PowerEdge 1800 hangs after BMC load after switching RAID HDDs

[xzr]

Hey, I'm bit of a newbie on these machines and new to these forums but I'm eager to learn more . Just this week I ran into a problem at work with our PowerEdge 1800 Server.

The server is/was running Windows 2003 Server Standard
The RAID5 is PERC 4/SC-controller driven.


This is how the story goes:

1. 2 of 3 HDDs in our RAID5 setup start giving out warnings

2. We get 3 new larger HDDs and I backup all the partitions on the server using GParted.

3. I replace the HDDs with the new ones and build a new larger RAID5

4. I partition the RAID using GParted and run the data back on the partitions from the images I took. (And update the flags of the partitions making the utilities hidden and windows partition bootable)


THE PROBLEM!

This is where it gets interesting. The system boots fine to the utility partition when pressing F10 at startup, but when trying a normal startup the system hangs after Baseboard Management Controller is loaded. The diagnostics light in the front panel is steady blue.

Also this message appears in startup "MPT boot rom no supported devices found"

I have also ran fixmbr, fixboot and bootcfg /rebuild on recovery console.

I've been ramming my head on a wall with this one for 3 days now and nothing seems to get the server to boot into Windows. Any help you guys could give would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

-Atte

 

[technome]

In the machine bios is the raid set to the correct boot, as in CDRom (or floopy), then the raid, everything else following the raid drive. Make sure in the machine bios, you are set to raid, not scsi.

I see you have left posts on the Dell forum site.

or....

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1497153&page=1

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Servers/Q_25088951.html

In the raid bios setup, there is a option as to which disk volume to boot from, make sure this is correct.

If you still having a problem call Dell support, they still give tech support even if machine is beyond warranty.

........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[xzr]

Thanks for your reply mate. I managed to narrow the problem down to the boot sector. Apparently the boot record on the image was too corrupt to be fixed by any normal means.

So I ended up doing a clean format and performing the first phase of windows install in which the setup prepares the disk for installation. Then booted with gparted and cp -R *'d the old files over to the fresh partition. Works like a charm.

 

[technome]

With images always run chkdsk on the source and destination (if possible) disks before imaging. Particularly with the source if there are chkdsk errors present, the image will complete but will not restore properly. Just curious did you try an "over the top" Windows repair install once you restored the image ?, this will repair many issues, leaving data and programs intact.


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[xzr]

Yeah I did try to repair the installation but it didn't fix the boot sector apparently. Thank you for the tips mate. I'll keep them in mind in the future!

-Atte