Tearing my hair out trying to install Win 2012 R2

[swpmre]

I'm here, once again, as a last resort.

 

We have a brand new Dell Optiplex 3070 with 32 GB of ram (1TB HD) that I hope to use as a mini-WSUS server for one of our sites.

 

I am trying to install Windows Server 2012 R2 on it. But I cannot get it to work for the life of me.

 

I have a Boot USB with the ISO copied to it. I boot from the USB, Server files are copied, then the PC reboots but won't boot from the HD.

 

If I leave the USB in, it simply reboots from the USB stick and the process restarts. If I remove the USB it tries to boot from the HD, then a network boot then stops saying it can't find a bootable device.

 

I know the HD is not broken because I can install a Win 10 Optiplex image from our network and that works correctly.

 

It is like the HD partition doesn't get setup properly during the Server install. I've tried using BootRec to create a bootable partition, but that doesn't work.

 

We have done this loads of times before (albeit on Optiplex 3050s) but they are pretty much identical.

 

I've even remade the Boot USB from scratch but nothing works.

 

Also to avoid doubt, if I go into BIOS and the Boot sequence, the HD doesn't even appear there, so it's not a problem with the boot order etc.

 

Any ideas what on Earth I am doing wrong? I'ver been trying, on and off, for days now and I think I'm going mad.

[FN-GM]

Might be the hardware is too modern? Server 2012 R2 is quite an old OS now.

[DGardiner]

I'm here, once again, as a last resort.

 

We have a brand new Dell Optiplex 3070 with 32 GB of ram (1TB HD) that I hope to use as a mini-WSUS server for one of our sites.

 

I am trying to install Windows Server 2012 R2 on it. But I cannot get it to work for the life of me.

 

I have a Boot USB with the ISO copied to it. I boot from the USB, Server files are copied, then the PC reboots but won't boot from the HD.

 

If I leave the USB in, it simply reboots from the USB stick and the process restarts. If I remove the USB it tries to boot from the HD, then a network boot then stops saying it can't find a bootable device.

 

I know the HD is not broken because I can install a Win 10 Optiplex image from our network and that works correctly.

 

It is like the HD partition doesn't get setup properly during the Server install. I've tried using BootRec to create a bootable partition, but that doesn't work.

 

We have done this loads of times before (albeit on Optiplex 3050s) but they are pretty much identical.

 

I've even remade the Boot USB from scratch but nothing works.

 

Also to avoid doubt, if I go into BIOS and the Boot sequence, the HD doesn't even appear there, so it's not a problem with the boot order etc.

 

Any ideas what on Earth I am doing wrong? I'ver been trying, on and off, for days now and I think I'm going mad.

 

Raid controller requires setup? disks wont show till thats done iirc

[3s-gtech]

I'm with FN-GM - remember that Skylake on only support Windows 10+, it could be that your hardware just won't work with (six year old) Server 2012 R2. These run, what, Coffee Lake gen 8 or 9 CPUs? They won't support the older OS.

[swpmre]

I've tried with a Windows 2019 Server boot USB and exactly the same behaviour occurs.

[swpmre]

Raid controller requires setup? disks wont show till thats done iirc

 

There's no RAID controller on this setup, it's just a basic PC. There is a RAID option in the BIOS but this makes no difference whatever I set the configuration to.

[fredesq]

There's a possibility the controller on the HDD is corrupted. I had something incredibly similar with an SSD where a firmware update knocked it out - all the files were still there when plugged into another computer but the BIOS just couldn't deal with the drive at all. It just couldn't boot into Windows at all, if you forced it by disabling secure boot and disabling UEFI and told it do boot to it would just hang on a black screen.

 

Saying all that.. you changed the boot mode from UEFI to legacy? And disabled secure boot?

[swpmre]

There's a possibility the controller on the HDD is corrupted. I had something incredibly similar with an SSD where a firmware update knocked it out - all the files were still there when plugged into another computer but the BIOS just couldn't deal with the drive at all. It just couldn't boot into Windows at all, if you forced it by disabling secure boot and disabling UEFI and told it do boot to it would just hang on a black screen.

 

Saying all that.. you changed the boot mode from UEFI to legacy? And disabled secure boot?

 

Thanks. I don't think that can be it, because if I image over the network for a Win 10 image the PC works fine, so I don't think there can be hardware damage? Unless I misunderstand you.

 

Yes - I've done UEFI/legacy and secure boot is off. But thanks for checking!

[Bladez]

Surely if you have got the Hdd removed from the boot up in the bios, isnt that the issue. once its copied the files across it wont know to boot from the HDD, so will go to the USB or whatever else is there.

[sted]

if you can image over the network chuck the 2012 server disk into wds/mdt and try deploying it that way

[swpmre]

Just for clarity - the HDD disappears from bios only after the imaging, presumeably because the boot sector has been deleted as part of the imaging process. If I reimage back to our Win 10 image, the HDD reappears.

[HPlum78]

What is the partition type MBR?

[swpmre]

What is the partition type MBR?

 

It's currently MBR because that's what the Win Server 2019 install wanted. The Win 2012 wanted GPT, but switching between the two makes no difference anyway.

[fredesq]

When you say disappears from the BIOS - do you mean from the boot device order or from any part of the bios at all?

[swpmre]

When you say disappears from the BIOS - do you mean from the boot device order or from any part of the bios at all?

 

Its not listed as a bootable device. If you go into the hardware section you can see the drives are there physically.

[fredesq]

What does it call the device in the BIOS?

[HPlum78]

So post Skylake it's got to be UEFI GPT, it's not my thing these days so ain't kept up with what's what (I just get delivered my platform) so what that looks on a Dell I don't know.

[Ertech]

Try updating the BIOS/UEFI - that might work.

[swpmre]

SATA-0 = 1000 GB HDD

Device ID = WDC WD10EZEZ-75WN4A0

[Arthur]

It's currently MBR because that's what the Win Server 2019 install wanted.

Recreate the bootable USB drive for Windows Server 2019 using Rufus. Choose UEFI and GPT.

 

 

Switch from RAID to AHCI, disable CSM and reenable UEFI and Secure Boot in the BIOS.

 

Boot from the USB drive, delete all existing partitions on the 1TB boot drive and then install Windows Server.

 

That should do the trick!

[MrEprise]

I'm with FN-GM - remember that Skylake on only support Windows 10+, it could be that your hardware just won't work with (six year old) Server 2012 R2. These run, what, Coffee Lake gen 8 or 9 CPUs? They won't support the older OS.

 

No, Skylake is the last gen to support Windows versions earlier than 10 (even Windows XP if you were that way inclined.)

 

Kaby Lake is the cutoff point where Windows 10 is the only version that is officially supported.

[PotNoodleTech]

Make sure UEFI boot is turned off. Try changing the HDD mode from AHCI to IDE mode as a last resort.

[swpmre]

Recreate the bootable USB drive for Windows Server 2019 using Rufus. Choose UEFI and GPT.

 

 

Switch from RAID to AHCI, disable CSM and reenable UEFI and Secure Boot in the BIOS.

 

Boot from the USB drive, delete all existing partitions on the 1TB boot drive and then install Windows Server.

 

That should do the trick!

 

That worked. Thank you SO much.

[Arthur]

Excellent news!