Install Windows Server 2003

[ldoodle]

Hiya,

I'm trying to install Windows Server 2003 x64 Ent. Edition but am having real problems during the text-mode portion of setup, in that I keep getting file copy errors - each time I try to install, it errors on different files. I don't think it's ever got past 50% though.

Hardware:

Antec Titan Case

Tyan Tomcat n3400b motherboard

AMD Opteron 1212 processor

Crucial Ballistix 4x 1GB RAM

Toshiba DVD-ROM drive

5x 250GB Seagate HD's in RAID-5

SSI 5 drive backplane module

I have tried 3 different optical drives and 2 different IDE cables and I still get these errors. Also tried burning to different media brands and burners. Funny thing is, I can install Windows Server 2008 Beta 2 no problem, so I wonder if it's the SATA RAID F6 drivers i'm using (i've tried both NVIDIA's and Tyan's web pages for the drivers).

Any suggestions?

Thanks/...

Edited December 21, 2007 by ldoodle

[touchstone_81]

In your post you say you tried burning to different brands and burners;by this i assume you tried to install with another OS installation CD-ROM.If you haven't you should.

In case you have tried different media then you could boot to the recovery console ,format the c drive with NTFS copy the contents of the OS media using any OS boot floppy and then run the setup(winnt.exe in the i386 folder) from the harddrive as opposed to the optical drive.

Also when in the recovery console run a chkdsk /p to check for errors and /r to correct any found.

[stephens316]

can you load from another machine via the network? i think it would be a media issue myself is ee this all the time with xp i just skip the errors everything has worked great once you get past the copy errors

[ldoodle]

In your post you say you tried burning to different brands and burners;by this i assume you tried to install with another OS installation CD-ROM.If you haven't you should.

In case you have tried different media then you could boot to the recovery console ,format the c drive with NTFS copy the contents of the OS media using any OS boot floppy and then run the setup(winnt.exe in the i386 folder) from the harddrive as opposed to the optical drive.

Also when in the recovery console run a chkdsk /p to check for errors and /r to correct any found.

OK, tried copying the i386/AMD64 (this is a x64 installation) folder in Recovery Console, but the COPY command only allows single file copy (what's up with that). How can I copy the entire folders. Tried copying xcopy onto a floppy but it won't even run.

Thanks/...

[touchstone_81]

Yes DOS will not recognise NTFS unless you are using some kind of a driver to read NTFS

Take a look at these links:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315349

http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm

Or maybe you could try Hiren's boot cd or UBCD.Hopefully they should have the storage drivers included to recognise the disks.

[ldoodle]

Yes DOS will not recognise NTFS unless you are using some kind of a driver to read NTFS

Take a look at these links:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315349

http://www.bootdisk.com/ntfs.htm

Or maybe you could try Hiren's boot cd or UBCD.Hopefully they should have the storage drivers included to recognise the disks.

Yeah I know that..!!! I fomatted as FAT32 with the intention of converting to NTFS post-install.

Anyhow, I have not got it working. Originally I downloaded the Technet x64 Ent. Edition with SP2 embedded. I burnt this ISO to cheap CD-R media I got from work. This is the one that kept failing. I then decided to re-download the ISO, but this time went with the one without SP2 embedded, and burnt to 'proper' Verbatim DVD-R media - whizzed through text mode without a problem.

I'm not sure if the original download was corrupted or if changing media sovled it. It's half-way through installing now so will apply SP2 when it's finished.

Thanks for the responses...

Edited December 23, 2007 by ldoodle