Ok, now I feel like a complete tool...I got home, pulled up the Event Viewer, and what do I find? 20 mins worth of errors relating to the driver for one of the SCSI controllers. It was actually quite humourous when I saw a bunch of red X's, then looking at time stamps. An error was logged every minute for 23 mins. Doh! Eric On 12/31/06, eric(c) wrote: > > I apologize to everyone for giving such limited info, I really should know > better as I work as a computer tech afterall. I was just so tired by the > time I wrote that, nothing in my brain was working correctly :-P > > Anyways, as far as the hardware goes, I'm fairly certain that the RAID > controller is onboard, altho this is my first foray into "real" servers, as > opposed to running server OS'es on a desktop. The guy I got the machine > from said that there is 3 RAID controllers in the machine - one for the > CDROM drive, one for the 6 internal hot swap hard drives, and one for an > external RAID array that utilizes an expansion card with a wonderful rat's > nest of cabling . When I get home tonight, I plan on stripping > this thing down to the bare case to find out exactly what's installed and > where, as well as to get a better idea of how everything is set up. > > I know there are two PCI dual port network cards installed, one port I > currently have set up as a static IP address (as are all the computers on my > network). The other 3 I left at DHCP, altho I'll be disabling the other 3 > tonight as I'm not currently using them. I believe there is also a fibre > channel dual port card installed, altho i'm not positive that's what I'm > looking at (6 pin connector, slightly wider than an RJ45 jack). I popped in > the card for the external RAID, but not currently utilizing it (figured it > was better than letting it sit on the desk, don't have an antistatic bag big > enough for it). > > Windows in installed in the default directory, on the IDE drive. There is > currently nothing on the internal RAID, other than having the partition > written. Haven't even formatted it yet. It is a clean install, done myself > last night. The reason I don't have Linux on it right now, other than not > having a CD-ROM to install it from, is that I'm not yet familiar enough with > it. I do have Debian on the other server, and I'm often finding it taking > hours to figure out how to do basic stuff. I wanted to be able to start > utilizing this one right away. It doesn't seem to be an issue with the IDE > hard drive, as anything to do with file copies does go quickly. > > Eric > > > > > > On 12/31/06, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > > > > Have you tried booting up with no network plugged in and no USB devices > > plugged in? Windows often times out waiting for a slightly non-standard > > response from USB devices (5 minutes per device) during the boot > > sequence. It might also be searching for a network resource (PXE boot, AD > > controller, etc...) leftover from somewhere. > > Have you examined the "System" and "Application" logs in Event > > Viewer? The startup messages there should help narrow down where the delay > > is occurring. > > Is the RAID config via a hardware RAID controller, or via the > > motherboard? Windows server doesn't play very well with the half-software > > RAID that's shipped on motherboards. > > Have you made sure Windows has the drives set up correctly ("C:\Windows" > > on the IDE drive, "C:\Progra~1" and "C:\Program Files", which should be the > > same folder, on the IDE drive, the IDE drive as drive "C", and the IDE drive > > is not dynamic)? Server 2003 often makes poor use of systems with both RAID > > and non-RAID drives, "required" "O/S components" are stored in Program > > Files, and sometimes accessed via "C:\Progra~1", and Windows still REALLY > > expects to be installed on drive "C". > > > > eric(c) wrote: > > > > > I just picked up a quad Xeon server today. Verified working operation > > > before I took it home. It was running Windows Server 2003, and booted > > up > > > quite quickly. The guy cleared the SCSI RAID configs, and handed it > > over. > > > I brought it home, and found the CD-ROM drive didn't want to release > > the > > > tray. Didn't have any floppies on hand, so I just tossed my boot hard > > > drive > > > in the machine and installed a copy of Windows Server 2003 to the IDE > > drive > > > (yes, I know this is a Linux list). Would have preferred Debian on > > there, > > > but without a working CDROM, and no floppies......(I'm planning on > > stopping > > > by Fry's this weekend to pick up a new CD-ROM drive for it) > > > > > > Anyways, the only thing I changed on the machine after getting it was > > > setting up the 6 SCSI drives as one big stripe, and made the IDE drive > > the > > > primary boot drive. Took over 3 hours to install Windows, and takes > > well > > > over 20 mins just to boot now. Doesn't appear to be an issue with the > > IDE > > > drive, as the majority of the time, there is no disc access. Once I > > log > > > in, > > > everything is quite snappy. I also noticed that the file copies in > > setup > > > went by really quick. > > > > > > Any ideas? > > > > > > eric > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > >