Installing XP on PE1850? Hard Drive not found??? 1

[ame540]

So i want to install XP pro on our system because it will only be doing some basic data transfer jobs. During install, the system goes into the XP menu (from the CD) and it says that it cannot find a hard drive to install to. Is this dells ways of enforcing that only windows 2000 / 2003 server can be installed?

Is there a work around for this?

 

[jkupski]

When you begin the install you should see a message saying "Press F6 if you need drivers for your SCSI adapter" or something similar. Put the Win2k3 PERC drivers on a floppy disk, press F6, and you should be good to go.

 

[ame540]

Sorry for my ignorance... Where can i get these Win2k3 PERC drivers? i dont have windows 2003 server.

 

[jkupski]

Dell's website. Go to downloads in the support section, type in your service tag (or pick PE1850 from the drop down menus) and pick Win2k3 as your OS, SCSI RAID as your download category, and press submit. I'm guessing your machine has a PERC4e/Di controller, so choose that. Alternatively, here's a direct link:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...ory=35&os=WNET&osl=en&deviceid=6395&devlib=35

Make a floppy disk (instructions should bein the included readme file, but if not I'm sure you can work it out) and follow the instructions in the post above.

 

[ame540]

Thanks for the great advice. this method i think would work.... IF WE HAD A FLOPPY DRIVE ON OUR SERVER! unfortunatly we dont, and the setup will not allow me to load the SCSI drivers from a CDRom that i created.

I think im stuck, so unless we got a floppy drive for this server, im gonna have to get windows 2003 server.

 

[LawnBoy]

A cheapo floppy drive will cost you about $10. Chances are very good that there's a floppy controller port on the motherboard. Take the cover off the server, dangle the drive in there, do the job, remove the floppy.

 

[ame540]

yeah i contacted dell today and ordered a floppy drive, should be here in a few days. the Poweredge servers have a very small connector that none of the drives/cables i have here fit.

well see what happens when it gets here!

 

[jkupski]

USB floppy drives should also work, I think, if you have one available.

 

[ame540]

Unfortuantely i dont have one lying around... the dell tech that i spoke with doesnt think that will work (neither do i) soly on the fact that theres no USB drivers installed yet.

 

[jkupski]

Moot point since you don't have one available, but I if there is BIOS support for the device (and I believe there should be on something as new as the PE1850) the XP install should recognize it as a standard floppy drive and allow you to load drivers off of it.