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Hard drive issue on Dell PowerEdge T320 server

biomekanik22 -  
jee pee Posted messages 9445 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   -

Hello,

and thank you in advance for your responses. I am in the process of reinstalling Windows Server 2012 R2 on two Dell PowerEdge T320 servers that are actually working very well. However, during the installation of Windows, when I reach the custom partitions section, no hard drives are recognized (it asks me for the storage driver, which I have already downloaded but it does not work). Moreover, I have tested and formatted them all in NTFS through my PC, where the hard drives are recognized.

I am stuck, please help me. I don't know if the RAID configuration is causing the problem, knowing that the BIOS is locked and we cannot change anything on it. If the RAID drivers installed are not correct (or the hard drives), can we reset the BIOS, etc.?

Information: the mistake I made is that the hard drives were displayed during the installation of Windows Server, and I deleted the partitions, and since then the hard drives no longer show up. Additionally, there was already Windows Server on it but protected by a password (I would have been better off using Medicat to bypass it instead of messing with the hard drives).

If you want more information about the hard drives in a server with 4 hard drives: Dell Toshiba MG03ACA100 1TB, serial number: 16N1KKZ2FVK5

And for the second server, 2 Toshiba hard drives the same as above plus a Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 250GB, serial number: ST3250318AS

Waiting for your responses, I wish you all a good day.


1 answer

  1.
    jee pee Posted messages 9445 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   9 984
     

    Hello,

    If there is RAID on the servers, formatting the disks on another machine will erase all the configuration. You will need to reconfigure the RAID spaces. Therefore, you need access to the RAID, which is likely a hardware RAID that starts up before the OS boots, using a key combination displayed on the screen.

    From my old memories on the subject, on a Dell, HP, or IBM server, the OS is not installed by booting from the Windows Server CD, but rather using a manufacturer-specific installation CD, which will guide the process and at one point ask for the OS CD. This pre-installation phase allows access to the server's specific hardware, such as the RAID.

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