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Win2003 R2a woes, no floppy, RAID driver needed, PXE install at DC


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Arrrgggghhhhh!

I would like to perform an _attended_ install of Win2003 R2a, on a machine which has no floppy drive and is located in a data centre. However Win2003 R2a does not support the 3WARE RAID card by default. I have PXE installs working (not using MS RIS but a linux based setup).

Here are the approaches I have tried (all 3 of them, with the problems I faced with each) :

Approach 1) Edit txtsetup.sif to copy the 3ware driver .SYS file.

I followed all the instructions for this approach and the text mode UI works, allows me partition the drive, does a format, then a copy, then reboots.

When it reboots I get a Blue Screen of Death very shortly after the Windows logo, presumably it doesn't load the RAID card driver early enough.

The changes to txtsetup.sif look like this, the plusses denote lines I added:

--- txtsetup.sif.orig   2007-03-01 00:26:17.000000000 +0000
+++ txtsetup.sif.mine 2007-03-01 04:26:30.000000000 +0000
@@ -724,6 +724,8 @@
3dwns.cur = 1,,,,,,,,3,3
3dwnwse.cur = 1,,,,,,,,3,3
3dwwe.cur = 1,,,,,,,,3,3
+3waredrv.sys = 1,,,,,,3_,4,1,,,1,4
40291730.ppd = 1,,,,,,,,3,3
40293930.ppd = 1,,,,,,,,3,3
409.csv = 1,,,,,,,59,0,0
@@ -19450,6 +19452,9 @@
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_3092&SUBSYS_00018086 = "i2omp"
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0600 = "iirsp"
PCI\VEN_1119&DEV_0300 = "iirsp"
+PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1002 = "AMCC"
+PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1003 = "AMCC"
+PCI\VEN_13C1&DEV_1004 = "AMCC"

[Map.Computer]
sgiborg_mp = "*SGI-3"
@@ -19595,6 +19600,7 @@
cpqcissm = cpqcissm.sys,4
hpcisss = hpcisss.sys,4
afcnt = afcnt.sys,4
+AMCC = 3waredrv.sys,4



@@ -21981,6 +21987,7 @@
hpn = "Hewlett Packard NetRAID-4M RAID Controller"
perc2 = "Dell PERC 2/3 RAID Controller"
perc2gat = "Dell PERC 2/3 RAID Controller (Gatling)"
+AMCC = "AMCC 3ware 9000 Series SATA RAID Controller"

Approach 2) Use $OEM$\TEXTMODE now this only works when I specify OemPreinstall=Yes.

The problem with that is the install presumes I am running unattended (when I wish it to not presume anything about my configuration).

The problem with that is that it automatically deletes any existing partition on the RAID array and create a new one that fills the entire drive. I do not want this.

Approach 3) I have added various options to winnt.sif to stop the reparitioning but NOTHING I have found actually stops it.

[data]

AutoPartition=0

UnattendedInstall="No"

[unattended]

UnattendedMode=ProvideDefault

OemPreinstall=Yes

OemSkipEula=Yes

Repartition=No

I have also tried setting up the partiition to the correct size (using Approach 1) but then rebooting to use Approach 2. But again it deletes the existing paritition and overwrite it.

I have also tried to create two partitions the first being the size of C: I want and the second the remainder of the drive. But it deletes them both and reformats with one big C:.

The only option I can think of now is to install the OS using the entire drive and see if windows disk manager allows me to shrink the C:. I dont think it will.

Just for clarify with Approach 2 or Approach 3, I am able to get into the remainder of the GUI base dialogs for installation. So this method works but my C: drive is much too big.

So my question is this: Is it possible to have an attended install which is able to pickup my RAID card drivers and use them both during the text mode install and after the GUI reboot ?

Edited by Odin
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