver, included on the Dell Installation disk,  to a USB drive.  Going through Windows install, I hit F6 when prompted, then go through install settings.  Then it prompts me to select storage media options.  I click S to specify the driver.  It then pompts me to insert the floppy and hit Enter.  The USB drive is inserted, so I hit Enter.  Nothing happens, the Win2000 install is not detecting the driver.  If I continue with the install, the installer outputs a message that there are no storage devices specified and I need to hit F3 to exit.

I've seen another message on this forum with similar problem, and someone mentioned that you can create a driver floppy from the Dell Installer CD.  But on my installer CD there is no such option.

 

Has anyone been able to install Win 2000 on SC420 with SATA RAID?  Is it possible to get an older version of the installer CD that may have the driver floppy option?

 

I would greatly appreciate any responses.