Help: new drive not detected in server

[Sonic007]

Hi.

Please could anyone help.

Got a new drive to re do my corrupted drive and have installed it in the server.

Loaded up the Windows server install and it can’t see the hard drive.

Is there a quick way to sort this. Need this as soon as possible.

 

Thankyou all.

[synaesthesia]

Chipset or SAS controller drivers needed, stick them on a USB and when it asks to find the drive select install driver and browse to whats on the USB. You may need to install/extract them first.

[DavR]

What's your RAID config?

 

Usually I'd expect drives to be set up as part of a RAID array, and then Windows to install on a volume on the array, rather than be installing direct to a single disk.

 

In this instance, you may need to point Windows installer to a driver for your RAID array (or you used to have to, don't think I've needed to last few servers I've done).

[Sonic007]

So the drive is a Seagate Ironwolf.

Can’t see any driver updates.

Server is a Dell T640

[3s-gtech]

It's rare nowadays, but it's possible you need the driver the the RAID on a USB stick so you can point the installer at that. Server 2016, 2019 and 2022.

 

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=w7x3r&oscode=wst14&productcode=poweredge-t640

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=p74h3&oscode=ws19l&productcode=poweredge-t640

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=85r54&oscode=ws22l&productcode=poweredge-t640

[mavhc]

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/604512/is-3-3-v-necessary-for-basic-functionality-of-any-sata-drives-how-to-check-if#:~:text=3.3%20V%20is%20supplied%20along,of%20the%20SATA%20power%20connector.

[Sonic007]

Aggghh my day is going so wrong right now.

 

That didn’t work. Can’t see a driver.

[DavR]

What are your RAID settings?

 

Even if you're just using a single disk (not recommended due to redundancy and performance), the server likely has a RAID card in, which is sat between the motherboard and the hard disk. My understanding is that you'd need to create a volume on that array, for the RAID card to offer to the motherboard as a disk, before you can install an OS. Even if that RAID volume is just RAID0 using the single disk.

 

You could be connecting direct to the motherboard, but that would be an unusual config for a server.

[synaesthesia]

Indeed, it'd be the PERC driver you need, but even then as the above point out you will need to create a RAID array first. I didn't even think about RAID in my first post, sorry! If it's replacing a single drive then you'd create a "JBOD" typically but please be very careful in the RAID bios, in case you have another storage array you can cause all sorts of horribleness. Once the array is created it should show in the windows setup - if not, you'll need the perc driver download from the dell site (it'll be under raid, perc or HBA drivers)

[Sonic007]

Thankyou everyone for your replies. It is very much appreciated. I’ve often got very mixed up with Raid settings so hate setting it up.

 

After lots of tries and changes the drive still wasn’t being seen.

I think what mavhc posted is possibly part of the issue. The dell drives are SAS and possibly running at a lower voltage.

 

I hooked the new drive directly to a SATA port on the motherboard with a separate power cable and it was picked up straight away.

So for the moment I’m going with this option.

 

I will then purchase a second server to have on standby.

 

Does anyone know if there is a way of avoiding removing and re-adding machines to the domain on the recently restored VM domain controller?

Should I remove all machines from AD and add them back? Currently machines are stating trust relationship error when trying to login.

 

Thankyou.

[3s-gtech]

Running SIMS on a server with a single SATA HDD is a recipe for frustration and failure. I know you need to get this up and running ASAP, but reliability and performance will be seriously compromised.

 

You could do with getting a VM host installed on a properly set up box, RAID and all. The instance can then be shoved onto that, and it’ll trundle along happily.

[DavR]

Ditto if you're hoping to run any VMs on this server in this config.... even when just running VMs for testing, it's advised to have host OS on one physical disk/array, and guest VMs on another, due to the intensive read/writes.

 

Sorry, probably not what you want to hear when sounds like you're in a disaster recovery scenario!