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I'm trying to install Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit for the first time in a Dell PowerEdge R220, using UEFI. At first the installation wouldn't see any disks. Then, I found this: Trouble Installing Windows Server 2008 on Dell PowerEdge R720 w/ PERC H710 Mini

I had never used the "LifeCycle Controller", but after some experimenting I was able to make the installation see the one virtual disk that I created as RAID-0. However, now it gives me the message that "Windows cannot be installed to this disk". It says:

Windows needs the driver for device [PERC H310 Adapter]

Windows sees the disk but can't install to them, how do I work around that? I tried "Load Driver" in the hopes that the driver in the server would be mapped somewhere, but it wasn't able to find it. I'm out of ideas here. :(

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msb
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  • Is the LifeCycle Controller up to date? – joeqwerty Jan 27 '15 at 20:24
  • Not sure, I never updated it but the machine is new, purchased 1 month ago. "About" says "Lifecycle Controller 2 - 1.4.2.12". – msb Jan 27 '15 at 21:16
  • Run through the update process and make sure to select the OS Drivers option to make sure that the LifeCycle controller is up to date and has the latest OS drivers for the hardware. Then delete the virtual disk you created and start the install fresh from within the LifeCycle controller. You'll be given the opportunity to create the virtual disk from there. – joeqwerty Jan 27 '15 at 21:19
  • Checking the "current version" for the Dell OS Driver Pack, it says "14.11.02" with date "2014-12-09"; when I check the support page by service tag, it's the latest available to me. I tried updating via FTP and it failed to download, apparently it gets the catalog but it can't download the updates. I tried deleting the virtual disk and re-creating from scratch in the Lifecycle Controller, got the same results. :( – msb Jan 27 '15 at 22:10

2 Answers2

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I couldn't find a way to make the server itself tell the Windows installer how to see the disk, but by talking to @joeqwerty in the comments I ended up following this course, which worked:

  1. Download the latest drivers from Dell: I did that from my product's support page, going on "Drivers & Downloads", category "Driver for OS Deployment". There was one file available, "Dell OS Driver Pack, Version 14.11.02, A00" which was the same version already in the Lifecycle Controller. The direct link was: http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02672561M/1/Drivers-for-OS-Deployment_Application_GCNFF_WN64_14.11.02_A00.EXE
  2. unzip the exe. Inside it, there's a file "mas021.zip" inside the folder "payload". I unzipped it too, and copied to an USB.
  3. During the installation, when it reaches the disk part, I selected to "Load Driver", "Browse", and went to the folder "48V2R", where windows found the driver for "PERC H310 Adapter".
  4. After that, I was able to partition the disk and proceed with the installation. Still in the disk screen, the installer still had a warning saying that "Windows cannot be installed", and as a reason it says the hardware might not be able to boot on this disk. However, the "next" button is enabled and I was able to install windows. Also, after installing, I was able to reboot ok, so that warning was wrong.

On the good side, I was able to install windows without any further errors. On the bad side, I don't have network: it doesn't even display the network cards. That means I should have drivers for that too, and who knows which other drivers are missing. Probably if I was able to install windows using the Lifecycle Controller properly in the way it was intended, I would now have all the drivers I need, but I couldn't find out how to do it.

Thanks @joeqwerty for suggesting that I update the OS drivers, which led me to this partial solution.

P.S.: after I did that, I realized that I was using a Win2008R2 without SP1. I repeated the installation with a new disk with SP1, but the only difference was that I didn't get the message saying that the hardware might not be able to boot on this disk. All the other problems were the same, and the same workaround went fine.

msb
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  • How do you unzip the .exe? I can't figure out how to get my T320 to recognize my PERC H310 at all! :( – harperville Jan 29 '16 at 00:59
  • you can probably rename the file from .exe to .zip and unzip it. I don't remember how I did it, maybe I unzipped it in linux. Good luck. – msb Jan 29 '16 at 02:07
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Hi I have encountered the same problem today, but it was on Windows Server 2012 R2 so I will explain how I solved it.

  1. Download the Latest Drivers for OS here.
  2. Unzip the exe with a tool such as 7zip. Inside it, there's also a file called "mas021.zip" inside the folder "payload". Unzip this and copy only the unzipped files from here to an USB, I copied to the installer USB I was using.
  3. During the installation, when it reaches the disk part, I selected to "Load Driver", "Browse", and went to the folder payload\388D6\w2012r2_64\. Where it find something different (Not PERC H310 Adapter), there are two of them, I clicked on the first one.
  4. Right after this the hard drive was loaded right away and installations are the usual steps.
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