ML115 Install Windows 2003 without Floppy

[Sean Waite]

So how in the world can I install Win2003 Server with no floppy drive? There was no Smartstart CD provided, so I assume this entry level model does not get supported. But without a floppy drive, or even the interface to connect one, I have no way of installing Windows. So is this server just useless?

[KarloChacon]

take a look of this

100 Series don't support SmartStart

1. You need a 1.44 MB USB Diskette Drive
option part = DC361B
"NOTE: For the installation of Windows and other OS's, a floppy drive may be required to complete driver installation. A USB drive key may not work to complete driver installation."
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12704_div/12704_div.HTML

or second option
download the driver for your controller here
http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/69_6371.html

and try creating an image using your OS CD and adding your driver for your controller doing this you wont need to use a floppy unit

An Alternate resolution is to use nLite Software.
nLite Deployment Tool for Unattended Windows - Remove components, integrate hotfixes, drivers and themes. Tweaks, patches...

Information about nLite could be obtained here:
http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

it can be downloaded from here:
http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

regards

[Knychalla]

Sorry,
but I dont find the Information how to create a floppy disk.
Just putting the fiels form \IDE\WinXP\sataraid\* to a floppy root and selecting the two drivers doesnt work cause Win is asking after Partitionformating for a NVidia SCSI driver
kny

[DC4ACS]

You will have to connect the USB External Floppy to the USB port on the Mainboard directly, or with the cabled Slot Cover connector.

Yes, this is ridiculous, and I just figured this out today.

Your lucky you did not configure it for RAID5 wit an E200/128 and four HD's...

DC4ACS

[Sean Waite]

I do not think this is HP's issue as much as Microsoft's. Clearly the setup process needs to be brought in line with today's hardware, not 1995's. 1.4" floppies are outdated enough that almost all computers and servers out today do not even have them, yet Microsoft has clearly not identified this issue.

How I ended up installing was to put in an IDE drive, install Windows, then install the SATA drivers, made a disk image and copied to the SATA drive, then removed the IDE and booted off of the SATA. In the end it was not that painful, but was quite frustrating beforehand seeing as I had to have this set up the next day. With this in mind it would be very pleasing if the big MFRs like HP would pressure Microsoft to update the setup process to use CDs, USB drives, etc..

[DC4ACS]

Sean,

I disagree and so did and does the highest level of HP support per our phone conversations and the ridiculous amount of time, and money, it took to figure out the problem. So much so that the USB floppy 2.0 guaranteed to work on the Quick Specs page of the ML115 (which in fact is no more than USB 1.1 and is a TEAC FD-05PUB) I had to purchase from HPQ at $50.00 did not work on any USB port EXCEPT the internal with the BIOS USB settings dropped to 1.1. HPQ knows the limitations of the OS's it supports and in turn should have done better with this version of the ML115 hardware and BIOS (instead of pinching so many pennies) as we have all had similar problems with the ML150 for quite some time now (however, never before did neither Sony MPF82E (U3/132) or my TEAC FD-05PUW never work in at least one of the USB ports).

This is an HPQ problem not a MS issue.

There is still too much that needs to be done on floppy, at least for servers, to abandon it.

DC4ACS

[zak1]

I had the same problem. Full install will work with a HP USB floppy drive but i had a sony usb drive.

w2k3 install will allow you to load the raid drivers from floppy as the drivers are for a hp usb floppy drive only, after formatting and when windows takes over it won't allow you to load the drivers any further, the reason is that after the install windows takes over from the bios and alas windows will not read the usb floppy cos its loaded hp drivers an dnot trhe one for your model.

The trick is to add a generic driver or your own model as per:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=82711

This is guaranteed to work as it did for me.

ml115 server with 2 x 160gb sata with raid1

I don't know why HP did not add the generic driver but its a scam to sell more HP floppy drives.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

There are many issues regarding OS installation on Embedded SATA RAID Controllers, where most of us would not have floppy drive to install the Embedded SATA RAID Controller driver or driver does not work during the installation phase. Either option is to use USB Floppy or SlipStream CD(Nlite).

