Re: Problem with PC Server 500 System/390

Hi !

You need to have a Reference Diskette inserted to enter setup w/ F1.


Interesting! I was assuming that the system programs main menu was on the
hard drive as it is with my Server 320.

So I must boot and hit F1 with the Reference Diskette in the drive, as
only that one is permitted to boot without the floppy drive in the boot
sequence. The system programs main menu will come up and I will be able
to add the floppy drive to the boot sequence. Once this is saved I should
then be able to boot the RAID controller disk so that I can rebuild the
OFL drive.

Booting the RAID floppy should however work in either case - given it has still an intact boot record (= not read / written / DIR'd under Windows)

Ctrl-Alt-Ins doesn't work on the standard platform PC Server 500 (type 4
CPU board).


Interesting! The manual refers to it and it also causes the line on the
boot menu to disappear as the F1 does, so I assumed it worked.

The so-called "reference partition" was optional on the T4 platform processor board - not mandantory. It has often been left out - the more often when there were small HDs in use (1GB) to save a little room *or* when they used a boot manager to switch between different OS. The bootmanager install *did* (sometimes) overwrite the system partition or renders it inaccessible.

PC Server 500 can be booted from a particular type of CD (i.e.
ServerGuide). Not sure how feasible or relevent this is, though.


I am unsure if the owner has one of these, but of course unless it also
has the RAID controller manager on it this would be no help.

The Server Guide CD needs to be put into the boot catalog, which can only be used if the CD ROM is included in the boot sequence. Not having a media in the CD-drive causes some sort of silly boot error message ("Media not found" or suchlike). That causes a lot of confusion and most people left out the CD from the boot sequence.
Remember: the Server 500 is *very antique* technology and booting from CD follows a different method than we know it today.


I also received some advice from someone else to check and make sure there
are no SCSI device conflicts on the RAID controller from a tape or other
unit, as this could cause one of the RAID drives to become inaccessable. So I will check this as well before rebuilding.

Pretty unlikely, since the cables are hardwired towards the drive bays and to the HDD backplanes. The CD-ROM is hooked separately and once you have 6 HDs + CD you have no (lower) SCSI adress for a tape. Usually the lower 7 IDs are used only with the RAID controller at ID7, CD at 6 and HDs at 0 - 5. (It would show up as CDR in the Raid Tool, TAP is tape.)
The SCSI cable usually goes from the adapter to the one end of the HDD backplane and from ther upwards with a stub cable to the CD-ROM, which then has an active terminator at the end. Barely that there is a tape attached to that chain - it would require to leave out one HD on the backplane (and a cable with a second plug ...).

You should create a new copy of the Raid Adapter diskette. A working copy of the diskette boots with no user interaction (= pressing [F1]) after a cold boot - just like a working reference diskette does.

Most likely the S500 /390 has the "Cheetah" Fast / Wide Streaming Raid adapter (that with the external port).

--
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