Dual Pent Pro Ploliant 800 adding SCSI disks

[Roland_14]

I have got hold of an old Proliant to run as a print server and be a media server/backup device. The existing disk is to small and I have procured an 18GB Seagate cheetah to use in it. I have attached and powered up the drive but cannot get windows to recognise it. Any help would be gratefully recieved.

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Rolland,
First of all please make sure that the system bios is uptodate. Just in case you need the link, here it is(Assuming W2K):

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/20_1131.html

Secondly, please make sure that the jumpers are set right for your SCSI HDD.

Regards,

[Roland_14]

Hi Sunil, thank you very much for answering. The System bios is 2000.04.19, P02. from the website there are two versions A and B but I can't see how to tell which you have. So I went ahead and tried to use Remote Deployment to install it anyway but the install fails and the log says
"The software is not supported for installation on this system.

This system does not have a system partition. A system partition is
required to perform an update.




Installation will not continue."
I have delved into past posts where it is suggested that Smartstart will build you a diskette set which will either allow you access to the system partition or allow you to create one . Unfortunately it was a bit fuzzy on this so I was going to read a lot more first.

As to the SCSI ID. I have LCA Drives with an 80 to 68 pin converter so there is a place to set ID on both the converter and the drive. I set both to 1 and in fact Seagates drive installer wizard can see the drive including it's part number and SCSI ID shows as failed during Boot.

Apologies for the long post.

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Rolland,
I am sorry for not being clear about the BIOS issue. But here is the link:

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/8571.html

You need to download the softpack and then extract it on a formatted floppy. COLD boot your system with the floppy and just follow the onscreen instructions. This is just that simple. Next thing you need to do is go in F10 which is your system configuration utility. Here you choose system configuration and then configure Hardware. This should pick up any hardware you may have installed in the server. Please let me know how you make out.

Regards,

[Roland_14]

Hi Sunil,
The Sofpaq told me that I had the most recently available BIOS but I went ahead and applied the upgrade which went smoothly. On ReBoot I hit F10 and got the message "The System Partition Utilities are not available on this sytem

Press any key to continue".

Roland

[Sunil Jerath]

Hello Rolland,
That's not a problem. I did send you a link originally which has all the SW relating to your Server. Anyways here is the link to download System configuration Utility:

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/13227.html

Once you download the SoftPaq then you need to extract this on four formatted floppies. Afterwards you need to COLD boot your system with the First floppy. You will be presented with two options. Upgrade system partition or Do not upgrade. You select the "Do Not Upgrade option". Afterwards just follow the onscreen instructions.

Regards,

[Roland_14]

Hi Sunil,
Firstly I must apologise for being a salesman rather than a techy, therefore you may have to lead me through this in rather a lot of detail.
I booted from the disk set created but there was no immediate option to upgrade System partition. Referring back to your answer further up the page I selected the hardware configuration and first backed up the current config. I then checked the config of the SCSI controller and it was reporting a Seagate drive on ID2 (I changed it from one in case this was the problem). I accepted this config and rebooted the system. No change. Bios reports ID2 failed and no disk is visable in windows explorer.
Please treat me as a beginner in your answer - my field is tape libraries....

[Roland_14]

I forgot to mention. I noticed that when the machine is booting from the diskette it reports that SMRTSCSI is not installed. Does this have any bearing on the problem?

[Roland_14]

NB. It occoured to me I might have a duff drive. I swapped it out and now it is detected during boot as a Seagate SX118202LC (not ST as it is on the drive itself). I tried hardware config from the diskette set but no joy.


Roland

[Roland_14]

Tried the Seagte formatting wizard on it and hey presto! It works, must have been duff.....

Thanks for your help anyway

Roland