Okay, things have just gotten worse. I updated the firmware for the PE1800, rebooted, managed to catch the ctrl-A during BIOS to get into the RAID config utility to reinitialize the drives. However, halfway through I got a "controller kernel panic" and after rebooting, I get the following message when trying to get into the RAID BIOS utility:

dell cerc sata 1.5/6ch bios v4.1-0 (build 7419)
waiting for controller to start
fatal error: controller kernel panic

Any ideas?

Hate to throw you into support, but that's going to be the best bet. We don't have any 1800's in the lab and we don't have access to Support's internal knowledge base which may be able to get you a quick answer.

Gold Support number is 800-945-3355 - they can re-route if you don't have Gold.

I'm building some machines with SBUU today, so I'll let you know my findings on the 32GB problem, although it will be on different server.

Scott, not a problem. I got the replacement CERC card just now and am in the process of reinitializing the drives.

I guess to change drive configs, you have to do it through BIOS and not the SBUU?

Cheers.

You can configure using SBUU in the "Server OS Installation" Section. It's not a separate option off the main menu.

Just installed an m600 blade with W2K08 and SBUU, created 64GB lun and installed as the boot drive -- http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/SBUU+install+with+W2K08

I'm re-reading your initial question and it leads me to ask, did you create any additional LUNs besides the 32GB ? Also, did the new controller work ? Maybe it was a hardware issue the entire time.