OS installation is ridiculously slow!

[Micah_6]

Hello all!

I'm having great difficulty with my ProLiant ML330. I must mention that this is my first server and I bought it to learn on. It didn't come with any CD's or documentation.

The problem, as stated in the subject, is that when I try to install Win XP Pro the server seems to be in slow motion. I watched the "percent complete" bar move 1% every 3 hours when Windows tired to install! That is no exageration either. I've been searching the HP site for information but I can't find anything. Alot of possible answers I find require the use of Smart Start CDs. I don't have any. Does anyone know if I must have these CD's to get my server moving a little faster? I have checked all the cables, swapped CD-ROM drives, and upgraded the SCSI BIOS. I even tried to install the OS on an IDE drive, but it was just as slow as with SCSI.
I would greatly appreciate any advice!

[e4services]

Sounds like a hard disk with a lot of surface errors as it is tried to be formatted. If not it does point to the disk system slow writing.

[Leonard Davison]

I would say, Yes, you need to have the SmartStart CD's. Or at the very least run survey and/or diagnostics to see what the issue is. It sounds like a hardware config/mismatch issue. Running Smartstart would at least configure bios for the proper OS and install the correct drivers for the system. You might want to erase the bios config on the box but unfortunately you would need smartstart to re-set it up...

[Micah_6]

Thank you e4sevices.com for your reply!

I had suspicions about the SCSI drive as well. So I hooked up an IDE drive (and unhooked the SCSI drive)to test this theory. I thought if the IDE drive installed the OS at a decent pace then I would simply need to replace the SCSI drive. This is not what happened unfortunately. The fact that the IDE drive operated at exactly the same speed as SCSI meant that the SCSI drive was probably not the issue. If you think my conclusion is wrong or if you know of a better way to test please let me know!

[Micah_6]

Thank you Mr. Davison for a response!

If your solution works then I won't be in as bad shape as I thought. I can handle buying a few CDs. Buying new hardware is another matter however. Is there a certain version of SmartStart I need to use for my ML330 G2?
Also, there are different catagories that have different prices. I don't think I need the extra support or whatever it is they offer to jack up the price. Can I get away with buying the cheapest one? I think it's $25.00.

[Dave Lloyd]

How are you doing the install? If you have booted from a floppy disk and then run winnt.exe to begin install, you may not have run smartdrive first....that will make a HUGE difference.
Of course, if you booted from the XP CD then that wouldn't be it.
Also, the CD itself might not being read properly - perhaps because of scratches or simply the cd drive doesn't 'like' it and needs to re-read it over and over.

[Leonard Davison]

Micah...

Yes, you can buy ver 5.50 and the latest management CD for 25.00.
The part number is 356604-B21.

[Naveej.K.A]

Just try restoring the BIOS to its defaults and then go ahead to check wethere the Cache on the processor is enable or not...
This too could make the system slow

With best wishes
naveej