Installing server 2003 and raid without floppy

[mikegfy]

I have an HP proliant ML150 G3 server with 2 160 GB Sata drives. There is no floppy connector on the motherboard, so I can't get the driver for the raid adapter, so I can't install windows. I've tried slipstreaming the drivers onto the server 2003 disc, but i can only find instructions for windows XP and I can't get it to work. Are there any other options?

[John R. Garrett]

This doesn't look pretty:

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://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12527_div/12527_div.html

However, it looks as though there is a workaround. The following is from the same issue encountered by owners of the ML110 :

>The easiest way to install windows 2003
>or windows xp on ML110 is by integrating >driver in windows instalation disk.
>You can use third-party program like
>nlite or you can integrate it manualy
>(more difficult).

http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=998653

Good luck.

[mikegfy]

I got it to work by slipstreaming the drivers myself. It wasn't very easy because there aren't any walkthroughs for server 2003. I used this one
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1703&page=1
I had to change a few things, so if anybody is having the same problem, I can tell you what to do differently.

Take that HP and your poorly thought out server.

[james73]

I am trying to manually slipstream the driver, like in the pcstats article, but when it reboots to install the OS I get a BSOD. What did you do differently mikefgy? Thanks.

[mikegfy]

I'll do my best to help you but it's been a little while since I did this. First off, if it's not the same driver as I used, adpahci.sys, than the settings might be different. I'll try to
explain where they will be different.

First off the drivers are gonna have to be on the cd. for example, if you were to put the cd in the cd drive labeled E:\ , it would look like this - E:\$oem$\$1\drivers\{your driver folder here}

Inside the driver folder there should at least be a .cat file a .inf file a .sys file and a txtsetup.oem file. I put all the files in there that came with the driver. For the adpahci raid driver there were 9 files in the folder.

Here's what my txtsetup.oem file in the driver folder looks like (without the comments)

[Disks]
d1 = "Adaptec SATA Driver v1.00 (Windows 32 bit for 2000/XP/2003)", \satadsk1, \

[Defaults]
scsi = ADAPTEC_AHCIRAID
[scsi]
ADAPTEC_AHCIRAID = "Adaptec SATA driver for Windows 2000/XP/2003"

[Files.scsi.ADAPTEC_AHCIRAID]
driver = d1, adpahci.sys, adpahci
inf = d1, adpahci.inf
catalog = d1,adpahci.cat

[Config.adpahci]
value = "", Group, REG_SZ, "SCSI Miniport"
value = "", Start, REG_DWORD, 0
value = "", Tag, REG_DWORD, 1
value = "", Type, REG_DWORD, 1

[HardwareIds.scsi.ADAPTEC_AHCIRAID]
# Intel
id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652", "adpahci"
id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3", "adpahci"
id = "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2682", "adpahci"


Next create the winnt.sif file. Here's what mine looked like:

;SetupMgrTag
[Data]
AutoPartition=1
MsDosInitiated="0"
UnattendedInstall="Yes"

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=ProvideDefault
OemPreinstall=Yes
OemPnPDriversPath="drivers/raid"
TargetPath=\WINDOWS

[GuiUnattended]
EncryptedAdminPassword=NO
OEMSkipRegional=1

[UserData]
FullName=""
OrgName=""

[LicenseFilePrintData]
AutoMode=PerServer
AutoUsers=5

[Identification]
JoinWorkgroup=WORKGROUP

It should be located at E:\I386\winnt.sif (assuming the cd was in the E:). It doesn't do anything different from the normal windows install except tell it where to look for the drivers.

Next Modify the txtsetup.sif

These lines should be added at the end of the file, but not after the end of file marker. In notepad the EOF marker looks like a box shaped character. I had to look a bunch of places before I figured out what numbers to put in here. They seem to stay the same except for the 4 after the adpahci.sys. That might change if you're not using the same driver as I did.

[SourceDisksFiles]
adpahci.sys =1,,,,,,3_,4,1

[HardwareIdsDatabase]
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2652="adpahci"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27C3="adpahci"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2682="adpahci"

[SCSI.load]
adpahci=adpahci.sys,4
[scsi]
adpahci = "Adaptec SATA driver for Windows 2000/XP/2003"

Last you have to make your driver into a cab file. The instructions on the site were correct about this one. Through a command prompt, make your .sys file into a .sy_ file in the I386 folder.

Let me know if anything isn't clear, or if you want me to attach any of my files.