Bios Not Installed

[Jose Me]

Hi:
I am working with a NetServer LT6000r, I have a problem when it starts, It shows me the following message: "Bios Not Installed", I dont know exactly what does it mean?, so, i Tried to start from a Windows NT 4.0 CD, but I couldn't, (when the cd tries to start a blue screen is showned) and the server down.
Whay can I do?
some suggestions?

Jose

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Jose,

First, the "BIOS Not Installed" Message:
This is not an error, but a normal condition of the server if there is no boot drives connected to the SCSI Controller. No reason to be concerned.

Next, the booting issue: Is there an operating system installed or are you trying to install one? If it is a clean install, have you configured your RAID Array and initialized it?
Post your configuration here so we can help you make sure everything is setup.

If you are installing Windows NT Server 4.0, use the 3-floppy setup method otherwise you may not be able to load a driver for the CD-ROM. You will also need the driver for the integrated RAID Controller. It is O/S specific so let us know what you are installing.

Get back to us with the above information ane we will walk you through it step-by-step.

Good luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Shameer.V.A]

Hi Jose,
It's not a problem.. It is a message saying no scsi bootable disk found on purticular scsi controller. Normally this message will come for the scsi channel, where you connect cdrom & DAT drive.

If you want to install any OS, you have to use netserver navigator cd, & follow the step by step operation. Also you should create the driver disks required for your server from navigator cd..

Regards

Shameer

[Jose Me]

Hi, the message exactly is:
.
.

for Configuration Utility
to pause Configuration message

No Logical Drives Found
BIOS Not Installed!
.
.
.
.
finally is showed:
Operating system not found


The configuration I am using is:
1 NetServer LT6000r HP
4 processors 700Mhz
2 HD 9Gb RAID 0
2 STORAGE/12 with 7HD of 36GB

thanks for your help...

José

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Jose,

In regards to Shameer's response, if you have a Navigator CD, that's fine but it is not required, nor does HP still recommend it since all the drivers on it are antiquated.

If you are getting "No Logical Drives Found", you need to go into the NetRAID Utility using M at startup and configure the array(s).

Again, if you are trying to do a clean install of Windows NT 4.0, create the boot floppies so that you can load the CDROM driver. You don't need it at the DOS level but as soon as you try to boot to a GUI, it will fail to read the CD.

The same thing goes for the NetRAID Driver. Download it and extract it to a diskette. When the setup starts, press to specify 3rd party mass storage drivers. Then specify it again and scroll "UP" to the ATAPI IDE CDROM and select it.

Best of luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Jose Me]

Hi, friends:
I did it, but in the option CONFIGURE - EASY CONFIGURATION or NEW CONFIGURATION, when I select with the menu at the bottom "SPACE-SEL" I get a window showing "DRIVES NOT RESPONDING CANNOT BE SELECTED. PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE".
And when I select "F3", It doesn't show me nothing( I mean, a window with "no logical Drives Configure").So I can't configure the array.
Why I can not see the array?

Actually, the problem began when the server crashes suddenly, and show the message that I wrote before, so I decided to configure it again, but I could not.

regards

Jose

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Jose,

Because there are only about a hundred things that could be the problem here, we need to know ALL the configuration details, otherwise it will take us a month of writing back and forth to figure it out.

You say you have 2 internal hard drives and 2 external Rackstorage-12's. That will require 3 channels and the embedded RAID controller only has 2. Therefore, we need to know which controller(s) are in use for which devices.

Do you have both rackstorage units connected to the embedded RAID and the internal drives connected to the Embedded SCSI?
Do you have a PCI RAID Card with 3 channels and all 3 in use?
Are your internal hard drives connected to the embedded controller and the RS12's connected to a PCI controller?
All this info is extremely important in diagnosing this issue.
Have you tried clearing the CMOS? If so, could that be the cause? If your boot drives are connected to a PCI RAID card and you reset your CMOS, it may be trying to boot from the embedded controller.

The first thing you need to do, is disconnect the Rackstorage-12's from the server. Then go into M and choose Objects-->Physical Drives and see if any of the drives ARE responding. Record which drives are on which SCSI ID's and Channels and post them here; i.e.
Ch0
ID0 - A0-0 - FAIL
ID1 - A1-0 - FAIL
Ch1
ID0 - A2-0 - FAIL
ID1 - A2-1 - FAIL
etc...

If you highlight each drive and press it will show you the properties of the drives if they are responding. With the Rackstorage 12 disconnected, your 2 internal drives will be the only ones responding. If they are responding, make sure they show capacity (8677MB) and check for Media Errors and Other Errors.

Then escape back to Objects and choose Logical Drive. For each of your logical drives, check the properties and post the values here; i.e.
LD0
RAID=0
Size=8677MB
Stripe Size=64KB
Write Policy=Wrthru
Read Policy=Adaptive
Cache Policy=Cached I/O
Virtual Sizing=Disabled
# of Stripes=1
State=Offline
etc...

I would really like to help you fix this problem but I'm not going to spend a lot of time posting guesses. Make a commitment to resolving this issue and we will too.

