Installing Windows 10 on Dedicated Server

shajeeafzal

Hello,

Guys I need some help. I have recently gotten a dedicated server from ColoCrossing. I am trying to install Windows 10 Pro on it. However during the setup, there is no storage drive to install. I believe this might be due to RAID or something, however since this is my first server - I have no idea if this is the actual reason.

I contacted the ColoCrossing support but they told me they cant help as "Unfortunately Windows 10 is not a datacenter version of Windows, we do not provide any kind of support for it.", so I am on my own.

Anyone here who has any experience and can give me few pointers?

Specs:
Intel Xeon E3-1240v3
32GB RAM
4 x 1TB HDD

jugganuts

just get a cheap winblows server key dont use windows 10

youll also need too know the raid/controller info so you can sideload new drivers into a iso and upload that

balramm

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

shajeeafzal

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

I have already download virtio ISO file and tried to locate drivers but no compatiable drivers were found.

shajeeafzal

@jugganuts said:
just get a cheap winblows server key dont use windows 10

youll also need too know the raid/controller info so you can sideload new drivers into a iso and upload that

The reason for Win 10 Pro is that I already have a key. Where do you suggest to find a cheap server key for 2019 or greater?

jugganuts

@shajeeafzal said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

I have already download virtio ISO file and tried to locate drivers but no compatiable drivers were found.

This is bad advice, virtio device backend is typically only for KVM. Which you are not on.

dev_vps

@shajeeafzal said:
Hello,

Guys I need some help. I have recently gotten a dedicated server from ColoCrossing. I am trying to install Windows 10 Pro on it. However during the setup, there is no storage drive to install. I believe this might be due to RAID or something, however since this is my first server - I have no idea if this is the actual reason.

I contacted the ColoCrossing support but they told me they cant help as "Unfortunately Windows 10 is not a datacenter version of Windows, we do not provide any kind of support for it.", so I am on my own.

Anyone here who has any experience and can give me few pointers?

Specs:
Intel Xeon E3-1240v3
32GB RAM
4 x 1TB HDD

Use Windows Server 2019 OS
Far more stable than windows 10

Erisa

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

balramm

@Erisa said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

My bad, I did not realize that.

shajeeafzal

This is what I see right now:

This is what support from the provider said:

Did you create a RAID array within the RAID controller? If you have done this it may be the installer you are using does not have the correct drivers to allow an LSI RAID controller. If this is the case you may need to download one before attempting reinstallation.

jugganuts

you should prolly configure your raid then hmm

shajeeafzal

@Erisa said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

This is the RAID controller I believe.

Erisa

@shajeeafzal said:

@Erisa said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

This is the RAID controller I believe.

In that case go to somewhere like https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=316y8

Download and run the exe on another windows machine, it will let you extract the drivers to a folder:

Then by whatever means the KVM viewer lets you mount a folder (maybe it needs to be packed to an ISO first or a USB drive passed through? I don't know), get the drivers onto the machine and install them at Windows Setup.

Or, as support suggests, if you don't need RAID then unconfigure the RAID array in the BIOS and it should work without the drivers.

shajeeafzal

@Erisa said:

@shajeeafzal said:

@Erisa said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

This is the RAID controller I believe.

In that case go to somewhere like https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-uk/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=316y8

Download and run the exe on another windows machine, it will let you extract the drivers to a folder:

Then by whatever means the KVM viewer lets you mount a folder (maybe it needs to be packed to an ISO first or a USB drive passed through? I don't know), get the drivers onto the machine and install them at Windows Setup.

Or, as support suggests, if you don't need RAID then unconfigure the RAID array in the BIOS and it should work without the drivers.

Thank you, let me see what I can do here...

Page

I have encountered the same issue before. The reason was that I did not format or set the disk format to GPT. However, once I deleted the previous operating system and formatted it, they were recognized. Of course, you will need Win PE to perform this step.

woodster050

@shajeeafzal said:

@Erisa said:

@balramm said:

@shajeeafzal said: there is no storage drive to install

You need to boot virtio if the disk is not showing up. idk which method you are using, but this is only cause for the disk not showing up.

It's a dedicated server, not a VM, so VirtIO isn't going to help.

@shajeeafzal you basically will need to work out which hardware is being used for the storage controller, likely some RAID controller, and then locate and attach and install the drivers for that hardware. It may be better to boot into a Linux distribution that can analyse the hardware, if you don't know what it is, e.g. https://serverfault.com/a/718769

Also: if you don't need RAID and have an option to disable RAID at the provider, that would be best as most likely you won't need special drivers for the storage controller used by the motherboard.

I would also recommend Windows Server as it's better suited for running in this environment, though it probably doesn't have drivers either so I imagine the install process is the same.

This is the RAID controller I believe.

Hi,

The reason this is happening is because you haven't configured your raid Card, you need to put some sort of configuration.

I would Recomend a Raid 5 configuration as it would allow for 1 disk failure and still give you a read performance boost. let me know if you get stuck and I can provide further advice

dev_vps

@shajeeafzal said:
Hello,

Specs:
Intel Xeon E3-1240v3
32GB RAM
4 x 1TB HDD

Install Windows Server 2019 or 2022 OS

Shalaman

As has been said previously, you'll need to either configure raid (all disks are showing as foreign) or set them to all be non-raid.

You can try the latest megaraid driver which looks to support Windows 10 and the 9271-4i:
https://docs.broadcom.com/docs/MR_WINDOWS_DRIVER_6.14-6.714.05.00-WHQL.zip