Server Products
Data Center Products including boards, integrated systems, Intel® Xeon® Processors, RAID Storage, and Intel® Xeon® Processors
4762 Discussions

Server 2016 Won't boot from RAID Volume After Motherboard replaced

THaye3
Beginner
2,443 Views

I have a new server with the Intel S1200SPS server mainboard. I installed Server 2016 on a RAID 1 virtual disk, which was setup in the RAID BIOS (ESRT II) with dual Samsung EVO 250GB SSD's. The RAID was also configured with an additional RAID 1 virtual drive of 2 2-TB WD Gold drives for data storage.

It was working fine until I shipped it out to my client. The mainboard was damaged in shipping, (would not power up to POST) so I replaced it with the same exact model, I checked all other components using hardware diagnostics, including Samsung SSD diagnostics and WD Lifeguard to be sure nothing else was damaged (being sure not to affect data on the drives). The diagnostics was performed on a separate system, and I could read the drives individually, that the OS and files are there.

After re-assembling the system, I reconfigured the BIOS to use RAID for SATA, and because it's a new mainboard, re-setup the RAID 1 virtual drives, and setting the SSD RAID pair as bootable in the ESRT II BIOS. I did a consistency check on both RAID virtual drives, which went well, fixing inconsistencies. I then set the BIOS to boot from the RAID Array. At this point, I figured it would boot up as originally. However, windows doesn't recognize the RAID drives, and so won't boot up. When I got into recovery mode command prompt, the virtual drives are not available at all (not listed in the wmic logicaldisk list).

I'm hoping you Intel guys have done this type of thing before and have a trick up your sleeve to help me get Server 2016 to boot again and not have to lose the hours of time spent installing and configuring Server and other software. Any ideas?

0 Kudos
6 Replies
idata
Employee
1,036 Views

Hello,

I was reviewing your case and I would like to ask you some details in order to make sure the information:

A) When your system boot up does the Embedded RAID II Configuration Utility show the drives up?

B) I would like to confirm if this is happening in the middle of the installation process of the Operating System? Which driver version are you using in order to proceed with installation of windows using ESRT 2?

I would like to share with you the latest driver in order to confirm the information:

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27032/?product=88272 Intel® Embedded Server RAID Technology 2 (ESRT2) RAID driver for Windows*

 

 

 

Please, let me know the outcome in order to proceed with the next step.

Best regards,

Emeth O

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
1,036 Views

Hello,

Also, I would like to share with you the following article; this might help you with some troubleshooting steps and find the solution of this issue:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022022/server-products.html Windows* OS Doesn't Detect the Intel® ESRT2–based RAID Volume

 

 

Best regards,

Emeth O

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
1,036 Views

Hello,

I would like to know if the information provided above help you out with this issue that you have been facing. If you have any other question please let us know and I will be more than happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Emeth O

0 Kudos
THaye3
Beginner
1,036 Views

No. The info provided here did not help. I wish those who try to help and post answers to questions would read the original post thoroughly. I was not installing the OS, but was trying to get a RAID array, which had the OS already on it, to boot again after motherboard replacement with the same model.

However, I did find a way to get it to boot.

Unless you choose to install the OS, windows 2016 install media doesn't give the opportunity to load drivers for the RAID drives (ESRT2 drivers). (maybe there's a way to do it from the recovery mode command prompt, which I don't know. Maybe one of you guys knows a command or some way to do that?) Well, the OS had been installed on my RAID drive already, and I didn't want to blow that up unless there's no other option.

In the recovery mode while booted from the install media, one option is is to restore from a drive image. When I chose that option, the OS doesn't find the image (RAID drives are not being recognized), but gives an "Advanced" option. When you choose that option, it then gives you the chance to load drivers. So, I used that to load the drivers, closed the "Restore from Image" option, and opened the command prompt option, which then allowed the recovery mode command prompt to "see" the RAID drives using the wmic logicaldisk list command.

I then used the "dism /image:c:\ /add-driver /driver:g:\ /recurse" command to have windows reinstall the RAID drivers on reboot. In the dism command, C: is the OS partition and G: is the driver disk. In my case, the wmic command indicated that my OS drive was F:, so substituted that in the dism command.

This worked!

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
1,036 Views

Hello,

Thank you so much for the feedback and information provided.

On the other hand, please accept my apologize for the misunderstanding of everything.

If you have any other question or if you need something else please let me know and I will be more than happy to assist you.

Best regards,

Emeth O

0 Kudos
idata
Employee
1,036 Views

Hello,

Due to the fact that I have not received any other question from your end. I will proceed and close this threat once for all.

If you have any other question please do not hesitate and contact us and we will be more than happy to assist you.

 

Best regards,

 

Emeth O
0 Kudos
Reply