Making DL360 G3 run XP Pro instead of "server" software

[Terry Gordon]

I got a DL360 on eBay because I wanted it in our rack. Our sharing needs are minimal and users do not need their own shares. Simple folder sharing is sufficient. Do I have to deploy true "server" software to make this machine run? Because of hard-drive raid configuration, when trying to install XP Pro, machine says there aren't any hard drives present (there are two) apparently because of differences in how the hard drive raid was set up. Tried Server 2003 drivers (told they were similar to XP drivers) - didn't work. Help!!

P.S. This thread has been moevd from ProLiant - Experts Online Now!!! > ProLiant Servers - Netservers to  to ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL) - HP Forums Moderator

[Mark Matthews]

Hi Terry,

I'm afraid the answer is probably no.
Non-server OS's are not officially supported by HP on Proliant servers, so if you got into trouble you'd be on your own.

Also, as you seem to have found already, there will be no drivers for XP...

[Terry Gordon]

I will hold my nose and install Win2000.

[Terry Gordon]

OK - tried putting in Win2000 drivers for HD Raid controller. "Seemed to take" but when trying to install Win2000, machine balks that there is no recognizable harddrive and installation fails.

What am I doing wrong?

[Marshall Penn]

When XP is first installing it gives you an option to supply specialised raid or other drivers (F6 i think, but it says so on the screen). You should be able to get the install to use these drivers if you are lucky. I would burn seperate cds with each of the smartarray 5i drivers that i could find, then try them one after the other. Start with win2k first, then win2k3.

[Michal Kapalka ( mikap]

hi,

if you need only a file sharing functionality of this server, you could install Windows server or Linux ( SMB/CIFS )

i think Windows XP will not work on this machine.

mikap