rsokoloff Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Hello, I have built an unRAID server on a Dell Poweredge 400sc server. It works well with one exception. I am unable to configure the BIOS for seamless booting. It seems I must set the boot disc to Hard Drive C (the only other options are CD or FDD) and I get an error message about unavailable SATA and IDE drives. Pressing F1 continues the boot sequence and the machine boots from my USB Flash just fine. If I reenter BIOS and disable all hard drives then unRAID boots fine but the unRAID manager can't find any of the hard drives. I have tried just about every logical and illogical BIOS setting I can think of but can't seem to get past this. Any thoughts? thanks, ron Quote Link to comment
Johnm Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 You could burn a Plop boot cd and just leave it in the CD drive. The system will then boot from the CD. The plop disk will then boot the USB. Quote Link to comment
rsokoloff Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Thank you; however, I have removed the CD drive and am using the space for hard drives. Quote Link to comment
rsokoloff Posted December 31, 2011 Author Share Posted December 31, 2011 I spent a few hours on this yesterday and found the solution. It certainly worked for me and, even better, may be generic for Dell. The link is http://johnpoelstra.com/2007/11/05/dell-bios-voodoo/ but I will summarize below. Hopefully this may save someone else some time and frustration. 1. Enter the BIOS screen (F2). 2. Turn on: caps lock scroll lock number lock 3. Type the following: alt +e (clears NVRAM) alt +f (resets BIOS to factory defaults) alt +b (hold until reboot) 4. Computer will rescan for IDE drives. Quote Link to comment
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