Ignorant English teacher can't install Win 2000 on ML370: can't see my SCSI drive

[Kevin_202]

I'm an English teacher working in Saudi Arabia who knows zilch about servers. I have inherited a ProLiant ML370 server which runs 20 worksatations as a language lab. All the computers had the 32Blaster virus so I upgraded the OEM Win 2000 system to SP3 and installed the system fix. Unhappy with the servers setup (there was no record of how it had been put together, no support docs, no disks and we have no network administrator) I managed to scrounge V.5 of the Smart Start and set about re-formatting and starting from scratch. I have one SCSI 9.1G surrounded by lots of 'dummy' cartridges. There is obviously no RAID setup. After using the Smart Start to wipe the system, upgrade the config. etc I indicated that I wanted to use Win 2000 and ran the setup to the bit where it told me to remove Smart Start and insert the Win 2000 CD. I set Win 2000 as the system in the F10. Win 2000 runs until I get to the bit where it asks me to press 'enter' to install...then I get a message saying there is no disk available. When I re-boot I get the 'non-system' disk message. Doubtless, I've done something really silly. Can anybody help?

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi,

First, sorry for my english ;-)
Try this, maybe could help you:

When you insert your W2K CD, a few seconds after, in the blue screen, you will see a message ( in the bottom of the screen ) that says something like "Press F6 to add additional SCSI drivers" ( don't remember exactly ).
Press F6, and when prompted insert the floppy with the drivers of your array.

You have only 2-3 seconds to press F6, if the message prompting for insert the floppy doesn't appears, try again rebooting the server.

Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Zigor

[Zigor Buruaga]

Hi again,

Forgot one thing ... you could also try with a more recent version of SmartStart ( 6.20 or 6.30 ).

Kind regards,
Zigor

[Brian_Murdoch]

Hi Kevin,

You don't state if your system is a G1,G2 or G3 ML370 but in any case the Smartstart installation should have loaded the correct driver if you followed the "Assisted Install" process. If you chose the "Manual" install, then you will have to load the driver at the F6 prompt.

I will assume that you do not have the embedded Smart 5i controller installed and you are using the onboard SCSI port to connect to the drive cage. If you do have a Smart 5i controller this would be displayed during the POST (Power-On-Self-Test) display when the server boots. (Details of the driver later below)

The ML370G1 uses a dual Symbios Logic 53C1510 chipset for the onboard SCSI. The Windows 2000 driver kit for this can be downloaded at the following link.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17320.html

The ML370G2 and G3 models use a different dual channel SCSI controller, the Adaptec 7899. The Windows 2000 driver kit for this can be downloaded at the following link.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17747.html

Note: -
If in fact you do have the embedded Smart 5i controller installed and only have one drive attached (You will see a banner at POST with 5i information) you should use the Array Configuration Utility (ACU) from Smartstart or the controller based setup (Prompted to press F8 at boot time) to configure the controller with a single 9Gb drive (Raid 0 is your only choice).
Again, the driver kit for the Smart 5i controller for Windows 2000 can be downloaded here.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/17725.html

The procedure for using F6 is also documented at the Smart Array 5i download link although it uses NT4 as it's example. The procedure is identical in Windows 2000.
(Check how to do this before proceding. It's not too difficult)

Basically if Windows 2000 doesn't have the native driver for your controller then it won't be able to see it or the attached drives) You use the F6 procedure to manually add a controller driver to allow Windows 2000 to see the controller and the drives attached to it. In this way when you have manually added the driver, Windows 2000 will let you install the operating system on the drive attached to your controller, where before it simply gave the "No disk available" error.

I hope this helps,

Brian