problem with elderly proliant 6000 & smartstart

[Pat Barlow_3]

This morning I used a SmartStart CD (v 5.20) and ran System Erase on an elderly proliant 6000 (approx 6 years old). The system cleared down fine. However, after it rebooted it now doesn't see the CD drive so I can't run the SmartStart CD to progress the new installation. It will boot off floppy but not CD - the CD drive is not accessed at all during the boot process.

I've used Diskette Builder on the SmartStart CD and created the System Configuration Utility disks and this shows that the CD drive is available on the integrated disk controller. There is also a Smart-2DH array controller installed. The Hardware configuration utility shows that the Smart controller is loading first with the integrated controller second. The boot device order is: floppy, CD, Fixed disk.

I have come to a complete halt on the installation because, although I've spent the past couple of hours scouring Compaq/HP's support site, I can't find anything that explains how to get the CD drive working so that I can run SmartStart again.

Can anyone help me please?

thanks

[JohnWRuffo · Accepted solution]

Pat:

Lets try someting that works with a few of the older servers... Put the Smart Start CD in the drive, boot the server and go get some coffee. Give the server 10 to 15 minutes with itself and see if the CD boots up...
If it works, don't ask why... I have seen it do this before many times but for the life of me I can't figure what is going on behind the scenes when you do a system erase and can't boot.

Let me know in 15 minutes if the server is still stuck. We can work through a full hardware reset.

[Pat Barlow_3]

John

thanks for the quick reply.

I am trying your suggestion, will get back to you soon.

cheers

Pat

[Pat Barlow_3]

John

thank you very very much

Weird but it works.

cheers

Pat

[JohnWRuffo]

Thank you for the feedback. I am glad I could help!
G'luck! -john

[B.J. Ash]

John Ruffo,

Could you elaborate on the hardware reset that you mentioned before? I'm having the same issue, but the cup of coffee isn't working for me ;-).

I have a Proliant 6000 with P2X 450 and 512 of RAM and it does not boot from the CD drive at all--even if I put the CD drive first in the boot order and remove the HDs. There is no OS on the server and I am unable to even do a system erase (which I would really like to do in order to reset everything).

Could you help me please?

Thanks in advance.