100 series of servers are LOW cost servers, thats the reason it does not come with advanced features as of smartstart. Also I believe, they were meant for remote deployment, hence no floppy Disk; unless specified by the customer.

Did you know that we can migrate from Jbod to Raid 0/1 on Embedded SATA RAID Controllers.

What does that mean:

1. Install OS with Embedded SATA RAID Disabled(No Drivers or F6 required) on one Harddrive.
2. Once OS is installed, Extract the Embedded SATA RAID Drivers to a folder.
3. Goto Control Panel-> Add New Hardware->Device is connected->New Hardware->Raid Controller->Have Disk->Browse to the folder where the Embedded SATA RAID Drivers were extracted. Select the .inf file->Install Adaptec Raid Driver.

4. Restart the Server goto BIOS enable the Embedded SATA RAID.
5. Press F8 and goto Sata Raid BIOS->Configure the Drives->Create Array->Raid 0/1
A warning message will appear "Warning: Configuring the drives will erase all Array information from the selected drives, if that drive is part of an array. Arrays using any of these drives as members will be affected! Do you want to continue?(Yes/No):". Press "Y" to continue.

6. If Raid 1 is selected it will ask you what is the Source Disk, select the Right Disk in which OS was installed previously. Warning message might appear again. Select "Y".

7. Rebuild will take sometime, once rebuild is complete restart the server.

Once rebooted Raid would be detected and windows would boot up, in windows it would detect new hardware and Adaptec Raid drivers will be installed. Now Server is built migrated to Raid Successfully.

Cheers All !
Happy SATA RAID !!

James.

[Proliant]

I just take the steps that Sujith James said, but when windows try to start the machine is restarted. It doesn't work.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello Proliant,

That would mean that the ADAPTEC drivers you have is used is not installed properly OR the Drivers are incorrect.

Regards,
James.

[Joost vanderValk]

Sujith James' method worked out very well for me, I was able to install a DL320G5 from smartstart without problems and without RAID enabled.
Later installed driver within Windows 2003, created raid array and rebooted.
No problems. Thanks
Joost

[DC4ACS]

The reason the "solution" provided by Sujith James may work is simply he did not read that there are those of us you may be using a "LOW cost server" with a RAID5 controller that is NOT embedded and further negates to stipulate that these servers work fine for MANY small businesses who do NOT need to spend a fortune for a larger unit, particularly if the business is less than 20 employees. Of course the ML150G4/5 will handle, with ease a company of 50-75 employees too if properly configured.

[arbsj7]

I disagree. First, I used a SONY USB FDD, this stupid server wont even pick that up! Then I tried nLITE software & that Didn't work either. Almost when i wanted to throw this out of the window, i gave a last shot at solution by james, & voila !! it worked.

DL140 G3;
E200 controller with 256 MB BBWC
3 SATA HDD
Windows Server 2003 SBS

[James ~ Happy Dude]

DC4ACS,
You sound as if you don't want to accept ANY solutions to this,(without including a FDD in these servers); If You "read", The reply Just above your last post, talks about DL320 G5 Server being setup using the "SAME SOLUTION" for RAID 5. DL320 G5 comes with 2 Port SATA Controller with RAID 0/1 support; If the user has setup RAID 5, He has to use a Additional Controller; Hence, I would Conclude that The "Solution" will work for EVERYONE using SATA/SAS drive for 100 series servers; Its Just a Matter of being Patient & hitting the keys at the correct time !!!!

:) Peace

Regards,
James.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

& the one Above my POST !!!

Yo !

[windoz]

My ML115 has nvidia raid controller. I followed James steps until (5). Press F8, it enters nvidia mediashield bios raid setup: the left window, "free", shows two disks; the right window, "array", is empty. Use "->" to add disks into array. The default mode is "mirrored". Press F7 to finish and it shows a warning message. After pressing "Y", it exits setup and reboots rather than asking the source disk (as mentioned in James method). Then the system hangs.
Then I delete the raid array and disable the raid in system bios. Win2k3 still can boot (it is not erased). Is there any other way to build raid 1 w/o using HP USB diskette drive? Thanks.

[James ~ Happy Dude]

Hello,
I personally have not tried this on nVidia chipset. Someone who have tried this will be able to throw more light on this issue.

