I’m out at a customers site attempting to install a Windows 2003 server that is using an Adaptec RAID controller. Unfortunately this server doesn’t have a floppy drive and I didn’t bring my trusty rusty USB floppy drive with my laptop on this trip. So…any suggestions on how to get around this that doesn’t involve creating a new Windows 2003 CD with the RAID drivers embedded in it? I don’t know of any other way…and that way is a total pain in the butt.
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. ATM I’m fresh out of ideas and running out of time on this project.
There’s no start CDs available, like HPs SmartStart, or the equivalent…? Whether it’s state of the art servers or no name servers, there should be a CD which allows you to load the RAID drivers and then the OS, install in unattended mode.
I just did this. I installed the OS to a single drive not on the raid controller, installed the raid drivers to the OS, then imaged that drive back to the raid set.
It’s an IBM server (which I’m not to familiar with), and yes, there is a bootable CD which is how you set up the RAID to begin with. However, I’m not sure what this has to do with loading the OS. Certainly the boot CD has a drivers creation section…but it creates the drivers on a diskette…which is my problem.
I know you can do this with a Dell server but I have no idea how to do this with an IBM server. I didn’t see anything in either the boot CD I ran or in the documentation (though I might have missed it).
Several actually and I tried this…however Windows doesn’t seem to want to read from it in this part of the install. When you go into F6 to load specific drivers Windows seems to only be looking for a diskette…and if it doesn’t see a diskette drive it is giving me only the option to quit. Granted I’m no MCSE so maybe there is another way to do this…if so, I’m all ears.
This is actually how I’ve done it in the past…with a stand alone drive running only the OS and the RAID running the high value data part. Unfortunately it’s a 3 drive array that the customer has ordered and wants all of the elements in the array. I don’t have another SAS SATA drive hanging out either.
It’s not a Dell server but I’ll see if there is anything I can do along those lines. I may have to break down and call tech support from IBM on this one (perish the thought!). Anyway, I thank you all for your help on this…appreciated.
Just wanted to give an FYI for anyone interested. Wakinyan had it right…there was an unattended install disk with the IBM server (called the ServerGuide Setup and Installation CD for anyone interested). I should have known that myself as I’ve used something similar for Dell servers :smack: !! At any rate that worked like a charm. Now I just need to figure out how to set up the WYSE thin clients to connect to the terminal server with the desktop environment the users are asking for…I’m about a half a day behind and seriously want to get out of this no mans land that is South Eastern New Mexico. Urf!
Anyway, wanted to say thanks again to everyone for helping me out on this. Appreciated!
