I have a PowerEdge 2650 server that I am trying to install Windows Server 2003 but I keep getting the same error. Dual 2.8ghz Xeons, 3gb ram, one 18gb drive.

"Setup either detected multiple disks in your machine that are indistinquishable or detected raw disk(s). Setup has corrected the problem, but a reboot is required.

Setup cannot continue. Press any key to exit."

I press a key and it reboots and comes back up to the same error. It gives me the same error trying to install Server 2000, XP pro, 2000 sp4 and Server 2003. I know the drive is good because it currently has Fedora 12 installed on it and the install was a breeze. Also the server runs Fedora fine. It is just a single 18gb scsi u160 drive installed right now. I have done plenty of OS installs and one on an older server but I am a complete noob when it comes to scsi and raid so I just put one drive in to make it a little bit easier. I have tried formatting the drive to NTFS with GParted Live and still get the same error over and over. Also I have several other drives(ranging from 9.1gb to 36gb u160 10k and u320 15k) and I would get the same error on some of them and some of them I think are bad because they wouldnt even get that far. What am I missing here?

6/21/2010 2:31:43 PM

find the drivers for the raid card (dell.com/support) and put them on a floppy. press f6 or whatever when prompted during setup to get it to load the drivers.

6/21/2010 2:34:40 PM

Thats a problem also. My laptop doesnt have a floppy drive and Linux wouldnt mount the floppy drive on the server. I figured that out trying to put the files update the bios from a20 to a21 on a floppy disk. Maybe I just had a bad disk. Ill have to see if I can find some more floppy disk and try them out.

I kinda figured it would have to press the f6 at that portion of the install but on my old server I never had to do that, it was a simple install. Time to see if I can find some floppys around here now.

6/21/2010 2:46:58 PM

Looks like you're going to have to slipstream the drivers on the OS disk or else put them on a USB drive. Does 2003 support USB on install like windows 7?

6/21/2010 2:49:01 PM

^ tried the usb and that did not work at all. I can only use a floppy. Do the computers in the library have floppy drives? I haven't used the computers in there in a while. Figured I could just get a couple floppy disks, go in there and make a disk for the bios and as many as i need for various drivers just in case.

Also, does anybody have any old floppy disks they wanna give away or get rid of really cheap. I only have one. I used to have a pack of 10 or 20 but im pretty sure I gave them away.

[Edited on June 21, 2010 at 9:43 PM. Reason : ]

6/21/2010 9:35:04 PM