Can't find the boot drive of Dell Poweredge R610

[Michaelvas17]

Hello,

I am working on trying to fix a Dell PowerEdge R610 server, buy I'm having trouble finding the primary boot drive.

Is it in the front of the server in the drive bays, or is it somewhere in the case? I've been able to boot from a USB, but I'd like to install Windows onto the server, and I cannot install because no boot drive is detected.

 

[popatim]

Did you buy it with a boot drive installed?

 

[Michaelvas17]

Did you buy it with a boot drive installed?

This is for a school project. It was donated by a local company who was going to recycle it. The boot drive has been removed by them I guess. I just don't have a clue where it's supposed to be.

 

[bambiboom]

Hello,

I am working on trying to fix a Dell PowerEdge R610 server, buy I'm having trouble finding the primary boot drive.

Is it in the front of the server in the drive bays, or is it somewhere in the case? I've been able to boot from a USB, but I'd like to install Windows onto the server, and I cannot install because no boot drive is detected.

Michealvas,

When confronting an unfamiliar and complex technology such as a server, a good look at the user's'.service manual :

Dell Poweredge R610 Technical Guide

If it boots to BIOS and you can in a command prompt have a list of drives installed. Make a note of the BIOS version, memory, and so on.

DiskPart Commands

Applies To: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8

DiskPart commands help you to manage your PC's drives (disks, partitions, volumes, or virtual hard disks). Before you can use DiskPart commands, you must first list, and then select an object to give it focus. When an object has focus, any DiskPart commands that you type will act on that object.

You can list the available objects and determine an object's number or drive letter by using the list disk, list volume, list partition, and list vdisk commands. The list disk, list vdisk and list volume commands display all disks and volumes on the computer. However, the list partition command only displays partitions on the disk that has focus. When you use the list commands, an asterisk (*) appears next to the object with focus.

When you select an object, the focus remains on that object until you select a different object. For example, if the focus is set on disk 0 and you select volume 8 on disk 2, the focus shifts from disk 0 to disk 2, volume 8. Some commands automatically change the focus. For example, when you create a new partition, the focus automatically switches to the new partition.

You can only give focus to a partition on the selected disk. When a partition has focus, the related volume (if any) also has focus. When a volume has focus, the related disk and partition also have focus if the volume maps to a single specific partition. If this is not the case, focus on the disk and partition is lost. <END

It is typical for companies to dispose of servers with drives removed to either prevent someone looking at the data- even though multiple wiping should make that impossible, or to transfer the drives to the new server.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Michaelvas17]

Hello,

I am working on trying to fix a Dell PowerEdge R610 server, buy I'm having trouble finding the primary boot drive.

Is it in the front of the server in the drive bays, or is it somewhere in the case? I've been able to boot from a USB, but I'd like to install Windows onto the server, and I cannot install because no boot drive is detected.

Michealvas,

When confronting an unfamiliar and complex technology such as a server, a good look at the user's'.service manual :

Dell Poweredge R610 Technical Guide

If it boots to BIOS and you can in a command prompt have a list of drives installed. Make a note of the BIOS version, memory, and so on.

DiskPart Commands

Applies To: Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8

DiskPart commands help you to manage your PC's drives (disks, partitions, volumes, or virtual hard disks). Before you can use DiskPart commands, you must first list, and then select an object to give it focus. When an object has focus, any DiskPart commands that you type will act on that object.

You can list the available objects and determine an object's number or drive letter by using the list disk, list volume, list partition, and list vdisk commands. The list disk, list vdisk and list volume commands display all disks and volumes on the computer. However, the list partition command only displays partitions on the disk that has focus. When you use the list commands, an asterisk (*) appears next to the object with focus.

When you select an object, the focus remains on that object until you select a different object. For example, if the focus is set on disk 0 and you select volume 8 on disk 2, the focus shifts from disk 0 to disk 2, volume 8. Some commands automatically change the focus. For example, when you create a new partition, the focus automatically switches to the new partition.

You can only give focus to a partition on the selected disk. When a partition has focus, the related volume (if any) also has focus. When a volume has focus, the related disk and partition also have focus if the volume maps to a single specific partition. If this is not the case, focus on the disk and partition is lost. <END

It is typical for companies to dispose of servers with drives removed to either prevent someone looking at the data- even though multiple wiping should make that impossible, or to transfer the drives to the new server.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

bambiboom,

I've tried using Diskpart with a bootable Windows PE (10586) USB, and when listing all available disks, it comes up empty. From my understanding of the tech sheet for the server, the front drives serve as the boot drive when in RAID. In that case, which I didn't think realize until tinkering with the server earlier, there are three 78GB Drives populating three different bays. The BIOS does not appear to detect these drives. Does that mean there's an issue with the RAID controller, or is there another issue here?

I appreciate your help thus far.