# Dell PowerEdge 2900 complete install.



## andvariplus (Nov 9, 2008)

Hello,

My Unit recently acquired a Dell Power Edge 2900, another Unit upgraded and we got it as a hand me down. There are 4 x 1t and 4 x 750g HD's currently installed. What i would like to do is place this in Raid 1 with 2t and 2 750g mirrored. 

The issue, before we received the server from the other unit they wiped the hard drives. I have a copy of Server 2003 with a valid license and did some surfing of the internet. I discovered I should run...

Drivers and Downloads - Public Sector

...first. And follow the onscreen instructions.

My first question is, I can configure the Raid controller for Raid 1 within the BIOS (using CTRL R), setting up my Virtual Drives and initializing them. Or I can do this using the boot program from the CD. Also, I believe you can configure a Raid setup within server 2003 disk management? Are these the same thing, if not whats the difference? 

The last step in the CD is to insert the OS install CD. Am I missing a step? Or is there a better way to set up a raid 1?

Any advice, tips or hints would be appreciated, thank you.


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## JMPC (Jan 15, 2011)

I always set it up using the RAID administrator that is shown during post. I normally didn't use the Server System CD unless there was a driver needed that I didn't have a disk for. I usually had the drivers I needed on a floppy for installing server 2003.


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## andvariplus (Nov 9, 2008)

No drivers, on floppy or CD, was given. And when trying to boot directly to the OS it says no HD found in the install menu.


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## JMPC (Jan 15, 2011)

In that case I would setup RAID during post, boot with the Dell CD and then insert the Windows CD when required.


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## andvariplus (Nov 9, 2008)

Ok thank you, I will give that a try tomorrow and get back with you.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

The other potential option if you have the drivers, is to use something like nlite to embed the drivers in the installation media so you won't get asked about it during the install. In fact you can enter any drivers or service packs you want to, you can enter the install key, and you can set it up to automatically install the system with very little intervention on your part.


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## cluberti (Aug 26, 2010)

Using tools like nLite make the installation unsupported by Microsoft - for personal use, nLite is fine, but if this is for business your best bet is to use Microsoft tools whenever possible so as not to put a machine into production that is unsupported by Microsoft.

You can use the textmode portion of unattend and modified media that contain the extracted drivers in a specific folder structure on the Windows CD to do the same thing as nLite, and it is documented and supported by Microsoft. Not as easy as nLite, yes, but supported :wink:.

For example, the manual way to do this on a Toshiba.

You can also use tools like MDT 2010 to add Server 2003 and drivers, and do it that way as well.


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