BTW, Have you tried the nLite option ?

Regards.

[windoz]

Yes, I tried to a bootable CD with nLite by inserting NVIDIA® MediaShield for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 version 5.10.2600.0951. During loading drivers, the server crashed (blue screen).

[windoz]

Finally, I got it thru. During nLite setup component, OEM Preinstall option needs to be disabled (http://blog.blueivy.co.uk):
"I use nlite to create a new boot disk with the drivers already on there. nlite allows you to create boot disks including drivers and all sorts of other bits and pieces on the disk.

"I did waste several disks getting this working (Iâ ll come to that in a minute). In particular I had to turn off the OEM Preinstall option (last page of options just before the burning page) as this stops the driver corruption message.

ML115 w/ nvidia RAID controller;
2 160GB SATA harddisk drives;
RAID 1;
Windows Small Business Server 2003;
nLite creates ISO image w/ nvidia RAID driver and disabled OEM preinstall option.

[binoyskylark]

HI worst case u can integrate the driver software and operating system using a software NLITE , you can merge driver and OS using this software , other wise u have to use hp external floppy drive

[CSiem]

Don't know exatly where I found this, but a USB floppy will work if you modify the TXTSETUP.OEM on the floppy disk you use to load the driver.

Modify the two sections shown below, and add in the lines at the end that reference "usbstor".

I tried for a whole day to get Rapid Deployment to work, and even the USB floppy installation. The documentation and support for the onboard RAID are not very good at all.

However, I was abale to easily install 2003 with a USB floppy after I edited the OEM file.

[HardwareIds.scsi.RAIDCLASS]
id = "SCSI\NVIDIA__Raid_Disk________","nvrd32"
id = "SCSI\__NVIDIA_______Raid_Disk","nvrd32"
id = "*_NVRAIDBUS","nvrd32"
id = "*NVRAIDBUS","nvrd32"
id = "*NVRAID20","nvrd32"
id = "USB\VID_03F0&PID_2001", "usbstor" #--HP
id = "USB\VID_054C&PID_002C", "usbstor" #--Sony
id = "USB\VID_057B&PID_0001", "usbstor" #--Y-E Data
id = "USB\VID_0409&PID_0040", "usbstor" #--NEC
id = "USB\VID_0424&PID_0FDC", "usbstor" #--SMSC
id = "USB\VID_08BD&PID_1100", "usbstor" #--Iomega
id = "USB\VID_055D&PID_2020", "usbstor" #--Samsung

[HardwareIds.scsi.BUSDRV]
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0036", "nvgts" ; MCP04 SATA1
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_003E", "nvgts" ; MCP04 SATA2
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0054", "nvgts" ; CK804 SATA1
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0055", "nvgts" ; CK804 SATA2
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0266", "nvgts" ; MCP51 SATA1
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0267", "nvgts" ; MCP51 SATA2
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_036F", "nvgts" ; MCP55 OEM
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037E", "nvgts" ; MCP55 CHANNEL
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_037F", "nvgts" ; MCP55 UNUSED
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_03F6", "nvgts" ; MCP61 OEM
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_03F7", "nvgts" ; MCP61 CHANNEL
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_03E7", "nvgts" ; MCP61 NSIP
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_044C", "nvgts" ; MCP65 RAID
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0558", "nvgts" ; MCP67 RAID, OEM
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0559", "nvgts" ; MCP67 RAID, CHANNEL
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_055A", "nvgts" ; MCP67 RAID, NBP
id = "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_07B9", "nvgts" ; MCP72 RAID
id = "USB\VID_03F0&PID_2001", "usbstor" #--HP
id = "USB\VID_054C&PID_002C", "usbstor" #--Sony
id = "USB\VID_057B&PID_0001", "usbstor" #--Y-E Data
id = "USB\VID_0409&PID_0040", "usbstor" #--NEC
id = "USB\VID_0424&PID_0FDC", "usbstor" #--SMSC
id = "USB\VID_08BD&PID_1100", "usbstor" #--Iomega
id = "USB\VID_055D&PID_2020", "usbstor" #--Samsung