poweredge 2950 server 2003 install raid driver and repair windows

Objective

Installing (or repairing) Windows Server 2003 x64 on a Poweredge 2950 with Perc 5i / 6i (LSI logic) RAID drivers.

Why won’t the installer recognize the RAID controller?!?!? Keep reading for the answer!

Background

This was a nightmare but i finally figured out how to get windows setup to read my RAID drive (In my case i couldn’t use Dell’s System Build and Update Utility disc because it wants to format the entire RAID disk… i just wanted to repair my install).

Problem

The Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 installation disc will not recognize your LSI perc raid card without installing third party drivers.  This becomes complicated as there is no floppy drive with the power edge 2950 and just sticking the drivers on a usb stick won’t cut it.

Luckily I figured out how to get windows setup to recognize your raid drive…. (special thanks to thebackroomtech )

Solution

You will need to create a “USB Floppy” with the drivers. Windows Setup can read that.

Obtaining the Drivers

  1. Download and extract the Dell USB Key F6 Driver Utility
  2. Download the drivers for the perc 5i 6i here.
  3. Extract the contents of the DELL driver right into the ‘Files’ folder (this is off the root of wherever you extracted the usb utility)

Working with the keyprep utility

  1. Run the ‘USBKeyPrepF6.exe’ utility
  2. Select your usb key (WARNING, THIS UTILITY WILL DELETE ALL FILES ON THE USB STICK!)

  3. Make sure you delete the default name it wants to give the usb key (make it completely blank)

    NOTE: DURING PREPARATION YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BROWSE THE USBKEY IN WINDOWS EXPLORER, THIS IS OKAY

  4. Click “prepare”

To Install Server 2003 x64

  1. Place server 2003 x64 CD in the CDROM
  2. Attach USB key
  3. Power on machine

  4. Modify the BIOS:

    • Set the USB flash to “floppy”,
    • Change boot order to be 1.cdrom
    1. hdd
    2. usb flash

  5.  Boot off installation disk

  6. When installation is loading you press F6 (indicating you want to load third party drivers)

  7. At the next prompt hit “S” to specify additional device

  8. Select “DELL PERC5 and PERC6/CERC6 RAID Controller Driver (Server 2003 for x64)

  9. Hit Enter twice
  10. Do not select the “recovery console” option
  11. Act like you are going to install windows (hit f8 to agree to terms) 12.There should be an option to repair an existing installation

20 Comments

  1. You are the man!

    Thanks for posting a clear set of instructions. Making my night at work a whole lot better.

    Thanks

  2. glad to help man, this was a pretty horrible situation to figure out, i’m glad someone else got to avoid it!

  3. This was great. I was having my own nightmare until I found your post thank you so much for putting this out here 🙂

  4. I just about had a nightmare, but stumbled on this before it got out of control.. Seriously man.. THANK YOU. Total life saver.

  6. Wonderful write up, got me through doing a repair, but my RAID 10 still would not boot after the repair finished. Sad fact is our backup is online and it will take 3 days to download the current backup, thankfully it is current. Any other advice for me? I am running on a PowerEdge 2950 II with a RAID Perc 5/i integrated controller.

  7. Good article. I tried using the 2k3 drivers to install 2k8-r2, but setup crashed ;(

    Strange thing is that LSI Logic website states that there is native support in win2k8-r2 for perc 5i adapter.

    It does not recognize my raid5 array, so I tried to explicitly load the 2k3 driver.

    Didn’t find any articles about it, either.

    This is my nightmare for the day! ;(

    • 2008r2 does have native PERC 5 and 6 drivers. I you are not able to see your drives then boot to the controller, crtl+R when prompted, and check to make sure that your virtual disk is optimal or at the very least degraded. If there is not a VD or the VD is failed then windows will not see the space.

  8. 2k8 r2 does find my array, i can format it etc, but it fails to extract the copied content.

    Copying windows installation files to disk takes 1 second, so something is wrong there.
    Don’t know if it’s the dvd or the array not being accessable. Hope we find out today!

  9. Hi, Im new to DELL, only using it because we are going with VM.
    Am I correct that I would need to setup the RAID (virtural drive via the BIOS 1st?) before doing the above?

    Abit off topic;
    I setup the RAID via the BIOS but the available virtural disk is still showing 0.00kb.
    Even though I have completed the initization.
    Any ideas?

  10. Based on the latest filesets I had to do things nominally differently:

    1. Download and run the available file “DRVR_WIN_R165745.EXE”, which runs as an installer only and can’t be extracted with WinRAR or similar solutions.

    2. Check %temp% directory (Via search bar or start > run) for a folder titled “dup****_tmp” created when you ran the EXE.

    3. Navigate to this folder, then the “payload” subfolder to find the required files.

    4. Copy all files to the “Files” folder as mentioned in the original tutorial.

    5. (Optional) like me, have your disc media fail and ruin your otherwise perfectly working installation.

    Thanks loads for the original tutorial.

    • Just use the drivers that are provided by the Dell website for your poweredge machine. That’s what I did.

  18. Thank you very much for this solution. I’m able to see the driver but key board locks and it won’t allow me select anything. Any solution?

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