Dell 2950 Sata Ports not being recognized

[pheb]

I have a Dell 2950 that was previously running a Linux OS, that I am trying to reimage with server 2003. At boot up, the sata ports are listed at not being found. I went into setup (F2) and tried to change the sata port type and the only options are Auto or Off. It lists the capacity as n/a. I exit out of the sata settings and it lists the two sata ports a/b as unknown.

Note: the server was fully operational when it was a Linux OS. I've also went in and re-initialized the hard drives (VD=2 180 GB drives, RAID 1.....VD1= 4 300+ GB drvies, Raid 5) basically the same as original configuration.

I'm looking for options to get this unit up and working.

Thanks
P

 

[WyomingKnott]

Hmm - I was more sure that I knew the answer when all that I had read was the title.

Dell mobos are a pain in the fundament. In the ones that I have had, and still have, and many posts that I have seen, each individual SATA port has to be enabled if there is a drive on it or disabled if there is not. Is it possible that you did a BIOS reset?

If the port is set to enabled and there is no drive in it, the POST hangs. Dumbest thing I saw all week.

If, on the other hand, this isn't the issue, and the ports aren't detected with the correct settings, and you haven't got it working and don't care what happens to the current configuration, try a BIOS reset. Don't know how to do that on that board; can you download the manual?

Of course, I'm guessing in the dark and may be way off-target.