ML370 G3 installation problems

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I have an ML370 G3, on which I am trying to install Windows 2000 Server. Its RAID controller is configured to use all 6 36GB SCSI drives in a 1+0 configuration (producing a single logical drive 100GB in size), the system has been set to boot from the CD-ROM drive first and Windows 2000 is selected as the OS. However, no matter what I try, I cannot get it to begin the OS installation.

I began by trying to boot straight from the Windows 2000 Server disc itself, which didn't leave the "Attempting to boot from CD-ROM" prompt. Next, I burnt a Smartstart 7.8 ISO - after the progress bar on the first screen filled, I was left with a blank screen where my only options were to either hit Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart, or power off the system entirely. I tried Smartstart 7.0, with similar results - after the inital loading stage, it hangs at "Loading drivers..." from where I can only restart or power off. For the sake of experimentation, I have also tried booting a Debian install CD - after electing to install from the menu, it hangs immediately after loading initrd.gz with no message, whether the OS has been set to Linux or not.

I have tried resetting the system to its default settings multiple times, disabling and enabling Hyperthreading on the single 2.4GHz Xeon CPU, and have tried the DIMMs in various combinations (I have 1GB of RAM consisting of 256MB pairs) all to no avail.

Any assistance would really be appreciated.

Thanks in advance! (: