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I have a Poweredge 2650 running Centos5. I am trying to change to Windows XP or Server 2003 ? Here is my problem. I know this is a newbie question.

The server will not boot from the WS2003 setup disk.

If I insert the setup disk from Centos or Linux it will boot and go through the installation process fine, but it will not boot from any Windows base installation disk.

What am I missing here?

Thanks for your answers. Santana

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  • What do you mean, "won't boot"? Does it just skip right by? Have you tired entering the Boot Menu to manually choose your device to boot from?
    – DanBig
    Dec 2, 2009 at 14:29
  • IT WONT BOOT, IT WILL NOT GO TRUE THE INSTALLATION PROCESS. IN THE BIOS SETTING I HAVE TRY ALLMOST EVERY SETE UP AVAILABLE. I CHANGE THE BOOT SEQUENCE TO CD ROM ONLY, I HAVE DISABLE RAID ETC ETC ETC AND ITS LIKE NO CD IS INSERTED. I CAN SEE WHEN REBOOT START THAT THE LIGHT AND THE ROM WILL BLINK AS IF READING THE DISK BUT NOTHING. I I HAVE THE RAID DISABLE IT WILL TELL ME NO BOOTING DISK AVAILABLE, WITH IT ENABLE IT WILL CONTINIU BOOTING TO CENTOS INSTALLED.
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 15:02
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    Please do not type in all caps, it is bad etiquette and the equivalent of shouting on the internet
    – Zypher
    Dec 2, 2009 at 15:38
  • sorry, did know that.
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 16:30

5 Answers 5

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There seem to be two things going on here. 1) It sounds like you have a bad W2k3 cd - if you burned it yourself try burning it again, if you got it from a vendor contact them to have it replaced.

The second is that you really should be using the Dell OMSA Installation and Server Management CD to build your server - you can get it here

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  • already download it and tried it yesterday. same problem. is like the server does not recognize the system file on the cd. thanks
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 16:33
  • Have you tried forcing a CD boot (F11 on the bios screen i think - there should be a menu on the upper right hand side of the BIOS screen)
    – Zypher
    Dec 2, 2009 at 17:10
  • there is not an F11 option there are only F2 = setup F10= utility and F12= pxe setup Thanks
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 17:42
  • Have you checked that nobody has disabled boot from cd in the bios? try making it the first boot device also
    – Zypher
    Dec 2, 2009 at 18:25
  • Zypher I checked that as well. this is driving me nuts, i might chage the dvd drive as well. let see.
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 23:26
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The Dell PE servers usually come with a Dell installer CD that will proper the box for OS installation, and contain the correct drivers, etc.

If you can, I would use that.

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Is your W2003 setup disk a DVD and the drive a cd only drive? If Centos is still running see if it can read the setup disk.

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  • STEVE. MY W2003 SETUP DISK IS A CD NOT DVD. WHEN I LOG IN CENTOS DESKTOP AND TRY TO LOOK AT MY CDROM WITH THE WS2003 CD DISK INSERTED IT WONT SEE IT, IT WILL TELL ME "IT CAN NOT LOAD FILE SYSTEM"
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 14:58
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No need for uppercase as it's considered shouting, rude and ignorant! Have you tried the BIOS, funnily enough, I was in a training workshop on networks and there was a few Dell machines which would not start Windows 2003 Server from the CD.

It turned out that the setting in the BIOS for SMART devices was set to RAID-AHCPI, by simply selecting Legacy mode did the trick which switched off the SMART settings and reverted back to normal SATA device. Root around in the BIOS settings and see if it's set.

Hope this helps, Best regards, Tom.

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    that is exactly the first thing i tough will be, but the same problem persisted. sorry for the uppercase, i did not know, i use upper case due to my poor vision, sorry if i cause any problem. thanks
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 16:37
  • @Juan Santana: Ahhh...That's ok, sorry if I sounded harsh there as I did not know! :( Ok...since you've checked the BIOS, it could be a bad CD...I know a few people in the training workshop, have tried to boot from it and the setup refuses to run because the CD was dud...it appears the setup thoroughly checks the CD when running and if its messed up(even though it can be read) it will refuse to go further, I guess on the grounds that if the CD is faulty the installation will be faulty which is what MS are preventing...that's my theory.
    – t0mm13b
    Dec 2, 2009 at 17:50
  • @Tommieb75: I tried many medias(dell's, Ms's ) and its the same problem. I just Finished talking to a Dell support specialist (Jacobs) he is as surprised as we are about this problem. according to Dell these machines should boot from any bootable media, but he insisted that i try booting to DOS using a bootable win98 floppy disk. I am downloading it from Boot-disk.com. i will keep you posted on a solution. thanks for your help
    – Juan santana
    Dec 2, 2009 at 18:04
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Use this link to download some manager software from dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R146318&formatcnt=0&libid=0&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=204270

burn on cd and boot using this cd. After the management software is started (default option 1 will do), you can choose the OS and configure some things. The software will then copy some files to your system and ask you for the CD with the OS on it.

Worked for me!

Regards,

Hachmi.

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