Cannot install Windows Server 2008 on ML350 G3

[Jason Hamor]

We have an old ML350 G3 server and we wanted to load Windows Server 2008 Standard (32-bit) on it. It meets all of W2K8's hardware requirements (processor, RAM, HDD space, etc.), but when I run the Smart Start 8.00 CD, it says that Windows Server 2008 will not work with my system. I haven't tried just booting to the Windows Server 2008 DVD yet, but I assume it would work. I just prefer to use the Smart Start CD. Is there a way to install Windows Server 2008 on an ML350 G3 with the Smart Start CD?

[lachuzhnikov · Accepted solution]

I think the best way for you is clear installation of W2K8 and manually deployment of PSP (ProLiant Support Pack). IMHO.

[Kedd Guyton]

Does your old ML350 G3 have a DVD-ROM drive?

[Jason Hamor]

The server only has a CD-ROM, so I replaced it with an IDE DVD-ROM, but ran into an issue where the machine would not boot. The Internal Health LED would turn red and the "Processor Failed" LEDs on the motherboard for both processors would light up (this threw me for a loop because I began thinking something went wrong with the processors at first). When I would remove the DVD-ROM and put the CD-ROM back, everything started up fine. I then just attached a DVD-ROM via USB.

Anyway, I did go ahead and load Windows Server 2008 from the Windows Server 2008 DVD, and it loaded everything fine, except it did not have drivers for the built-in HP NC7760 NIC. HP's site does not provide a "Windows Server 2008" section for their drivers for this particular model, so finding the drivers was a little more difficult, but I finally found them and they work fine.

I ran the PSP, but there are still some components that don't load, but that's fine because we've been able to get everything loaded that we need. Thanks for your comments and help.

[Antti Lehtinen]

Where did you find these HP NC7760 NIC drivers for Windows Server 2008?

[Jason Hamor]

I did one of two things to load the NC7760 drivers (sorry, I don't remember which one I actually did to regain network connectivity)

1. Load the NC7760 drivers for Windows Server 2003 that you get from the HP website. I read that these work fine.

2. I read that according to the hardware IDs on the NC7760 NIC, that it is a Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Server Adapter, and the Windows 2008 drivers can be downloaded from Broadcom's site.

Here is the link to the blog I found that explained this: http://www.simonsen.bz/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=54

One of the above suggestions worked for us, but I was trying so many different things that day, that I don't remember if we just used the 2003 drivers or the 2008 Broadcom drivers. I hope this helps.