Best regards,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Jose Me]

Hi,
Well, I changed the 2 hard disks (9.1GB), and finally, I could configure them (both in RAID 0), applying "Easy Configuration":

CHANNEL-0
ID
0 ONLIN A0-0
1 ONLIN A1-0
.
.

Device type: Disk
capacity:34731MB
vendor HP
product ID: 36.4 GB C 80-H005
Revision: H005
SCSI Standard: SCSI-2
Media Errors= 0 Other Errors =0

and:lOGICAL DRIVES.

LD RAID SIZE STRIPES STRPSZ
0 0 3473MB 1 64KB
1 0 34731MB 1 64KB


after that I initialized it, and all work well.


Now When I try to Install Windows NT 4.0 using a CD. I press F6 in order to install the storage driver (I downloaded it from the HP web page: Driver for HP Embedded Ultra 3 SCSI Controller (Win NT4)). but It displays an error.(It seems it is not the correct driver)

Now, Could you help me to install NT step-by-step
regards

Jose

[Sean T. Craig · Accepted solution]

Hey Jose,

Start by downloading the driver for the integrated HP NetRAID Controller here:
https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/search?language=en_US#q=driver%20for%20the%20integrated%20HP%20NetRAID%20Controller&t=All&sort=relevancy&numberOfResults=25
[Moderator edit: Updated the broken link.]
Run the executable and it will expand the files. Copy the files to the root directory of a blank floppy disk.

Next, if you are installing Windows NT Server 4.0, create the 3 setup floppy disks. Do NOT attempt to install Windows NT 4.0 by booting the the CD. You can create them 2 ways:
1. From within the O/S, run the command winnt32.exe /ox from the NT CD
2. If you're not in the O/S, run winnt.exe /ox from the CD.

Boot to the first disk and you should see the prompt to press to specify 3rd party mass storage drivers.

Continue changing the disks until they are done and it will ask you to specify the 3rd party drivers. Put the driver diskette in and press . Select the HP NetRAID Driver from the list.

Next, you want to specify the CDROM Driver. Press "S" again to specify. Here's the tricky part; sroll "UP" and you'll see more drivers that weren't listed. Choose the Atapi IDE CDROM driver (I think it says 1.2)

Continue installing the O/S from that point. Remember that NT will restrict you to a 4GB partition in NTFS or 2GB in FAT.

After the O/S is installed, apply at least service pack 3, but preferrably 6.

When you're up and running, use Disk Administrator to partition/format the remaining unpartitioned space.

Give that a try and let us know how it goes.
Good luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Jose Me]

Hi
I did what you told me, and all work well. I only had a trouble ( It showed a dead blue screen with the error 0x0000003f NO_MORE_SYSTEM_PTES), I realized that my server had 4GB of RAM and I have read, that systems with 4 GB or More of RAM Cannot Boot Windows NT 4.0( you can read this in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/160392/EN-US/ )
I followed the suggestions of that webpage, and after that my server worked well.

thanks for your help, you are a genius...

PD. Now I tried to install a SureStore DLT 70, but It is not recognized for the system..what can I do?

Jose

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Again Jose,

That 4GB limitation was corrected with SP3 of NT4 but unfortunately, there is no O/S release with SP3 or higher, therefore, you need to remove some RAM, finish the installation, apply SP3 or higher, then re-add your RAM.

The DLT Drive issue may have something to do with the controller you are connected to. You will want a minimum of an Adaptec 29160 controller to run that drive. What is it connected to now? Not the RAID controller, I hope.

Best of luck. All points are well appreciated.

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[Jose Me]

Hi Sean

Well, In the setup configuraton , there is an option:
"Embedded LAN and SCSI settings" I press Enter and it is displayed a submenu:
Enable LVD SCSI or
Enable HP Net RAID

I chose Enable HP Net RAID, do you refer to this? should I have chosen Enable LVD SCSI?

when I see my system configuration in windows:
SCSI and RAID Controllers:

*Adaptec AHA 2940u/aha2940UW PCI SCSI Controller
*Hewlett Packart NetRAID 4m- RAID controller
*Integrated HP NET RAID


what should I have done?
thanks.

José

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi Jose,

You want to leave the BIOS set to Enabled HP NetRAID. This is for your hard drives.

I don't know why you have a 4M card in there. Is there and external hard drive array connected to the server as well? The 4M is a high-end RAID card and is a more complicated for configuring. If you have nothing connected to it, I recommend removing it to free up the resources in your system.

The adaptec 2940 card is a SCSI Card like the one you will want to connect your DLT drive to but I'm not sure if that one will support it. Try connecting the drive to the PCI card that has only one external port on it (the 4M has 4 ports externally) and use A when it scans though that controller. Be careful because the 4M card also uses A as a means of accessing the utility. Check the device list to see if the drive is listed. If not, you may need to replace it with a 29160 card.

Hope this helps,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

P.S. Feel free to assign points to the responses based how valuable they have been to you.

[Sean T. Craig]

Ha ha, you beat my post with the points. Thanks very much.
Sean

[Nauman Shaukat]

Hi, you have suggested several options for fresh install but none for existing installations having the same problem. My ML110 which is used as a web server just restarted this morning and is now giving this error: Bios not installed, no logical device found. I just hope that the data is intact.
Pls advise how to fix it.

Thanks.