server trouble

[br3w3r]

I am in the process of trying to upgrade my server with two Seagate ATA-100 160 GB hard drives (up from 60 GB) that are mirrored. I checked the BIOS and it allows 160 GB (or supposedly MSI says that they do). I have a K7T266 Pro2 Raid motherboard (which supports ATA-100). When I try to install the drives on the server, the bootup and the Promise IDE Raid recognizes the drives as the full 160 GB drives.

But when I try and install Windows 2003 server on it (or even 2000 server, which was on the previous mirrored drives), it does not recognize the drives and says that there are no drives to install Windows on. So I jumper the drivers to 32 GB, which then allows me to install Windows 2003 on it without a problem. In the process, I create a 28 GB partition to install the operating system on and leave the rest for the larger data partition that I would like.

Everything works fine until I try to remove the jumper to convert it back to 160 GB drive. Then during bootup, it flashes a blue screen of death quickly (too fast for me to read anything) and reboots and goes into a cycle. I have no idea where i can go from here. Any advise?

 

[G0AOZ]

I'm not convinced that "unjumpering" capacity limited drives after they've been partitioned and formatted is a good idea.

You said it didn't recognise the drives when you tried to install 2000 or 2003 server. Prior to doing this, had you completely wiped the drives to remove the previous mirroring?

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[br3w3r]

Roger,
The reason that I jumpered it in the first place was to allow me to partition the hard drive with one 30 GB drive to install the operating system. I noticed that it recognized the drive when only 32 GB (I had 60 GB drives in before so I know that it can for sure recognize up to that, but the BIOS is supposed to allow 160 GB drives). I did not partition the other part of the drive, I just left it as unallocated space, which I was going to partition later into another drive.

When I was trying to install the drives, during bootup, the IDE Promise Raid was already set up and read the drives as mirrors and they recognized the drives as 160 GB It was when I tried to install the operating system that it would not recognize that there were hard drives available to use for installation.

To answer your question, I have deleted the arrays several times and re-established the arrays once more to see if that was an issue, but it still did not allow me to see the drive. I tried reflashing the BIOS, that did not fix it. I also tried installing with just one drive and it would not accept that either. The drives are new, so it should be just a quick change. This has been a royal pain in my side. Just not sure where to go from here. Thanks for responding though, I really appreciate it.

DJ

 

[G0AOZ]

Sorry to appear pedantic about this point, but you say you've "deleted the arrays...". May I ask how you're deleting them? I usually use either Power Quest to zap the disks clean or use Quik Tech Pro's disk wipe - these do a partial low level format to ensure there's nothing left of the original partition. But maybe even that isn't the answer to your problem...

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[br3w3r]

When deleting my arrays, in bootup the IDE Promise allows me to look at the established arrays, where I can delete them and build new arrays. When mirroring, it allows me to syncronize the drives by copying from one to the next.

Even when the drives first arrived, they did not want to have the OS installed. I am thinking that it is a BIOS issue, but I am not sure. I tried to ask the MSI tech support, but they were worthless, so I am really at a loss at what it could be. I guess I will keep on trying. I'll try formatting with one of the programs you suggested. Thanks for your help.

DJ